It's not perfect, but we didn't lose. Obviously we couldn't just hope for a miracle with Rafa and expect him to turn this shower of **** into Real Madrid in 2 games. It's a bit worrying, though, that we'll just end up having to ride our luck a bit due to some of the tosh that's in the side. I also think Sunderland were unlucky not to have put us away in the first half, but they didn't. But it doesn't spell trouble that they look like the best side out of the 3 fighting for 17th. I'm really happy we didn't end up losing. Coming back to draw wasn't a bad result in the end, and it could have been much worse. It could be massive for us. We still are going to be playing the other 4 teams around us before the end. Ratings - Elliot - 6 - Some good saves, good kicking and composure at times, but could have done better in the air. Janmaat - 4 - Not good enough defensively. Just not good enough. Defoe raped him and he gave away stupid fouls. Lascelles - 7 - Reasonably solid. He's very powerful in the air. Mbemba - 7.5 - Apart from his cock up near the end, he was awesome today. Good composure, good strength and decent breaking forward. Pullback - 2 - What a ****ing ginger c*nt. Get rid of this joke of a player. Anita - 6 - A reasonable display late on. Good defensive work and decent link up play with Wijnaldum for the goal. Sissoko - 5.5 - He worked better in defence today. He wasn't great attacking wise. Shelvey - 6 - Some good composure, hard work, decent ball playing, but definitely not his best. Wijnaldum - 5.5 - Good assist, but didn't really look bothered today. Again. Townsend - 5.5 - Very good at the beginning, the only threat we had, but struggled to have impact later on. Lost the ball in key areas. Perez - 7 - Good skills, kept the game alive for us when we had no other spark. Mitrovic - 7 - Good goal. Missed a good chance early on, but no real service apart from those two chances. De Jong - 6 - I think he's a reasonable player in the sense that he brings composure and a calm head up top. He's also a decent ball player. Nothing spectacular, but definitely changed the game. Rafa - 7 - Not the greatest result, but I am sure we'd have lost this game without him. We did look solid for most of the game. We still need work though. I thought his tactics were spot on. We kept it calm, and grew into the game. It wasn't his fault we conceded. We do really have some **** in this squad.
Fair assessment, and if I am to be honest your run in looks slightly better than ours, having got rid of McClown you are in with a shout, just like us you need a win, all we can hope for is Norwich to implode and sadly its a straight race between us, unless Pardue comes to the rescue.
Well least we have found Sissoko's position, left back! Anita was a better full back than Janmaat as well. Generally our team is ****e! Lascelles for me was better than Mbemba who made too many runs that came to nothing. First half showed why we are in the bottom 3. Second half showed that despite better football we can't score which is why we are in the bottom 3. Again we are relying too much on the odd glimpse of greatness from one of the players. There is no team at the moment at Newcastle just a group of over paid people doing their own thing. Oh and Colback needs to feck off and what is with the petulence of some of our players?
Think Newcastle have been playing at time as if they are scarred of losing to Sunderland again for a while in the Derby game. Think when Benitez has two weeks working with them he can sort out some of the problems we have, for instance we looked very vulnerable in both games from all set pieces. Also a bit slow closing players down and this something that has been wrong at Newcastle since Pardew arrived.
I said a while back that Newcastle had a better squad than us, but we had the better manager, I can not say the latter still applies, but it may already be too late, but you never know, the next round of games will be vital and this break is to your advantage, all in all its going to be interesting to see if Rafa can make it count, if he does you have a chance, but its your last one imo.
With luck Rafa will be able to get a stable Mbemba Lascelles partnership up and running. Keep these 2 lads playing together for some stability at CB and maybe we'll get some organisation at the back to help deal with those set pieces
I thought defensively we were shocking for most of the game today. I would go for Mbemba/Lascelles simply because they have the pace to cope with most premier league CFs. I'd personally have Mbemba/Dummett if fit.
What do you think of Mitros mentality, is he really stable, what was that charade at the end of the game about, he went down without a touch and lay perfectly still
Positive about our chances i see improvement in all areas and a manager that can read a game. Ffs stop moaning Anita rb Lb is an issue but i knew we should have kept Santon and yes i remember you ****s saying we didn't need him!!!
Looking at the stats and apparently those passes to the Sunderland keeper by the Newcastle players are counted as shots on target
Rose colored glasses on, I guess, because I was pleased with the fight they showed to draw after going down a goal. Two weeks ago you wouldn't have seen it. Heads would have dropped, and game over. Rafa has only had a little over 10 days and you can see improvement. I also applaud his subs...we didn't bring on more defenders when we were down a goal. He'll have two weeks with them now...I think he will have them ready. At least he seems to be having some effect on the players. That's the most running I've seen Mitro do since his first few weeks. Staying positive...........
How exactly did Wijnaldum get MOTM??? He was lazy, slow and apart from the cross for the goal did sod all else!!! A few positives to take - Colback's booking means he's thankfully out of the next 2, Mitro on the score sheet and Sissoko looking a lot better than earlier in the season, but generally a nervy and disjointed performance in a must win game. Lack of goal threat is getting ridiculous now, De Jong and Cisse must start in the next game.
Listen.. we are ****ing awful.. and. Sunderland..... might be slightly better. But, we are both ****ing awful. I have not seen enough of Norwich`s games to pass judgement on them, but I also believe they are ****ing awful too.!! So we have 3 ****ing awful teams, and 2 of them will be relegated. Which ones?? **** knows!! The team that is the least ****test out of these three teams will stay up. The other two more ****test, teams, will get relegated! OK, everyone got that, the LEAST ****TEST TEAM WILL STAY UP.!! But at the end of the day it does not matter, cos all three team are ****ING ****.! I think this year, for one time only, 4 ****ING **** TEAMS SHOULD GO DOWN.!! Possibly 5, cos PALACE ARE ****ING **** TOO.!! I DONT GIVE A **** ANYMORE, TO BE HONEST.. CAN YOU TELL????
I think this was true before the January window but I think the buys in the window make the squads evenly balanced to be fair. Could argue both equally **** lol, but I'd love to see what Sam could do with a summer under his big belt
If nothing else, we've got the f***** Monkey off our backs. I thought De Jong made a big difference, he seemed to be putting his foot in a bit, instead of standing off.
