Match Day Thread Toon Army vs Spuddingtons
- Thread starter Darth Plagueis
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I think the whole of the defence was outstanding in the good run we had and kept us in the game against Chelsea with some outstanding defending. I would say the midfield and attack are much more critical areas, particularly when we have Trippier back. As @Roy Munson says its a replacement process and I reckon the back four will be down the list. I think we need two midfielders and two strikers in Summer and suspect that that would use up most of our transfer budget.
unfortunately I disagree. We need a top draw centre back to slot in beside Burn. We also need a left back, hopefully Targett. defence being Trippier, new cb, Burn, Targett.
Sadly I think Howe sees our current midfield and think it’s ok as he will also think that about Fraser. Up front yes we need two strikers as you can’t rely on Wilson even as serving choice. Also get the feeling Howe doesn’t trust ASM in the same way Rafa didn’t trust Mitrovic
Hence my concern about waiting til November for Ashworth.
Maybe Nickson can do better - was Bruno his, did he do the homework and realise we could get him, he'd be keen, etc.? Nickson also recommended Joelinton as a £40m centre forward and - considerably worse - £25m Wood. Jury's WAY out on Nickson.
We still need a new GK, 2 CB's, a first choice LB (as well as keeping Targett), a defensive CM, an attacking RM and a CF. That allows us to shift on Darlow, Krafth, Lascelles, Fernandes, Ritchie, Shelvey, Almiron and Gayle. We'll be lucky to get £30m. It pushes Wood to third choice, Fraser out of the team. The team needs a complete identity shift and only Willock, Bruno, Trippier and - at a push - Joelinton, Targett, Wilson and ASM can be part of that. Everyone else is relegation material.
Is signing 7 players possible? I think it is. In fact, I think it's necessary. Maybe two LB's is excessive but if you sign Targett and he gets injured, who's stepping in? Manq? We're supposed to be ambitious now so having an average right back as you're backup left back is not smart.
Burn cost us vs Chelsea, then vs Everton and was subsequently horrible vs Spurs. Schar's always been hit and miss. I wouldn't want a Brighton sub as our 1st choice CB going into next season. He can step in and do a job, good character, but there's a reason he's never pinned down a starting place at Brighton or even got close to an England call up.
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Personally I’d keep Lewis but looks like Howe has made up his mind about him despite good performances before his injury
Hopefully if we ship 10 out to free up the squad places (it's not about money) then we can do a complete rebuild next year.
For the first couple of months of the season other teams won't be able to work us out which will be an advantage.
To be fair they didn't have that long to sort the January list and it was clear that some players smply weren't prepared to come to us yet as we are in a relegation battle.The club did well to sell the project to the likes of Bruno in that situation.
Hopefully the summer will be a whole different scenario - so long as we stay up.
So it was Trippier and not Son who played so well yesterday then?
Yep, and be the first side in PL history to do so ....
Chelsea, City and now you lot next maybe....that's buying the league
I wouldn't say Liverpool bought the league...they did some savvy business. When Arsenal were winning it...they weren't buying the best....Lesta?
Definitely Chelsea, City and you lot next tho
Agreed, although I think Liverpool got a bit lucky with some of their sales.
To be honest if you go back further you can add the likes of Blackburn etc to that list, less spend but still bought their way there - similarly a lot of clubs in pre PL days
We can only hope.
Main thing for now is having got rid of an owner who had no actual interest in football and simply stripped the club of assets over a long period. At least we can now look to enjoy football again rather than continually having one of the worst PL squads and always fighting relegation.
I don't actually care if we don't win (or 'buy') the league, I just want to see us competing again and having the kind of players that get you excited to watch.
I have a bad feeling Howe doesn't want to buy quality. (yet)
Howe does everything by the book and his book says buy solid players with Premier league experience. The book isn't wrong, but we've got far too many of them already.
We need quality
Someone has been spiking big Joe recently, loving how he's first into the scraps these days
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Decent first half but then a demoralizing collapse yesterday. Think the game would have been turned on it's head if the ref had got the red card for the headbutt right. What is VAR for? No way the lad should have been on the pitch for me but no excuse for that second half performance, that was throwing in the towel, raising the white flag and putting our hands up in surrender but that's what happens when your leaders on the pitch are Shelvey and Schar... Defense completely lost it second half although Howe must take a fair share of the responsibility, he didn't pick up on the Spurs change until after the third goal, with Kane dropping even deeper in to midfield receive (Schar and Burn followed him without a care in the world - if Spurs had subbed him I wouldn't have been surprised to see them both disappear down the tunnel with him) while our full backs were pushing on - which was key in the first half - so we ended up with one full back, on the opposite side to the ball, as a defensive line? Don't think he should have moved to three at the back either and instead brought Bruno on to anchor the midfield and screen Kane's deep runs but once we reverted to three at the back it was game set and match spurs. Say it all the time but you play 3 at the back if you don't trust your CB's or you want to be incredibly attack minded and I don't think we were the latter there.
Whilst I dislike Wood I do think it is a tactical decision from Howe to have him drop super deep when out of possession creating a midfield diamond but then we have no pressure up the pitch allowing oppositions to easily recycle the ball, re-set attacks and switch sides with no pressure on them. Wood would be better served splitting the CB's on the half way line and pressing across the defense until support arrives from the 2 attacking CM's and wingers, it would force the play on to the same side its come back from or they have to go back to the keeper.
I'll leave the front three alone this week (despite being incredibly poor) because everything behind them was a **** show second half.
It's a wake up call for the team and probably just at the right moment - if we'd narrowly lost we could have thought we were doing ok and just getting unlucky but this shows a lot of work is needed before Wolves on Friday.
Whilst I dislike Wood I do think it is a tactical decision from Howe to have him drop super deep when out of possession creating a midfield diamond but then we have no pressure up the pitch allowing oppositions to easily recycle the ball, re-set attacks and switch sides with no pressure on them. Wood would be better served splitting the CB's on the half way line and pressing across the defense until support arrives from the 2 attacking CM's and wingers, it would force the play on to the same side its come back from or they have to go back to the keeper.
I'll leave the front three alone this week (despite being incredibly poor) because everything behind them was a **** show second half.
It's a wake up call for the team and probably just at the right moment - if we'd narrowly lost we could have thought we were doing ok and just getting unlucky but this shows a lot of work is needed before Wolves on Friday.