We should get carried away and enjoy what we are seeing I keep thinking his style of play would be perfect for a newly promoted side in the PL lol - hopefully next season we will see
Funnily enough I was thinking exactly the same. Its almost better suited to an underdog rather than one expecting to win. Its why it will be interesting to see if it evolves if and when teams playing us start to expect us to win. Which might even be now.
I was thinking about this last night. I have a suspicion we will see quite a bit of rotation in the midfield and forward areas this season. I think it will be very much dependant on who we play and whether it is 2 games in a week etc. I think there will be games where we expect the opposition to sit in at the SOL. In those games I think we will see a more expansive side with 2 8s and 2 wingers. Other games when we may expect a bigger attacking threat I could see us playing with more control in the middle. I really wouldnt surprised to see Regis throw some selection curve balls to with this squad to unbalance the opposition plans. I would not be surprised to see two up front at some stage for example in a 4132. We have so many ways we coule play, and change in game. This is easily the most well balanced and capable squad we have had since our prem days. Coaches dream really.
Considering the international break, I can definitely see Samed starting against Plymouth. Considering Browne, Jobe, Rigg and Aleksic are all of on international duty Rigg could play as many as three games in this international break. I hope he doesn't.
I think we have the creativity to unlock those types of teams now We have good ball players in the team, we are just better attacking at pace
If we ever have a whole ‘fit and in form’ squad it’s almost impossible to pick. The back 4 in particular. Higgins probably has a more rounded game than Hume but Hume is part of the teams heartbeat. Ballard and Alese probs on ability are better than Luke, but nobody beats him on heart, effort or consistency. We haven’t seen the new CMs yet but their pedigree is fantastic. As has been said we have 2 midfield 3s now that look as good as most of the league. That is barmy. It’s insane. We have joined some dots and got the right gaffer and the whole landscape looks different. Crazy to think it was a bit of doom and gloom for 5 months.
Things is it's so easy to get carried away! We're playing some good football - not totally great at the minute as we're still learning how RLB wants us to play but 4 teams haven't even laid a glove on us and made Patterson make a save and we've scored 10 goals which in reality could've been more! Then you've got really young lads such as Rigg, Jobe and Mayenda bullying and embarrassing older more experienced players than them, Mundle came in with expectations on him on whether he can be as good as Clarke and scored 2 in 2 games! There's so much to be positive and excited about this team and squad that I need to reel myself in cos there will be times when it won't go our way but by God it's gonna be great watching us this season! HTL!!!!!
Impossible to say like. If it was a play-off final or a league game to seal promotion I’d probably go with: Patterson Hume - Ballard - Mepham - Cirkin Rigg - Neil - Browne Roberts - Mayenda - Mundle SUBS: Moore. O’Nien. Seelt. Huggins. Samed. Jobe. Poveda. Isidor. That’s just who I believe is the best player in each position, though. O’Nien and Jobe are probably bankers to start most games.
Exactly, not sure if its been posted in here but there was a lad on the radio basically saying if you can't get carried away at times like this than when can you, cause if you can't you may as well give up! https://x.com/bbcnewcastle/status/1829933335553990808
Mepham in without a doubt for O Nien for one or two games but Luke has been fantastic(until the 90th min on Saturday lol) like to see the new lad Ahmed in for Mundle/Mayenda, this is a very strong squad , the competition will keep every player on his toes, who knows are we as good as 1998-99 ? i have a very good record of tipping teams to go up i reckon us Burnley and Sheff U, points would be 90 for top 2. Teams were battling us last season if that does not happen we are going up.
I have always believed in only making changes when necessary particularly when things are going well , if anyone is injured or suspended you need to evaluate the situation and then decide who is to come in to the side . The good thing is that we have quite a few players who would be capable of stepping in and trying to justify remaining in the team depending on how they perform .
I love him to pieces but he has to hold so much. He gets away with it 95% of the time as he so good at it, but my heart is my mouth a lot with him.
On occasions where we have 3 games in a week, I'd be wanting him to alternate, particularly the midfield, to keep them fairly fresh. I haven't seen Aleksic yet, but our midfield 6 certainly look capable of being interchangeable without sacrificing quality. When fit, we could certainly alternate Alese/Cirkin, Hume/Huggins, Roberts/Poveda too, while resting Ballard, O'Nien and Mepham for at least one of the 3 games.
I agree there Rotation will be required in October when we face 5 fixtures and 2 of those are midweek. We’ll also have players jetting off all over the world on international duty in the middle of the month…
