Match Day Thread Newcastle United v Southampton- Build Up / Matchday Thread

Allrett fella.
Quick check.
What's your view of Sky commentary?
Good to see you back!
Although your 'friend' T still has a valid account.... #justsaying

 

Mbemba, different class to Colo who looks very slow. Gini does look class and loved the way Mitrovic just bounced players off him when on a run. Future looks rosy if Steve can sort his defence out. For this season I'd be happy with 10th, then onwards.

 

Thought we had problems with both full-backs yesterday. Both goals came from crosses from our left but Janmaat really needs to be covering behind centre backs for far post crosses and I thought challenges he put in were half-hearted at best. Doesn't get away from the fact that Haidara seems to like to let his man get the ball under control before challenging despite his obvious pace. He then stands too far off. Dummett is a better defender but he doesn't fit into the style of play we are trying now if played at full back. His distribution is awful. Now think our No 1 priority is a new left back first - don't even think about playing Mbemba there - he is the answer at centre back.

 

Im just watching the game now. Thought obertan played very well. Mbemba is a star in the making and wijnaldum is already a star. Very promising. Tiote was utter **** tho. I would have rather put colback in anita's slot and brought on someone else in the midfield.

 

An amusing side note from yesterday( for me anyway) . Walking around the ground yesterday,was talking to a steward when this guy comes up to us in a very smart suit, in a bit of a panic.he starts talking to us( well the steward)(( couldn't understand either of them really)). The steward said to us that he had to go and rushed this guy in through one of the gates.
Thought no more about it until we got home,( just before midnight) and started looking through reports and saw the guy in the black suit standing on the pitch. Turns out it was Mdemba!

Great weekend,great people,good game, long way from the pitch and a long way from home!!

 

I thought it's the lm that should be closing their full back personally but communication between the 2 needs to improve to negate that sort of thing

 

Few thoughts - surprised at team selection, choosing Obertan smells to me that we're not going to be buying a winger. Defence is hugely concerning, not sure you can turn up every week with small CB's - you're almost guaranteeing you'll concede at least one before a ball is even kicked, given the height and physicality of the PL. Mbemba may get stronger over the coming months, but time is not on our side. For me, we're going to have to try Mr. Glass (Saylor) alongside Mbemba. Dummett may offer more defensively, but the way we're set up we need athleticism at full back which is more Haidara'a bag. Shame we can't splice the two of them, then we might have a decent player. Janmaat will get much better, so not worth reading much into his performance. Krul again not great, hopefully Simon Smith can have some input.

Midfield looking promising. Huge shame about Anita, looks reborn and alongside Colback is again tidy - but where's the height?! It's a good defensive 6 though - Colback/Anita have both stepped into LB/RB respectively, so that's gotta count for something? Tiote should be sold ASAP, in my opinion - bring in Leroy Fer as a tall, strong DM/CB option and you've gone some way to solving things. Wings need work. Aarons should be left, then we have the huge Sissoko conundrum on the right. Is that his best position? Would we not benefit from cashing in and bringing a specialist in? Townsend + £££ for Sissoko seems like a good option for me, with Obertan still as backup on that side, Cabella fighting with Aarons for the left sided berth.

Wijnaldum is the player you build the team around - but then we need Mitrovic up and running, because I think his ability on lay-offs and hold up play will be more valuable than Cisse. SDJ and Perez offer some serious quality from the bench and we do appear to have a number of options for a change.

Optimistic for this season, cannot see anything like a repeat of last year. Steve already has the team playing considerably better football than we've seen in half a decade and this is game one. A touch more support from the board and we're in business. Austin for Cisse, Fer for Tiote and buy Andros Townsend and we're almost there - a quality LB would just be perfect, but we're only NUFC and can't have everything.

 

I thought Sissoko was great. I would not want to sell if steve can get that from him every week. Remember Wiji probably should have scored that layoff early on. My only disappointment about the game was no ayoze and no aarons.