Pretty much as I saw it. Two good teams putting on a good display to excite us for the rest of the season. In truth the game swung one way then the other so not unhappy with draw. Ref was good too and controlled the game well. Let the game flow and none of the yellow cards were undeserved. Davis and Colbeck were respective MOTM's for me
Glad that Long got the goal. Think he is a great option to have in the squad. Thought Targett struggled today - particularly first half.
If you had any pre-season thoughts of being at the wrong end of the table with Sunderland, then think that performance must have been encouraging. Mbemba must be an instant hero after a good debut and the tuxs. What's the deal with Aarons? He always looks so dangerous when I see him come off the bench, but has yet to be given a chance. Which is odd when you have Obertan.
He has so much potential its frightening, but he is also inconsistent (which is fair enough starting out). I expect him to be given plenty of game time this season, and think we might have seen him today if Tiote hadn't had to come on. With Tiote on, and not really match fit I don't think they would have risked taking off Obertan who actually had a decent game.
Fortunately he remained Obertan. Newcastle had a 3 on 2 in the second half and I still don't know what he was trying to do
Downloaded and set up Kodi and I admit I had a crystal clear hd stream, although it was about 45 secs behind real time!
Agree mostly.... But can't help thinking we're a bit too samey going forward.... Although they each have their own plus points... The plan b or alternative isn't alternative enough....
Just caught up with the thread as I had to pop out for a couple of hours after the game. Agree with everything said, especially about the ref. A very good performance and as has been said, all the yellows were deserved, except that I feel if Mitrovic hadn't just come on the field, his foul on Targett would have seen a red, which it should have. One thing we should remember is that Newcastle, despite being far from perfect themselves, are still a Premier League team and therefore several steps up from Vitesse. Fonte's relatively poor performance may have been partly down to not being quite match fit, as he played the whole of both games against Vitesse which hardly anyone else playing today did. Cedric needs to remember he is a defender first and that the merest touch on a player in this league will see a free kick given, and bookings don't need many fouls. Targett got pulled about too many times and left huge gaps, but didn't get enough protection from the likes of Rodriguez. Wanyama and Yoshida were solid, but a bit sloppy with passing in the first half. Mané, Tadic, Pellè, and especially Davis, were all superb.
Was only able to see odd moments as I was doing stuff, but from what I saw I thought we coped reasonably enough. Whatever you think of McClaren, he would be a vast improvement over Carver, and it looked as though he'd got Newcastle set up quite well. Their squad is pretty good to be fair, and their sin has always been to be less than the sum of their parts. I would have Sissoko in a heartbeat, at Southampton for example, and I quite like Haidara too. Today, they appeared to be playing at something of their potential, and Saints were iffy but coped in the end. Praise to the players, but let's have Van Dijk in please.
