I doubt Newcastle will do much I don't see whey they would bother until summer. They now only in 2 competitions, players are due back and there's no points chasing anything this season.
Yes I suppose that's the same all the time.. Newcastle are in a position where they dont need to panic or do anything in a hurry. They can wait until the right players are available which is probably not January.
Phillips is a certainty I feel. De Gea a possibility (though I don’t get why we don’t play Karius) I read somewhere that a player they were looking to sign in the summer could be available now
Isn't that just tactics? Can't Longstaff, Miley or Joelinton be told to do that? As per the end of the video, he was great in Bielsa's decent Leeds side - who were precisely as fallible as Howe's, relying on players to put in superhuman efforts every week - but hasn't done anything for 2 and a half years. For me, again as per the video, it's about playing with a CDM in the middle of a 3 man midfield when you play so high up the pitch. Maybe Tonali could have filled in that role, but if Philips comes in is he going to play where Bruno plays? Doubt it. So you're then relying on Philips fitting in immediately, Longstaff being happy to be relegated to the bench for a man who has about 3 appearances in 2 years, and so on. As I say, nobody can tell me this is a sensible move. A better move would be to bring in a real CDM alongside Bruno, add a proper threat on the right of the attack and NOT turn down people like Kudus or Diaby because they don't run around as much as Almiron. This, again, is a manager issue. Or is it just coincidence that the teams at the top of the league year on year have players like Rodri or spend £100m on Rice? We should have taken transfer chances in the Summer and moved to a 4-2-3-1.
Piece by piece they'll build the side even if it doesn't make perfect sense right now. Sometimes the long journey is the right journey to take.
No doubt. But I genuinely believe there were a lot of mistakes in the Summer and I think Howe is mostly at fault, when he believed Burn, Longstaff, Almiron, Murphy, Schar, etc., were all good enough for a UCL campaign. They'll reset, take stock and may not immeciately act on Howe but may change their approach. Think they'll go back to what worked in Jan '22.
The thing is they've proven they are good enough. They're just not good enough to cope with the massive fatigue issues which have hit the squad as a result of the amount of injuries. You're asking where Phillips will play? I'll guess he'll rotate with Bruno. Joelinton rotating with Willock and Miley rotating with Longstaff. Allows Barnes to rotate with Gordon, Murphy to rotate with Miggy, Liveramento to rotate with Trippier, Isak to rotate with Wilson. Picture starts to come clearer on what the general idea was in the summer, granted still a lot of work to do.
Manchester City have opened talks with Juventus over letting 28-year-old England midfielder Kalvin Phillips leave on loan. (Times - subscription) Some will be happy to see that! West Ham and Newcastle have been put on alert after Argentina striker Giovanni Simeone, 28, indicated he wants to leave Napoli in January. (Sky Sports)
For once I agree with much of what you say. I definitely think we need to be able to play a 4-2-3-1 easily, if not all the time. The 4-3-3 can work nicely but more and more we are finding teams have us figured out. We've more or less got the players to be effective but critically missing at least one deep lying midfielder. It's a pain about Tonali as eventually I think him on the left and Bruno on the right of a two wold have worked well. One could go, one could sit etc, and would have still been quite attacking with good rotation with the other 3. As it is I think we don't have the players available. I do think Phillips is worth a go. He's shown that previously he had the gas tank to get around the pitch for 90 mins, his passing is good just for whatever reason it hasn't worked out at City so it's worth giving him an opportunity. That right side of attack needs sorting. I've been supportive of Miggy in general but he's been so wasteful this year every time he finds himself in a good position. There are numerous occasions where I think the result would have been different if he had been clinical with an opportunity to either assist or score. Watching the team it's been the one massive source of frustration for me every game.
Newcastle will make a fresh attempt to sign Paris St-Germain's France striker Kylian Mbappe, 25, and have given him a deadline of mid-January to decide if he wants to join in the summer. (Athletic - subscription)
