It’s funny you should ask that. Because Howe is Bruce MK2! Doesn’t win games. Blames everyone else. And erm. Likes bacon!
Any chance St Maximin could just get a minor injury? in training How's Wood doing he took ages to get going when he played for us but eventually he did manage to score a few, glad we sold him when we did though.
Koch had Wood in his pocket a couple of weeks ago and Wood had to be taken off. Can see Bielsa thinking Llorente and Koch as CBs because of that and still have options with Struijk and Dallas playing DM or LB. i am predicting a Leeds win and another blank for Wood and hopefully revenge on St Maxim after the St James’s match
All you need to do with ASM is hit him hard in the first 10 and he fakes injury for the rest of the game. Wood was basically wood in his debut. As in a ****ing tree trunk.
Was asking myself the first question I always ask when it comes to our team selection: "Do they play 1 or 2 up top"? Decided to have a look back at their last few games on the BBC match reports to check. Strangely, their last few games have been a mix of 5-4-1, 4-3-3, 4-4-2, & 4-2-3-1, so that's that strategy out the window! Then again, the BBC have a habit of making up formations & regularly get it wrong with ours. Guessing that neither Rodrigo, Roberts, or Gelhardt will get a full 90 mins, as they're all on the comeback from injury trail. As we don't know how they'll line up, I'm guessing we'll be naming a team that can most comfortably play either formation without any changes. So that means it's time to guess what's going on in Bielsa's wee head, so to cut a long story short ... With 1 up: Meslier Ayling Llorente Struijk Dallas Koch Raphinha Klich Rodrigo Harrison James With 2 up: Meslier Ayling Llorente Struijk Dallas Koch Klich Raphinha Rodrigo Harrison James
Curious where the Albert came from. Anything to do with 'The Ghost' (Albert Craig), who played for the Barcodes in the late 80s, & eventually moved to my beloved Partick Thistle? (And very grateful we were too! )
See your just as confused as we are. Howe seems to be playing tiddlywinks with our formation. He literally throws up a dice in the air and whatever the number that’s how many he plays in midfield. Not only that. It’s not at the beginning of games for the duration. It’s actually as the game proceeds. So we may start as a 4-5-1 but by half time we have done the hokeypokey and every ****er has turned around. By the second half no one including our own players and fans have any idea what the **** is happening.
I think it will be: Meslier Ayling Llorente Struijk Hjelde Dallas Koch Klich Raphinha James Harrison He then has the option to make a back 3 of Ll Str Hj or Ay Ll Str with Dallas moving to RB or LB
Don't know why, but have a orrible feeling about this one. Perhaps it's because if we win, I think it puts us as good as safe, pressure getting to me.
Crap: everyone now hates us. We (the fans) are now branded as the evil pantomime villains. The media think we as a fan base expect to be winning champions leagues and premier league titles. But actually we just want to watch a good team that plays well and maybe just maybe wins the off game. The media agenda against us is disgraceful.
Fair play and spot on. Newcastle are a real football club(like Leeds Utd) and although it's nice to have money, I hope you don't lose that identity and go all corporate like Man city and the like. Had many a good time over there with my relatives, loved the place, the ale, the women and the craic. Your main problem is staying up. But good luck(except on Sat)
I think Norwich and Burnley are as good as down, if you'd have beaten Watford last week, I think you'd have taken a big step to staying up. Watford's next 2 are massive games, if they win those then the pressure is really on you, especially if you lose yours. All up in the air but still nearly half the season to go, so nothing anywhere decided yet.
Apparently (I say apparently as it’s too subtle for me) this is what the good sides have done to us this season... change formation several times during the match to catch us out. I don’t know whether the sh*t sides like you have tried it. Whichever it sounds like you might instigate a state of confusion among both sets of players, where our left back starts man marking your goalkeeper, and everybody else runs around like headless chickens achieving absolutely nothing. Like the House of Commons.
Yeh, he's not the only one... they're a good bunch of lads. People should watch this though. He talks about his battles to get his form back. It highlights how much positive outlook and confidence play - how important it is to him - and a reminder to those of us (including me) who get frustrated at times watching games, that generally we need to remember another word for fans is supporters.
