Well, if anyone was trying to recover from a hangover today, or was planning on having a dry January, your task was surely made harder by the fact you’re a Newcastle United fan. What a horrible day.
It seemed ironic that we started the new decade against Leicester City. If you think back to the difference between the fortunes of the two club’s over the last 10 years it highlights Mike Ashley’s putrid tenure in all its horrific light. Leicester had just been promoted from League One ten years ago. Now they are everything we aren’t and want to be on and off the pitch.
Bruce sprung a surprise by giving Yoshinori Muto a game in the place of Andy Carroll, and the game started exactly how you would expect, with us on the back foot and unable to string 3 passes together against a vastly superior team. However who needs quality and superiority, when we’re in such a generous mood as we have been over the last two games.
There’s no getting around it, Florian Lejeune had an absolute mare in the first half but his two errors will probably switch the attention away from how bad we were. Of course it was Ayoze Pérez who scored, and Maddison’s strike was just brilliance from a brilliant player. Here’s both goals:
Joelinton also struggled badly, failing to convert a huge chance at 0-0 and seeing most balls bounce off him. I’ve tried to defend him but it was hard to today.
Half time ended with the added ridiculousness and disappointment of Sean Longstaff, Emil Krafth and DeAndre Yedlin replacing Jonjo Shelvey, Javier Manquillo and Jetro Willems, all due to injury.
Then on top of that, Fabian Schar pulled up 20 seconds into the second half meaning we had to play the none event of the second half with 10 men.
I’m not even going to bother summarising the game, there’s no point. I’m doing match ratings after this and I’m not putting myself through it twice – it was that bad!
The only other thing I have to report is Hamza Choudhury’s goal, which was brilliant. But again, it had to be him didn’t it. The man who has deprived us of Matt Ritchie with that disgusting tackle back in September.
We’re back down to earth with a bump, we’ve lost 3 games against 3 good teams and it’s important to remember that over the next few days.
I wrote an article on Christmas Eve praising Steve Bruce for the start to the season, and how he has done brilliantly to come in and stabilise the club after a toxic car crash of a summer. I stand by that 100%. I also said earlier in the season and also in that article that I have concerns long term, and that Bruce’s career shows a pattern of good starts and then nosedives. Sadly I also stand by that 100% and I have everything crossed in hoping I’m wrong.
We’re now entering a dangerous period and a difficult run of games, and Ashley needs to help his manager in January.
Bruce can’t be blamed for the individual mistakes that we’ve seen over the festive games, and while the injury situation is unlucky to a point, there is a worrying bigger picture. I haven’t mentioned Rafa in a while, but it sadly isn’t coincidence we had a good record with injuries with the meticulous nature of his back room team, compared to the problems we’re currently having with Bruce’s “tape em up and get them out there” approach. The fact Schar tried to run off a hamstring injury is just baffling.
Today was an absolute nightmare. We simply have to dust off and move on, just how we did after the last horror show against Leicester.
Credit to the players for not completely folding here like they did that day with 10 men. Many people probably expected a similar result.
An FA Cup exit at Rochdale is unthinkable, hopefully it doesn’t become a reality. Our start to 2020 can’t get any worse!
Well, that’s a **** sandwich of Christmas and New Year games. It is what I expected. I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to jinx us and I believe in fate. I will say that we will lose to Wolves as well because I have no faith anymore for this period. I had thought we would lose all 4 PL games in this period and I still think so.
Get’s a bit easier after Wolves and maybe the Fat Man will be scared into buying a striker. You know, someone with ore than 1 PL goal in the last 18 months. Carroll has none, Almiron and Joelinton 1 apiece.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Very annoyed that we went down 3-0 when I had gone 2-0 on super 6.
I wasn’t expecting to win this game.
What really does annoy me is that Bruce is still starting Joelinton. I have said on an earlier thread that Joelintons’ value goes down with every game he plays. His value is now probably down to £3m.
I am wondering if Bruce is being made to play him because any other manager would have dropped him months ago.
sidekick(Quote)
***** as usual
Stuart79(Quote)
You looked at the squad a month ago and thought that Bruce was spoilt for choice with all of the defenders. And now… Can we even cobble together a team for the FA Cup?
I think Ashley must have run over a whole litter of black kettens the way things are going. Colback is the icing on the cake.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Mark my words. I have said it before but that giant arsed dumb fuk Mackem goalie will cost England at the Euros and World Cup if he is still there. He could have stopped both Man City goals. He gets away with no criticism at all just because he can kick the ball 70 yards. When he has to kick it 30 yards that’s when he gets into trouble.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I’m still struggling to comprehend who allowed us to spend £40m on Joelinton. If we are to believe Jabba he said he agreed with the valuation and even offered to put £20m in himself after Rafa said he wasn’t worth the £40m. Unbelievable
Stuart79(Quote)
Getting worse by the minute. Norwich and WHam winning 🙂
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Today’s results could not have gone any worse for us.
Happy New Year!!!
Eric Sykes(Quote)
So, just the 8 goals we shipped to Leicester in the PL.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Wolves, Chelsea and Everton next fixtures. We could well be in the bottom three after Everton.
Stuart79(Quote)
Well that really was abysmal and we have to ditch this way of just sitting back. Leicester weren’t brilliant. We gifted them the first two goals. Players no longer know how to move the ball forward. It is either sideways or back. Muto tried hard with little support, was alert to movement, and tried hard. It doesn’t need a boycott to stop people attending. I don’t mind losing but it is how we lose. We as spectators were just sitting there devoid of hope. Don’t blame the defeat on the injuries. It was the way we are set up. People may say we haven’t got the players but surely a professional footballer on thousands a week should be able to make a simple pass. What do they do in training. We always clear the ball straight to the opposition. Sorry to go on so but I have to get such a shocking display out of my system.
Groucho(Quote)
Groucho – to be fair, and I know I keep labouring the point but we have played like that all season. We have not deserved to win many if at all any of our games this season. Southampton, Sheff Utd, Spurs, Bournemouth to name a few are games we won which we didn’t really deserve and got away with it due to defenders scoring for us and the opposition missing chance after chance after chance. Replicate the same performances in the last half of the season and were down.
Stuart79(Quote)
As soon as I saw the effusive praise from the pundits for Brucie I knew we were in trouble. As Jamie says Bruce has gone on nosedives before. It is what got him sacked at Sunderland and Villa. I haven’t really criticized him because he was put in a very bad situation in the summer but I know he will get us relegated if he sticks around. I had an epiphany about that around Christmas which seems apt 🙂
At least Palace equalized.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I agree with Stuart that we have been pretty **** all season. Maybe Man U and West Ham we did OK. Most of it has be stalwart defense and some set plays. That even seems to have disappeared now. I don’t want to lay into Bruce because he faces an uphill task, but we are not playing very well and when for once we tried the high press against Everton we got killed.
I have also tried to lay off Joelinton because he had never played centre forward and he should be given the benefit of the doubt. But when do we judge him? Many players have had bad first seasons in the PL including Son and Firmino. But, as I have said before, who is this Nickson guy? Where did he cone from and can we trust him? We know nothing about him. And then suddenly we have a 40 million forward who only played a season in Germany. I think he was on loan in Austria before that.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Oh, and we were just as bad in the 1st half of last season but nobody would say it …. Because it was Rafa.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
We were totally sh.it… we’ve been sh.it for a long long time now. ?? RIP NUFC
Dubai Toon(Quote)
Eric – Rafa was a proven successful manager with a track record to boot. He also proved the season before that he had what it takes to get us back from a really bad start. In fact he did it twice. We were reserved in our play under Rafa but this season it makes us look like Liverpool under Rafa.
Stuart79(Quote)
I do have to put a caveat in here. I feel dreadfully sorry for Bruce. He is a Geordie, he’s desperate to do well and it’s his dream job. But ultimately he has no chance. No manager does under the owner. He hasn’t chose any of the players that were bought and had no choice in selling Perez. The club and their amateurish way in doing contracts were responsible for that. But he does have limitations and they will just be highlighted under Jabba.
Stuart79(Quote)
Arsenal a different team after a week or so working with a creative coach. Fans responded too. Oh to be a club with some sort of ambition.
Stuart79(Quote)
Stu – they were all over Man Utd that 1st half weren’t they. Mind Man Utd look absolutely ***** – why they haven’t bit the bullet and replaced Ole yet is beyond me. They will struggle to make Europa this season the way the likes of Wolves are play.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Ole needs 3 transfer windows as a lot of their fans keep saying. Please give him 3 more windows and do not sell the virus Pogba in January.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
A loss to Wolves and I think the fans might turn on Bruce. Not just on twitter and on blogs but at home games. Even with 10 days ’til that game I think we will still have a patched up team.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eric, bad results are one thing but turgid, boring and **** right miserable football is what kills things. There were loads of empty seats today and they have 10,000 tickets away ffs! Does that not set alarm bells ringing with them? I’d rather lose attacking and at least trying to have possession and attack.
Stuart79(Quote)
In the programme notes for the first match of the season Lee Charnley said in his notes “We are going to be bringing front foot football to NUFC”. ?? 20 goals in 21 games…
Stuart79(Quote)
Nothing Bruce has done has changed my opinion of him. I said from the get go that he is top 5 Championship or bottom 5 PL. He has kept teams up, got teams relegated and got teams promoted. I didn’t expect the football to be this bad and it seems to have gotten worse in recent weeks. The only real high points have been St Max’s runs and Almiron buzzing around like a blue arsed fly.
I had a bad feeling about today which is why I wasn’t bothered about watching the game. I watched Spurs instead and I think Jose was more entertaining than our whole team. He called the S’ton coach an idiot. Anyway, it was even worse than I expected because of all of the injuries.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
And it didn’t take Mourinho long to get back to grumpy Jose. He started off all hugs like he was Jurgen Klopp and now has that constant scowl on his face.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
The Guardian usually has a lot of comments on our games and today had about 250, mainly from NUFC fans. There has definitely been a change of tone after the 3 losses in a row. You can feel the tide turning against Brucie. I have given him my reluctant backing, but that might change if he goes on one of his death spirals. 25 points by Christmas was a decent haul but now the results are matching the football. With all of the injuries I have to admit I am getting worried. And after watching these games will the likes of Danny Murphy and Richard Keys take back their gloats about Steve Bruce doing a fantastic job and proving the Geordie naysayers wrong.
I gave Brucie a solid B at Christmas because 25 points is 25 points. Now he’s a C mainly because the football is still terrible but we have become error prone and are not grinding out results.
The Guardian comments were about 99% negative which is a big change from a few weeks ago when most were going with – the football is bad but it’s the points that matter.
I still say sack Bruce in the summer as we are going nowhere with him as Manager. However, I still don’t feel we are getting relegated even if we lose the next few games.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
The other thing that keeps getting brought up in The Guardian comments is the Joelinton fee. Some conspiracy theories but nothing concrete about why we would ever pay so much. It goes against everything Ashley has ever done at NUFC. There has to be something fishy there. And I will say it again, who is this Steve Nickson and where did he come from? If you believe the fees he was suddenly handed 70 million, but what had he ever done to prove he could spend that wisely? I think I would give him a D minus. Joelinton has been a bust so far, same with Krafth and St Max is injured. Willems is probably the only success and he is not even our player yet. Do you count Carroll. Not really, he basically said come and get me so he wasn’t Nickson’s idea.
I am bringing up The Guardian comments because they are usually a lot more measured than on twitter or the rabid dogs on The Mag. They have turned this week though and people are signing off with Bruce Out and the like.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I just cannot, for the life of me, understand how Ashley could suddenly be so willing to spend such a huge amount on an unproven player when Rafa, who at least we can agree knows a lot more about football than the fat one, says he was not worth the money. Everything we have seen shows Joelinton is no better than Joselu at £5 million. It just smells so bad. He is not a £40 million player… it would not surprise me in the slightest if at least £30million of that found it’s way out of nufc and into the fat mans pockets. ???
Dubai Toon(Quote)
And… what’s with all these injuries? We are back to Pardue and ugly John days again.. we never had this level of injuries in Rafa’s time. We are now leading up to playing a team of youngsters in the FA cup so we again go out in the 3rd round to league 1 opposition. What are they doing in training? We will not give the FA cup any effort once again… ?????.
Dubai Toon(Quote)
DT: Bruce now has the injury excuse. Carver was dealt an incredibly bad hand but I knew from the minute he signed it wouldn’t work. With Bruce you have a 20 year body of work so you could pretty much guess where we would be. I still like to give a manager the benefit of the doubt but 20 games in and I think we can see he is not good enough. The problem is that Pearson looks like he is working wonders again at Watford. He is doing a Leicester again. Not the PL winning Leicester but the great escape team that he managed. I was sort hoping that Norwich and Watford would be dead certs for relegation and that we could avoid the 3rd spot.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
And the 3 awful losses over Christmas have shone a spotlight on our style of play. Thank God for Palace 🙂 If we are not winning what do we have? 30% possession, lowest number of shots in the PL. St Max and Dubravka. Even Miggy can’t run around forever.
We certainly rode our luck and now it seems to have run out. I should have known when Danny Mills was praising Bruce that it could not last. Maybe it was Murphy, whatever. If you do the opposite to what they say you will not go far wrong.
What I didn’t expect was the schoolboy errors. How many underhit backpasses have we had. The quota for a full year, I would say.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
In a few games I think we will make that 3rd spot our own Eric… ?
Dubai Toon(Quote)
Reading Olly’s injury piece he said Willems felt his groin in the loss to Leicester. In my best Frankie Howerd voice “ooh-er missus”. But seriously, it looks like we are screwed. At a minimum for Wolves and Chelsea. These hamstring injuries never take less than a month to heal and often longer.
So, that’s probably 25 points from 22 games. Things will not look as rosy then. The way the league is shaping up we are going to need a point a game. Looks like the cushion we built up before Christmas will have disappeared.
Get ready for some serious knife sharpening. There are certain people who always wanted to Bruce to fail and they will be doing their “I told you so” dances. I don’t think anybody on here actively wanted Bruce to fail but anything other than an FA Cup win will see twitter explode.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
At any other club the board and owner would be putting the manager under pressure. Asking him why the football is so dreadful, why we are getting all these injuries after 3 years of good fitness. Charnley is probably asking Bruce where he goes for his kebabs instead.
Stuart79(Quote)
Bruce says there is nothing imminent in the transfer market. He bloody well better get working on it, even though Charnley has already said we will not spend. Loans then. But I can see us being desperate with the following fixtures:
Wolves Jan 11th
Chelsea 18th
Everton 21st
We are losing all 3 of those games aren’t we! The injuries just make it that much more certain.
That’ll be 6 in a row.
There is a silver lining if the 3 fat lads running the club want to take it. There will still be 10 days left in the transfer window after we lose again to Everton. Desperate times call for desperate measures and we can trust Steve Nicksen. Didn’t he scout Jolinton for a year?
I am not a Joelinton hater but whoever thought he was worth 40 mil needs sacking. That would be you Mr. Nicksen. Supposedly Bruce approved it as well but he really only had time to watch a few youtube clips.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
We could loan Jesse Lingard. He had zero goals and zero assists in 2019. He would fit right in.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eric, that’s the thing. The club don’t sack people for failure. If they did Charnley would have gone long ago. Bruce approves all the signings and I bet he hadn’t heard of any of them. That’s one mitigating factor but then again he knew it would be like this too.
If anybody thinks we will sign Bowen they need their head testing. We wouldn’t go a bit extra for Maddison and in Jabba warped world it will be too much of a risk from the fizzy.
Stuart79(Quote)
I am trying to not be too passive-aggressive about NUFC. I am trying to stay behind the team and not be too negative about Bruce. But, then you watch the football… There is always a but with NUFC. We can never just have a few decent games and score a few goals. In recent years it has always been limping along, scratching out a few results. Even with Rafa. Apart from the last game of the season where we will hammer a team and give us supporters false hope 🙂
I wasn’t even bothered that I couldn’t get the Leicester game. I was a bit relieved actually. And I certainly wasn’t going to listen to Radio Newcastle. John Anderson would have had me slitting my wrists.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Would sound rather odd if John Anderson was telling anybody who listens that we were playing really well and just unlucky.
Stuart79(Quote)
How is Joelinton getting a game ahead of Shola?
georgio(Quote)
georgio- I feel sorry for Joelinton. He didn’t choose the fee and it can’t be easy playing in a side that only has a max of 30% possession.
Stuart79(Quote)
“Ando” has one of those voices where he sounds depressed even if he was giving you the news that you had won the lottery.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
We all know this is going to get a lot worse before it gets better, if it ever does. We have much easier fixtures on paper in February and March. And I really do hope that fans do net get too down on Joelinton. There were signs when he was played out wide before the Leicester game. I didn’t see the game but did anybody play well in that match? We have learned that he not a target man and suffers when he is isolated in that role. We have to see if he can do a job for us as we have so few options. And does anybody really think Ashley will spend another 20 mil plus on a striker in January. And who would that be? I can’t think of any who are ready made to get us 8-10 goals in the 2nd half of the season. Maybe if Bruce sells Gayle and Muto?
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Here’s the press release from Nickson’s appointment in 2017. He was under 21 recruiter and came on when Carr left. To me it looks like he was riding Rafa’s coattails because we all know that Rafa was a control freak and very proud of the data base he had personally assembled of possible recruits and was very clear that when he was taking time off in the Wirral that he was also hammering the phones to recruit his targets.
So who did Nickson actually discover? I think Dummett was probably before his time. And the Longstaff’s are from North Shields so they pretty much fell into his lap. Any others? Even some who have only played a few games? I can’t think of any.
So we promote someone who is unqualified and I am sure played second fiddle to Rafa and now we see the results. I bet he was cheap though, eh Fat Mike?
Maybe St Max will work out but anybody with youtube could figure there is talent there. The jury is out on injuries and motivation so you can’t even give Allan more than a C.
https://www.nufc.co.uk/media/30783/steve-nickson.jpg?anchor=center&mode=crop&width=1200&height=675&quality=80
Eric Sykes(Quote)
The scales are falling from my eyes. You have Charnley who is the lowest paid administrator in the PL by a mile. Even the Mackems paid that Bain character about 5 times as much. Now Nickson who I bet is the lowest paid recruiter and Bruce the lowest paid Manager. It still doesn’t explain Joelinton though 🙂
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I am pretty sure we got the Managers before Rafa on the cheap as well. Pards was rumoured to be the lowest paid PL Manager. Ugly John was just happy to get the job. And do you really think we had an out-of-work sacked-by-Derby McCLaren on a lucrative contract?
I doubt even Carr was on a good deal. He seemed to treat it as some sort of part time hobby. Just about all of the players he got were from that French Mondial Agency so he really didn’t have to do any scouting. There was Demba Ba, but they even screwed up his contract and Chelsea activated a release clause.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
The pattern is repeating. Rafa was the outlier because they were desperate when they hired him. Now I am getting depressed because this usually ends in relegation. I have already said that I think Bruce will take us down but hopefully not this year. I will have to give Ando a ring to cheer me up.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
You know that slip by Gerrard that supposedly cost Liverpool and Brendan the title. They were showing moments of the decade yesterday and guess who scored the goal after THAT slip. Demba Ba.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eric – it shouldn’t depress you too much. If, like me, you expected about what we’re getting you wouldn’t have been depressed or surprised. There is a pattern with Jabba and he never fails to work it down to a tee.
Stuart79(Quote)
Stuart mate, I was OK before Christmas. We were winning ugly and undeservedly winning, but we were still winning. Now I am positive we are in the middle of a run of 6 straight PL losses. The injuries have just made me that much more certain of it.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I did say we’d be lucky to see 1 point out of man u, everton, leicester and wolves and that’s looking optimistic now.
We have zero fire power up front and our previous good luck and reliable defense has deserted us along with a boat load of injuries. We are still more than capable of getting relegated and with the likes of Watford finding form under Nigel and the Saints picking up we need to be looking over our shoulders now.
How quickly that 10 point cushion has been lost, but no real surprise really.
The cup will be sacrificed yet again due to injuries and league position under threat and it’s another year of making up the numbers and that’s how it will always be under this owner and his parsimonious way of running this once great club.
kimtoon(Quote)
We really didn’t “deserve” To be winning based on what general football fans judge performances by. We rarely had more than 35% possession, rarely created many chances, our goals were scored by defenders for the most part and we had our goal keeper and opposition attackers to thank for not losing. The margins of wins was so tight and now it’s just going the other way. Them margins are falling against us.
Stuart79(Quote)
I don’t get this ‘we don’t deserve to win coz we only had 35% possession’ or we haven’t played well. You deserve to win if you score more goals than your opponent – they kept the rules as simple as that ??♂️.
Consider this – if we won the game having only had 35% of possession and playing poorly – the opposition who have had 65% could have played that well if they couldn’t make it count and out score us could they?!.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Don’t get me wrong. I understand wanting to win convincingly and play well – I get being disappointed that we aren’t doing that.
But it’s starting to sound like you are annoyed that we have accrued as many points as we have and don’t deserve them.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Sharpy – why have you just cherry picked one of my sentences? Finish the rest of it. “ based on what general football fans judge performances by”. I then go on to list the KPI’s that fans use. Possession is just one of them. We failed in them all even when we were winning. It’s not possible for us to continue to perform like that and continue winning. That’s a fact as we’re seeing it play out.
I’d like to know how our attackers are suppose to do their jobs adequately whilst we only have such minimal possession. Living in a world where possession is king you think it’s ok to have 26% possession at home against Brighton… Odd to say the least. It’s not possible to maintain.
It reminds of a quote from Noel Gallagher “In a world made of soup, Liam only has a fork”.
Stuart79(Quote)
Sharpy – Why would I be annoyed at picking up points? The fact is I haven’t changed my view from the start of the season. I came on here and criticised the team for the way they played while congratulating them on winning. I also said it wasn’t sustainable. That’s being born out. We cannot her being this bad and expect to stay up. Why should we? We’re getting worse not betting. Winning usually improves teams but it’s done the opposite for us.
If you are happy (which from what you say most days I assume you are) then that’s fine. But fans are voting with their feet and I agree with them. It’s turgid and you can’t say “it’s ok we are winning”. Because attendances dropped whilst winning and as I mention previously it’s not sustainable.
Stuart79(Quote)
You better get your tin hat out Sharpy if you are going to try to defend our football. We are about to finish up a 6 game losing streak, 3 already done and 3 to come. I have no doubt about this because of the new injuries. We need Sean Longstaff to rediscover his form or Matty to emerge. I wouldn’t play them together. Then we need at least one of strikers to find their shooting boots. These are our only hope, but they are long shots.
I have never been a Bruce hater but him and the rest of the gang have got us into a bit of a pickle with some strange recruitment decisions and overplaying some of the team – Lejeune being the obvious example. But he has also started a few when they still had nagging injuries – Shelvey, St Max etc.
I gave Bruce 20 games and now I know what we have. I didn’t want to judge him prematurely but the best way to sum him up is that he is a more likable Pardew.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Stu – my point is that 26% against Brighton at home – 19% possession away to Spurs … of course it’s horrible – I’m not saying otherwise.
But we still picked up 4 points from those games.
Possession isn’t King – goals and wins are king – 3 points keeps you up, not 76% or 81% possession.
Brighton had 76% possession and did not score – Spurs had 81% possession and did not score.
So if we have played badly (and I’m not saying we played well by the way), then they MUST have played worse.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Stu – I also haven’t changed my view from the start of the season. I said back then that if Bruce kept us up it would be a minor miracle.
I also said a few weeks back when people were going on about being 9th and 25pts before Christmas – this was peak in the season. Most teams outside the title contenders have runs of peaks and troughs – we hit the peak and are now on a trough. I didn’t get over excited with the peak, so won’t freak out at the trough (I’m not suggesting you are freaking out before you pick up on that).
Survival was always the target and still is. But we’ve got the points on the board that hopefully means we now only need 4-5 wins to see us safe.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Surely we aren’t judging how well a team played judged on whether they won? Have you ever seen a team stay up while playing badly every match?
We don’t even do anything with the small % of possession we do have. We’ve scored 20 goals in 21 matches ffs!
Stuart79(Quote)
If we play like we have the previous 20 games then the 4-5 wins are unlikely in my opinion. Performances need to improve otherwise we are gone.
Stuart79(Quote)
Eric – I’m not defending our football – never have. I disputed that we have been sh!te all season – but that doesn’t mean I think we’ve been good either.
I’m defending our points accumulation, not the manner in which we have accumulated them – there is a difference.
But, I think you will entertain me on this one Eric as you have graded Bruce so far this season. Go one further and grade each player that has played regularly for us so far this season – 0-10 with 5 being average.
I’ll let you do it before going any further.
Sharpy17(Quote)
God aye!!. Teams like Palace and Burnley have for seasons!!.
I’ve also heard pundits Lord up teams like Blackpool in the past and Norwich this season for their expansive football (whatever the hell that means), yet they get relegated.
Despite what you think I’ve said – I’m not happy. Of course I’d want us to dominate teams and win convincingly – who wouldn’t?!.
But of course I’m happy that we have got the points on the board, despite the poor performances.
I also take into consideration the circumstances – the clubs a mess. Fans are protesting. The manager is average. We have young forwards who are settling into a club in turmoil with a huge expectation on their shoulders – and I’m not sure how many were the managers choice.
All things considered, I think 25pts is very good – but it’s not enough and we have tough fixtures now and coming up – so will slide back down the league.
Bruce still just has to have us finish above 3 others for him to have achieved a miracle for me though mate.
Sharpy17(Quote)
You think having average 30% possession is giving them young attackers a chance?
Oh and Palace and Burnley haven’t stayed up playing badly every week. It’s not possible.
Stuart79(Quote)
Stu – I said at the start of the season survival would be a minor miracle.
Based on how his forwards have performed so far this season, and the injuries we now find ourselves with – I think that miracle would be biblical now!!!
But he has the games there in front of him to chip away at the 12-15pts still needed, so it’s still possible.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Sharpy: I might do some ratings but not now.They wall all be from 4-7 I think. I don’t think anybody has been that special and none have had mares for the season – just the odd game here and there. Sean Longstaff has been the biggest disappointment because I think we wouldn’t be in our own half as much if he regained form. Gayle has disappointed me as well even though he hasn’t played much.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
It’s possible, Sharpy and that’s because in games we’ve been out performed in and won thanks to unlikely goal scorers and Dubravka. But for a team to be on 25 points before Christmas and still be a rea relegation candidate is shocking. On par with Ugly John.
Stuart79(Quote)
Btw I do feel for Bruce. He had no say on the players bought and it was a ***** storm when he arrived. That being said, he can control the type of football we play. It’s his responsibility and his alone for our turgid style.
Stuart79(Quote)
Stu – of course I don’t. If you look back I’m one of the few that keeps making an argument for Joelinton.
Not just the possession, but how isolated he is. The fact he’s played out of position – he’s not a CF, but some idiot decided to spend £40m on a creative wide midfielder – and then give him the no.9 shirt.
Toon fans expect their no.9s to score goals – this lad isn’t so must be sh!te. I disagree – but just coz I disagree he’s sh!te doesn’t mean I think he’s brilliant either.
The lack of possession doesn’t help our forwards – but also puts pressure on our defence.
A lot of goals we’ve conceded so far this season have been individual mistakes – Dubravka has made a few, and Lejeune made a couple at the weekend. With greater possession, those mistakes would be less likely.
Sharpy17(Quote)
I still give Bruce a C even though I think we are in a slump. I think we can blame him for Lejuene but he didn’t have much choice with some of the others.
Things could change in February, with a combination of easier fixtures and players hopefully returning.
Plus of course there is the transfer window 🙂
We are in for some anger on twitter though. There is usually not much anger on here which is why I like it.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
There are other teams in slumps though. Bournemouth and Burnley. And Villa just lost their record signing (Wesley) for the season. There is some hope and I am like a manic depressive with this NUFC team because I do not think we are 1 of the worst 3 teams in the league in terms of talent.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Stu – I know you’ve said 20 goals in 21 games, alongside the lack of possession.
I would also say that despite the lack of possession, our forwards have missed some absolute sitters too mind!! – between Almiron and Joelinton we could easy have 5/6 more goals.
You mentioned the Brighton game at Home, and I can think of 2 really good chances that Almiron should have done better with – and really could/should have won us that game too.
That’s what’s disappointed me most this season. We have created chances, despite the lack of possession – we just haven’t put them away.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Sharpy – if you are going to play with such minimal possession you really need top notch attackers to take the few chances created with the little possession you have. This is why I find his tactics bizarre. We don’t have the attackers.
Stuart79(Quote)
Stu – I agree mate. But I still think Almiron in particular has had good enough chances to have scored at least 4-5 more goals than he has so far.
But whoever has got the forwards in has left us hugely imbalanced – Almirons favoured position is left side forward. ASM – left side forward. Joelinton – left side forward. Carroll – Centre forward, but isn’t fit enough to play regularly.
Gayle doesn’t seem to be in favour, nor does Muto – and we don’t seem to have a right sided forward.
Sharpy17(Quote)