OneMoSalah

Villa would be a better move for him (better league position, players and squad) but still think he wouldn’t be their first, second or third choice realistically. Norwich are probably already resigned to being relegated after 11 games (happens every time they come up) so if they are serious about retaining their PL status you’d think they’d look for someone who’s maybe had a few more years in the game, in a similar scenario maybe and someone who will actually coach them into a good team who can be a bit more solid or pragmatic at times with some actual intensity in their defending. Honestly, I would say Gerrard would be best candidate for both of those jobs to be fair out of the realistic options but can’t see him leaving Rangers mid season for a relegation battle. I wonder if the likes of Ronald Koeman maybe also will get linked with such vacancies also after his Barcelona sacking.

Think this could be a very astute appointment to be fair. Hugely responsible for revamping our scouting network and contributing towards the discovery of guys like de Bruyne, Courtous, Lukaku, Salah, Zouma and getting them here so imagine if Newcastle could find good young talents and actually play them, developing them? Could be a good way to go as opposed to spunking £300m a year on players and gradually build up as opposed to try make a 15 place jump in one or two seasons, which I think is why they’ve maybe appointed Howe also to make it more sustainable and a long term plan (despite me thinking he is a poor choice even more so in a relegation battle).

Think as said above, he will stay for the season then that’ll be that based on what has happened so far although suppose still only 10/11 games in. Have to admit, I was hugely excited over this move but it has been disappointing mainly. No doubting his pedigree and previous ability but hasn’t just quite clicked 1) for playing time and 2) performance wise. Aye he’s shown a bit more in flashes in a few games recently and we are coming up the busiest part of the season so he may get involved a bit more but if he wants to make himself attractive as an option to be here permanently he needs to play say 5, 6 or 7 games on the bounce in quick succession and put a real marker down, which I am not sure he will get say 5, 6 or 7 games consecutively or do based on what has happened so far. Think cutting his loan short would be a bad decision though unless we got a MF player in January but realistically wont happen, Saul cannot play for 3 teams and Atletico cannot afford his wages so looks unlikely.

Better job than Howe at smaller clubs? There are plenty of examples. Dean Smith at Villa really barring this season, Benitez at Newcastle, Pochettino at Southampton, Koeman at Southampton, Ranieri at Leicester, Rodgers at Swansea and now the likes of Thomas Frank at Brentford probably be in the running as well as there being more. Hes achieved some decent finishes but look at the stats. He's never had a season in the PL where they had a positive GD or he has never been notoriously known for improving teams defensively. Newcastle need to improve defensively if they stand any chance of staying up as well as scoring goals. 19/20 season- relegated - 40 goals for, 65 goals against 18/19 season - 14th - 56 goals for, 70 goals against 17/18 season - 12th - 45 goals for, 61 goals against 16/17 season - 9th - 55 goals for, 67 goals against 15/16 season - 16th - 45 goals for, 67 goals against Plus his transfer record as a PL manager with Bournemouth is very poor, spent big money too for them on players who didn’t do anything. Was clear he was probably their 3/4th choice but I don’t think hes really going to dramatically change them.

Hopefully someone who is going to be there to compete with Rudiger meaning Sarr gets loaned out more than anything else. Also just because Low is Hungarian doesn’t necessarily mean anything in regards to he hand picked him etc, we know how the club operates and how they always have, likelihood we have been following him for a while.

Liverpool potentially dropping points makes the 2 points dropped even worse for us…. Although 3-2 now.

Howe 🤣 ridiculous giving a guy the biggest budget in the PL on paper and expecting him to get them up the table. Transfer record in the PL at Bournemouth is shocking as well as their defensive record every season. Championship bound.

Maybe but 11 games in and sitting at the top of the pile, having played City, Liverpool, Spurs and Arsenal already, whatever way you look at it, we will be talked about as challenging for the title. As we were preseason. And we have to make that step. Even if we don’t win it we have to be up there. Unlucky maybe but still, not clinical enough. Points dropped. Any points dropped when your at the top gives everyone else a chance to make up ground.

But these sort of games or results is how we ended up blowing these sorts in the past aren’t they, no? Lets hope its a one off but we lack a clinical edge and thats been the same since Diego Costa was here. Tuchel sort of side stepped around the fact we only had 4 shots on target from 25.

True but at the top of the league you set the pace and at the end of the game, it is 2 dropped points, unlucky or not. They might not or likely will not be significant but it just takes 2/3 games of contrasting results for us, City and Liverpool for that top 3 to totally change. Then you start looking at okay what results didn’t put more distance between teams A, B and C. Same thing happened with us under Di Matteo in 12-13, were top from beginning of the season to November then a few draws and a loss made us drop from 1st to 3rd. Different teams and managers but doesn’t mean we should just go okay we were unfortunate not to win, this season is going to be the most competitive title for years with us, Liverpool and City clearly ahead of the rest so games and results like this today, they cannot just be chalked up to unlucky, we should of found a way. If we want to be successful and win league championships, in these scrappy games we have to find a way to win them. Like we did at Brentford somehow. And Villa despite playing poorly.

Think him refusing to go to the u21s significantly weakens his position with the NT first team if he wants to be in the next few squads, even more so when he plays in a position or positions where their are already lots and lots of players available/selected/not selected ie. Sancho, Rashford, Greenwood, Saka, Grealish, Sterling, Foden, Lingard, even Smith-Rowe. Obviously good for us he doesn’t risk an injury in a game but still, he also loses some match momentum and for him as an individual if he harbours playing for England at the WC in 2022 for instance this could be a mark against him if Gareth Southgate is weighing it up, although I still don’t think he will get there anyway due to players who play in his position already.

Glad he scored but offered next to nothing else up against the likes of Tarkowski and Mee. This is the sort of game I think Rom would be better suited if he was fit, where their CBs are more physical and street smart and would be a bit more intimidated against a much more physically abled striker in terms of using his body and rolling CBs etc like Rom can. Obviously then theres the chance creation arguments again but I still think Tarkowski and Mee probably would of preferred playing v Kai as a false 9 as opposed to Rom as a fixed 9. Kai is sort of an enigma at times, he does a few games and looks like he could be a very good player with a bit of fine tuning but then he looks completely ordinary for a few games after. Still young but he has to find a bit more consistency.

Exactly which is why we need to capitalise on these sort of things and win the games, particularly against teams like Burnley who were thoroughly dominated from minute 1 to minute 94 or whatever. So why is it so outrageous to think like that? Or are people happy for us just to make up a place in the top 4 and not be more competitive and push Liverpool and City harder/overtake them. In big games, we will get results - this has been shown v Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs etc but we still need to take advantage of these moments when the others drop points and beat the smaller teams. Even more so when your on top of the table and teams are chasing you. Its different from being the chaser. Going into this international break with 5 points between us and City and 6 points between us and Liverpool is better than 3 and 4 points. I have no doubts Tuchel will be rueing not getting additional 2 points which you’d argue 90% of the performance deserved bar the 10% in the final third which we were lacking. Obviously you cannot win every week but the way we played today was great but there is no point playing great and drawing games v Burnley when your goals is to challenge/win the title. Because that has to be where we are now. Other teams will drop points, we will also again undoubtedly but the manner in which we dropped them today is hugely disappointing.

2 points dropped. As mentioned 25 shots 4 on target, not good enough. This is why a natural CF was also a necessity. Hugely significant dropped points too considering it would of gave us a 5 point gap over City. Still early days in terms of title charges but not a good enough result today.

Give him a last shot here? Is Simon Phillips actually a journalist or a crackhead? Has he actually watched Musonda since youth team days or what? Charlies ship sailed about 4 years ago. Jesus christ 😂

I think this has Conte and Spurs written all over this. Plus considering the huge links in the summer and the Italian technical director/sporting director they have, I would say this strengthens their position unless Juventus or one of the Milan clubs go for him. If it doesn’t happen in January then I would imagine it will in the summer.

His end product (crossing in particular) isn’t just rather dodgy, its hugely erratic, where as Trent probably gets nearly double figure in assists every year. Thats why he gets the plaudits more because they look at the outputs of fullbacks offensively more. I like that Reece is much better defensively and rounded perhaps but the comparisons will always be in TAA’s favour because you know if he gets space and can get the ball in, he will create a chance/get an assist. Reece adds this to his game more consistently well then who knows but until then, I wouldn’t exactly be disagreeing with Mark Lawrenson or anybody else of a similar thought train. A few goals v Norwich and Newcastle won’t change anyones mind immediately and even here, we were all expecting to get an upgrade at RWB for certain reasons (end product and ability to take players on) this summer, hence the move for Hakimi. Even in some of the games this season Tuchel has favoured Azpi at RWB over Reece.

Theres always talk of conspiracy and refereeing decisions (so stupid 90% of the time) when we play in the PL but holy fuck that red for Atletico is borderline one of the worst refereeing calls I have seen. He was fucking miles away from the goal so whys he sent him off with a straight red 🤣

Regardless of Ole’s incompetence as a manager and an over reliance on late goals as well as generally poor coaching, defensive mistakes etc, for any team to be able to rescue results in the last minutes - it doesn’t hurt. But they wont be truly successful as a team because of the other stuff. It is also a pain in the arse but keeps OGS in a job. Although when you have Ronaldo, you know you’ll get one chance and when its Ronaldo its a goal 99/100 times. I do think its fair to assume Ole will be gone at the end of the season, of that I am 90% sure.

But again, the big thing last season was its all good creating these chances but when we cannot score enough goals/convert a higher percentage of them, it isn’t necessarily better either. The Real Madrid game last season in the CL for instance, the second leg (I think it was second) could have been very different, how many chances did we miss (not even half chances clear cut chances IIRC we had created like 6 or 7), we also know Mendy made 1 or 2 brilliant saves that if he didn’t, changes the scoreline - thats the sort of thing that made people think we needed a clinical CF. It was clear to take the next step this year we needed to Yes we don’t have the same fluency or flexibility perhaps compared to the front 3 Tuchel used last season but we created a tonne of chances and didn’t score enough with those 3 playing together regularly last season. We need to find a way to improve their outputs if thats the way we want to go or find a way to get Rom to in and make things around him a bit more like it is with those 3. Thats the thing though, we have to find a way to score goals regularly without Rom but also find a way to create chances with Rom in the team in the same way we do with the other 3 we’ve used recently or last season. We cannot just keep talking about our attack creating chances with Kai, Mount and Timo when their output last season wasn't enough when you look at the other big teams and their outputs, plus its still not looking like they are going to be ruthless or efficient perhaps is a better word perhaps, offensively. Its been not bad so far granted but tonight there were times where it was also still clear we need them to be more ruthlessness or fit Rom in. Plus playing Malmo twice, Norwich and Newcastle - there will be tougher ties to come through.

That is why Kai will never be our main striker despite the dislike of Rom, he probably would of scored 2 or 3 of the one on ones Kai had tonight. Great pass though.

This insistence of walking it into the net is a disaster. Ziyech has a hell of a left foot why he hasn’t just leathered it there is beyond me, perhaps trying too hard to impress - again. Even Ruben doing the step over and playing the ball into a player who had 2/3 players in such close space as opposed to going wider to Alonso. Typical, usual poor decisions in the final third. Good job it’s only Malmo.

Second seasons bad run compounded their inconsistencies from the first season though. If they were a bit more convincing that second season before he got sacked I think people would credit his work there a bit more but there wasn’t a lot of improvement or a change in how easy some of the goals they shipped were. Thing is managing Newcastle will be different to Arsenal. Newcastle are the sort of team who even with a few additions, probably suit or will likely buy into his methods more.

Was same as v Newcastle, just need to be patient and a bit more potent offensively. Goals will come though once we get the first one.

Maybe but Spartak Moscow is really maybe the only club he hasn’t done a half decent job at if you look at it like that. Even at Arsenal his first season they did well enough finishing above where they were previous season. Would think he’d actually fit Newcastle like a glove tbf, hes taken some misfits from other teams at the likes of Sevilla and Villarreal and made them better players in a structure that works.