I feel Howe isn’t the biggest fan of buying from abroad. Burn, Wood, Targett, Gordon, Barnes, Livramento, Hall, Trippier Botman, Bruno, Tonali, Isak etc I guarantee we’re wanted from those higher up.
Last night showed why there’s something not quite right. We’ve got two very similar players at LW in Barnes and Gordon, yet are letting Almiron **** around for almost the full 90 before bringing on a right back. Burn was ****ing useless yet our option is going to be 19 year old Hall. Most alarmingly there is still no plan b or tweaks to the system. Seeing Almiron continually try that ****ing one two is baffling.
Yes mate this side lacks 3 or 4 players of such quality. Botman and trippier are the only top players we've got ... maybe Tonali too but time will tell. Howe can't keep adding more and more safe signings just to make his job easier.
Maybe but he's had some **** games too... last night he was poor. Wilson caused far more problems I guess it just wasn't right for isak .. he was chasing shadows.
Almiron can **** right off for me, he's had years to work on that right foot of his and he's still useless with it. He so easy to keep out of the game as you know he has no choice but to stop and cut in if he csnt get it to tripper.
Don't think Wilson really got into the game last night. Had one real chance to make an impact and he fluffed his lines. Isaak not great last night but had one or two promising touches but he benefits from having people close to him. Generally we were too deep last night but primarily due to City pushing us back as opposed to us sitting back.
He held it up the ball stopped coming back as much... isak was poor. Ultimately they're too good and Newcastle didn't believe in themselves enough to play with confidence.
I know we weren't at our peak best last night, and sadly got few attempts on goal, but for a bit of perspective let's consider how other Champions League opponents faired there. Man City 4 Real Madrid 0 Man City 1 Internazionale 0 Man City 3 Bayern Munich 0 Man City 7 RB Leipzig 0 A match which will help the development of some of our young players.
Disappointing game to watch although it seemed to open up in the 2nd half. Was underwhelmed by Tonali, thought Joelinton, Isak and Almiron were awful in the first half. Realised that Joelinton is good when we are playing high presses against teams that make mistakes/give the ball away but he is actually a liability when he has to hold a position and track back etc. Thought Gordon was good in the first half but understand why he was taken off - he was close to being sent off. The swap of Isak for Wilson made a huge difference - Wilson was always keen to chase and the game opening up seemed to help him. Overall we never really looked like scoring and any chances we did get came from their sloppiness after dominating.
Watched the goal back. Again, it's Burn. Offers nothing going forward (City ignored him all game) and is too often at fault. Only Almiron was worse, though Joelinton and Bruno were both dreadful. The lack of support for Isak was just astonishing. City played 3-2-4-1 the week before, seemlessly switched to 4-2-3-1 against us. We have no plan besides 4-3-3. It's becoming very predictable.
I think any Judgement on this particular game isn't easy. I'd make a case Newcastle did very well tbh.. a 10% swing in possession 4 shots on target to nufcs 1. I didn't like the attitude of our players though especially 1st half and I don't think they believed they were good enough.... I bet most our best players were thinking how much they'd like to be at Man City. Scratch this one off... they're just a winning machine.
