Why does there seem to be such a drop off in results, performances and just about every metric away from home? Including Cup games our for H&A looks like after 9 games: Home Form: Played 4 / Won 3 / Drawn 1 / Lost 0 Away Form: Played 5 / Won 1 / Drawn 3 / Lost 1 The positives I can see is we are grinding out results and picking up points one way or another. This is reminiscent of the CL qualifying campaign for me where we seemed to draw a lot of games, the only difference this time around is we are grinding out results when playing poorly rather than not winning games we should have. Is it the roar of the Gallowgate sucking the back in? Is it the extra pressure away from home? Is it home comforts or the travel to away games?
It's not just the form that's odd, it's the lack of clear identity/plan, lack of faith in players (seriously, how the **** is Howe getting away with putting two 'keepers on the bench???) and the situation with corners which has been going on for far too long.
Vs Bournemouth we looked very bad, but we've improved since then, even when we were awful in the first half against Fulham, we improved a lot in the second half. The performances are gradually improving both home and away, really isn't any away issue.
You say on one hand Newcastle will finish 3rd but on the other hand pretend Newcastle only bring the 11th best away from home being a problem? Surely It needs to be much better if your expectations are genuine?
The 3rd thing was a prediction at the start of the season when I thought I'd stick my neck out and be optimistic. Why do you think that means I'm constantly expecting us to finish 3rd all the way through the season?
That's not the discussion, it's home and away form, and both are clearly improving. Contrast Spurs at home with City at home and Bournemouth away with Everton away.
Personally don’t see it improving significantly - although your comparisons do suggest that it is. But we aren’t performing to the level that we know this squad can - I think that would be the main issue and kind of touches on Roly's point about lack of identity. CL qualifying season we had an identity and it was undeniable - literally even plastered everywhere - "Intensity" .. It seems to have disappeared now though, Is that down to a bit of reaction/hangover from last season where were down to the bones and needed to take the foot of the gas slightly to ensure we had 11 fit players? Problem is now we have pretty much a full squad (bar Botman) so we should be able to be more intense imho. Not just the high press but the urgency about our general play seems to have gone backwards - before it was like basket ball games, you attack and then we'll attack but now it seems a bit ponderous currently and it's not like we have the excuse of bedding in new players or gelling as a team it's 95% of the team that's been here for a year or more.
So when we bought Tonali, we also bought Livramento and Barnes. Oh yeah and we also bought Minteh who we turned a £30m profit on in a year.
Not impressed with any of them right now. Barnes is good at shooting, isn't particularly dangerous otherwise and can't get in the side because he's not a team player like Gordon. Livramento was good last season, but has been poor so far this. Tonali has missed a season via a gambling addiction and had to be replaced vs Everton because he kept giving the ball away repeatedly. All three have to do a lot more to justify the huge fees paid imo. Minteh? Looks worth every penny and will only get better at his age... he's already a far superior player to Murphy and Almiron.
We had to balance the books, so turning a big profit on Minteh in such a short time was a good move regardless of what he achieves now. Although getting £35m for Anderson was unbelievable tbh. Barnes injured for a long period last season so him and Tonali basically like new signings now. Tonali fitting in and Barnes has done well this season. Tino should get back to levels of last season. Big question mark over Osula, and I'm really unimpressed with Kelly so far.
Depends because we don't know what the other options were. I'm not impressed with what's been done since the early they finished 4th...I suspect Mitchell is 100% correct. Hopefully the situation is corrected moving fwd.
