Some say a point on the road will always be a precious one, but it’s yet another game where we’ve failed to register our first win and another that we’ve failed to score in – with us failing to register a single shot on target today.
We’ve now played Cardiff, Palace, Leicester, Brighton and Southampton and haven’t scored in any of them. That is a massive worry, with our only three points coming from three goalless draws.
We defended well and I can’t fault our effort levels, but we’re now NEEDING to win a LOT of games in our final 28 to stay up – and we can’t do that without scoring.
Yedlin did well (along with the entire back line), Muto showed some signs of promise (although never looked like scoring) and Rondon showed glimpses of the powerful presence he can be when he came on, but the fact we were hanging on for a point at Southampton in the end is a worry. Especially when this is a side who’ve won ONE home game since November last year.
Mike Ashley was in the stands for his fifth successive game and it was a timely reminder to him that we’ll be needing money spend in January to give us that much needed quality and spark we’re currently lacking in attacking areas.
FT: Saints 0-0 Newcastle
A hard-fought point for @NUFC in front of great away support as always ? pic.twitter.com/QMtq2PURtd
— FUN88 (@fun88eng) October 27, 2018
Two weeks ago we begun ‘winnable run’ of fixtures and so far we’ve lost to Brighton and drawn at Southampton. One point out of those two is a poor return and we must turn it around and get that all important first win of the season under out belts ASAP.
Here’s the run of games we look set to face between now and Christmas:
- Watford (H)
- Bournemouth (H)
- Burnley (A)
- West Ham (H)
- Everton (A)
- Wolves (H)
- Huddersfield (A)
- Fulham (H)
These eight games could decide our season.
You see, that’s what 3 points from 10 games will do to you. You can’t not swear.
We have .3 points per game. Extrapolate to 38 games and you have 11.4 points.
Rounding down to 11 (because that’s what you do) and you have equal lowest points total in PL history. DERBY. Lower than Sunderland under Moyes.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eric – it’s a cracking little boozer mate that I’m sure many would pass by because of how it looks from outside. I remember the gig my mate played there. He was part of an indie band – guitarist, sing and song writer (talented lad), the closest I could describe them as was the Manic Street Preachers if you’ve heard of them?. When we got there we quickly realised that music wasn’t going to go down great. Fortunately his dad was also a musician and he drew up learning the likes of Lindersfarne and other folky type music. So he switched his set up at the last minute – started with ‘coming home newcastle’ and I think everyone joined in on ‘meet me on the corner’ – class. He finished with a guitar solo of local hero. It was a cracking night.
Sharpy17(Quote)
I am not feeling much Rafa love at the moment.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Never heard of Manic Street Preachers but I did see the **** Hole Surfers in London about 25 years ago..
Sounds like your mate’s dad had seen Blues Brothers where they play Rawhide in the Country and Western bar. “we do both types of music, country and western”!
Eric Sykes(Quote)
what a contrast between the depth of feeling for our owner and Leicester’s. What sort of ****** up karma takes out such a decent guy and leaves a total shitbag free to carry on .
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t wish harm to fatty but that is some ****** up **** for sure.
Wonder if mike has even wondered how different it could all be if he would just show some respect to club and fans and the city.
kimtoon(Quote)
Blimey! We’re now in a situation where some of our fans say the manager should change his whole tactics because a striker won’t play to his tactics. Is the tail wagging the dog or not? Oh and Mitro really isn’t pulling up any trees at Fulham and he’s played almost every minute of every game. As for Gayle – he just doesn’t score PL goals.
Stuart79(Quote)
he must be good on guitar because Wild Theme is pretty technical. Was listening to Making Movies last night.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
So I got a replacement battery for my Nissan almera keyfob and apparently it now needs reprogramming and Nissan want £117 to do it !
Tried DIY method on youtube which apparently works for loads of folk, but not for me. 👿
fecking car.
kimtoon(Quote)
correct
kimtoon(Quote)
He has 5 goals. Pretty close to our season total in 10 games of 6!!!!
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I meant Mitro has 5 goals.
Now Stuart. Dwight scored 6 in the PL last year and 2 in the cups.
Joselu 4 in the PL and 1 in the cups.
Kenedy 2 in the PL.
It would be good if we had Sergio Aguero, but we don’t.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Kimtoon is using the ****s as well 🙂
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I noticed that Dubai Toon was substituting symbols in his swear words as well. I think it is great that people use creative methods to get around the thought police.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Top scorer this year!!!! ????
Joselu with 2.
Next best: everybody else with 1.
Come back Dwight.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Stu – it’s not that Mitrovic won’t play that way, the reality is he can’t. He’s a limited forward, but one that can score goals. He’s not pulling up trees?! – he’s on as many goals as the likes of Kane and Salah – that’s not bad company considering Mitro is playing in a side struggling at the foot of the table. I’m not suggesting Rafa completely change his tactics – just enough to accommodate a goal scorer – seems fairly straightforward for any manager really.
As for Gayle not scoring PL goals – how does his PL record stand up against Rondon or Joselu?
Sharpy17(Quote)
Eric – he’s a bit of a guitar geek with Knofler a bit of an inspiration – ironically he and his family are a bunch of Mackem fans (we didn’t make that known in Byker). But he could play the Sultans of Swing with ease as well.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Sharpy: we are talking about music and pubs now rather than football 🙂
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eric ??♂️ the footy kinda speaks for itself mate. You took me down memory lane mentioning The Free Trade Inn as well ? good times for me
Sharpy17(Quote)
Maybe Rafa thought we had a better chance of success without Mitro? He was proved correct last year wasn’t he? After he left we had a great run and finished 10th in the end. It’s not Rafa’s fault he sold him and wasn’t given the cash to replace him.
Stuart79(Quote)
Stu – you know if I made such a hypothetical statement you’d pull me up on it, so it’s only right I do the same. Who knows if he was proven right? – what’s to say we couldn’t have done better with Mitrovic?. But our success certainly wasn’t down to him shipping Mitro out on loan and bringing Slimani in – coz he contributed sweet FA.
I watch Mitro for Fulham and really can’t see what he does wrong – certainly offensively. In fact, the football was never an issue, the only concern was discipline – but that appears to have been addressed.
I think it’s evident for all to see that Perez is not a nature finisher. I’d be happier having Mitrovic in the side concentrating on scoring goals and doing the type of job he’s been doing to Fulham, and have Perez covering what Rafa may see as Mitros short fallings.
Sharpy17(Quote)
He didn’t play Mitrovic. he loaned him to Fulham FFS.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Sharpy: I didn’t read your reply to Stuart before I made mine.
If Rafa didn’t play the Mad Serb then how can we judge him?
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Did Rafa think we had a better chance with Joselu FFS! ?
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Stu man, was happy in the bar with you for Man U 1st half.
Now after Brighton and Southampton I am really p!ssed off. We played sh!te and deserved 1 point which will send us down.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
It bothers me that Rafa says ‘if we make mistakes, we make mistakes’
‘I will be the first one to make mistakes, but we have to keep supporting the team’.
Here’s a novel idea – stop making so many mistakes and it makes it easier to support the team!!.
We haven’t won a game yet this season – we’ve barely scored a goal – yet Rafa wants fans to turn up and just accept mistakes.
We are walking, eyes wide open into our third relegation. Does he really believe that Joselu or Perez are going to save us from that if we turn up and sing their names for 90mins?
Sharpy17(Quote)
The fans have turned up and filled the stadium through relegation season and Championship season. They are there in their thousands for all of the away games – regardless where or what league we are in. I think they have more than proven their loyalty and readiness to stick together!!.
For Rafa to say that at the same time as saying if we make mistakes we make mistakes is a real pi$$ take in my opinion.
He’ll have heard a packed out SJP getting behind the team when they are performing well – get the team doing that and we’ll respond mate.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Yep.
Rafa should take his Rolf Harris out and spank his digereedoo.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
3 points from 10 games are living in dreamland.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I’m really stunned by the way the Leicester fans have been completely heart broken by their owners death. Maybe it’s because of what we have had to contend with up here but I didn’t think it was normal or possible to have such a fantastic relationship between a club owner, a city and it’s fans. Excellent.!
Stuart79(Quote)
Funnily enough Pep has a very similar outlook. He encourages his players to play with courage and if that means mistakes then so be it. You will say he can say it because of where they are but the principle is the same. Players have to free from the fear of making mistakes otherwise they’ll never try to do anything.
Also on a previous comment, you said you weren’t happy with Rafa’s negative words about finding three sides worse. Do you think the players know they’re not good enough or do you think Rafa saying we’re good enough in public will make them better? It’s also worth pointing out that Rafa made a statement at the beginning of the season telling everyone we have a stronger squad. Are we saying the players didn’t bother paying attention to that but absorbed every word of Rafa’s when he said about three worse teams?
As for Mitro, I really don’t see this great player people see. Rafa clearly thought he couldn’t do what he needed and wasn’t prepared to change the teams wthos to accommodate one player who achieved very little even when he played. Rightly so!
Stuart79(Quote)
Mitro has 5 goals though Stuart. You can’t argue with that! our whole team has 6 between them.
I thought Alan Gowling was a giant giraffe with a striped shirt on but he scored more goals than SuperMac.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
These 10 “easy” games we supposedly had we have 1 point from so far!
I knew it wasn’t going to be as easy as some – Ed Harrison, Chris Waugh, among others.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
There’s no guarantee he’d have got five goals at NUFC, Eric. And if he only scores 7 goals all season it won’t make much difference.
Stuart79(Quote)
Also worth pointing out that our under 23’s struggled last season against other teams in lower divisions than ours. Got another beating from a Championship side last night. Get them youngsters in I hear you say…
Stuart79(Quote)
Stu – to start bottom up. I don’t think Mitrovic is a great player – he’s not top 6 or a £50m forward (could be, but lots to prove). But outside the top 6, yeah I think he’s a top forward – I predict he will score more than any of our forwards.
As for Rafas comments. So he’s happy to say we have to hope 3 teams are worse than us, but then offers up some half ar$ed rally cry for all fans to turn up and get behind the team. So we’ll make mistakes, but hopefully less than 3 other teams in the league – but that’s ok, turn up and sing and cheer.
As for your first point – you are putting us in the same breath as Man City??? really!!. Pep saying they may make mistakes means they may concede a goal and only win 5-1. There is no comparison between the 2 sides at all.
Sharpy17(Quote)
By the way Rafa made his comments about the fans ‘sticking together’ off the back of fans talking about boycotting the Wolves game – obviously a protest against Ashley.
His response was to call for the fans to turn up and support the team. If Pardew said that I’m pretty sure he’d have been called a puppet
Sharpy17(Quote)
So you think I’m comparing us and Man City literally… Stunning. Comparing Rafa with Pardew is almost as crazy…
You wouldn’t be happy Sharpy if Rafa said we’re a good side, nobody outside the top 8 has strengthened more than us and has a better squad than us and we are clearly aiming to repeat last seasons efforts. Please come and support us as you can see we’re a good side. You’d call him a loon!
It appears now that we have a manager who tells the truth and gets slaughtered for it. Bizarre.
Stuart79(Quote)
Puppet or Muppet?
There’s still a way to go before any possible signings. There’s no harm in trying a youngster or two from the bench instead of the constantly failing flops.
georgio(Quote)
Stu – you said ‘funnily enough Pep has a similar outlook’. I don’t know what MOTM you’re watching, but Peps approach to football is vastly different to Rafas. I didn’t compare Rafa to Pardew – I said if Pardew said what Rafa said he’d be called a puppet. But you can scratch Pardew and put any other managers name in there and my point would be the same.
Yes, of course it would be loonish – but then there is a great chasm between what Rafa said and what you’ve just written. I’m not sure anyone needs Rafa point out the truth – I think it’s clear for all the see really. What we need is Rafa to motivate the team and win a few games – I’d appreciate that more than his truth right now I reckon.
Sharpy17(Quote)
I also think Rafa our saviour, our exposer of Ashley is about to roll over and have his belly tickled.
Up to now, Rafa has refused to sign a new contract until the club match his ambition – and up to now Ashley has stuck 2 fingers up and gave him 100k to spend. The training facilities haven’t even had a lick of paint, and as for the academy – they still haven’t even bothered getting round to making a decision on Beardsley.
However, step up fat lad to take Rafa and the boys out for a pizza, and bother himself to take in a few games. He’ll throw Rafa £30-40m in Jan (a drop in the ocean of the money we made in the summer) and he’ll fill Rafa full of promises that he’ll address the rest over the next 5 years – and watch Rafa put pen to paper.
Rafa is at NUFC for 3 reason – not because he loves the fans and city and wants to win things with us. It’s because it’s convenient to his family life, he’s well paid and at no risk of ever being sacked.
Sharpy17(Quote)
I think Rafa is getting a free ride given 3 points in 10 games and 1 win in 15.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Those numbers are Carver-esque and Ugly John wasn’t allowed to buy his own players. In fact, he had Taylor, Aging Coloccino and Williamson as his centre halfs. He didn’t get us relegated though. Rafa did.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Let’s put this into perspective. We have played 1 half of football all season that was any good and then let the other team score 3 goals to beat us and send us all home in a bad mood. That’s it. The rest has been dire, boring anti-football.
Rafa chose these players and chose who to sell. Did Fatty put a gun to Rafa’s head and say sell Mitrovic and loan out Gayle?
Possibly 🙂
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eric – do you see Rafa signing a new contract?
Sharpy17(Quote)
Rafa is not doing a good job. He is doing a sh!te job no matter what Fatty gives him as a budget. He has bought a lot of **** players. Where do I start?
Joselu
Atsu
Murphy
Manquillo
Clark
Lazaar
Sels
Hayden
Eric Sykes(Quote)
He’s bought within his means Eric that’s all. And there’s not much wrong with Dubraka who he signed. All managers make duff signings and even more so when you shop at the discount store.
Whilst it’s true that even mediocre players can play well, that generally happens when you have a lot of good players around them, they raise their game. In our case we have Shelvey, Dubravka, Lascelles and Lejuene when fit , that’s it for quality it really is.
I don’t really know what people were expecting this season given our abysmal summer spending and the previous PL window too.
The owner has stitched up the manager in a crazy Mexican stand off over his contract and now the fans are turning on the manager. Apparently our elite uefa coach should be getting more out of our duds or worse still, throwing a few kids in to the inferno of a relegation battle. 🙄
Yes, let’s ruin a few u23’s confidence before they have even started . Now is not the time for kids, when you are flying or safe or in the cups- maybe , not in a dog fight, it’s totally unfair.
Rafa’s not the problem with nufc, Ashley is and his total lack of ambition.
We will miss him when he’s gone just like we missed sir Bob after he got hounded out.
We have to get over Mitro and Gayle going too, I liked Mitro but he isn’t all that and I’m sure Rafa would of kept Gayle had he known the full Mitro money wasn’t forth coming .
kimtoon(Quote)
I have no idea.
I still back him but it is not unrequited love like some NUFC fans seem to have.
This is his team and he has had some money – gross, not net. I don’t really care that he got 22 million for Mitrovic and wasn’t allowed tp spend it. He still spent 12 million on Murphy who he never plays.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
You can hear them say – Ah, but he only had a tiny budget. Whatever his budget was did he have to pick plonkers like Joselu who in my mind is the worst forward we’ve ever had? What did he see in Murphy at £12m that no one else saw? I could go on but then I’d be eating into the first team.
Longstaff is 21 today. How long is Rafa going to wait to give him ten or fifteen minutes? Murphy time? Atsu time?
georgio(Quote)
Duds Rafa bought. Wahtever the price.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Rafa hasn’t done anything for us. He got us relegated. Promotion after relegation. Big deal.
10th? He told everyone that was a miracle. Was it? Is what Eddie Howe is doing also a miracle?
Funny though, I still back him and I am not sure if Emperor Rafa has new clothes or not. This time!!! I know he won 2 La Ligas and The Champions League. Not for Newcastle though.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
We have 3 points from 10 games and are playing awful football. We should have a problem with the **** players Rafa has bought. He spent 12 million on Murphy and doesn’t even play him.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
In the history of NUFC we have been relegated 4 times.
1 time with Rafa in charge.
A second?
We have spent money. NET SPEND IS DIFFERENT TO GROSS SPEND!!!!!
Eric Sykes(Quote)
And the 3 points we have are from fckn nil-nils 🙂 Must have been fantastic watching them like!
Eric Sykes(Quote)
10 games.
3 points from nil-nils.
What more do you want NUFC fans?
Are you entertained. Are you entertained?!
Do you only want giant flags and have the team do fck all else?
Are you entertained?
Eric Sykes(Quote)
We are letting Rafa off the hook here. He has had some money and spent it badly.
Murphy, Atsu, Joselu.
Time to get someone in to help him out and not Steve Nixon, whoever the hell he is?
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eric – £96m he’s spent on his relegation and promotion seasons – the 2 full seasons he’s been in charge. Yes there should have been money spent in the summer gone, but he’s had close to £100m to improve the squad – and it’s arguably worse!!. He got the keeper right – but only after failing with Sels. He’s got the CBs right – but only after failing with Clark and Hanley. Any football follower knows to succeed you need goals – and yet despite changing our whole front line – it’s still a priority.
Of £100m spent he’s probably bought 5 ok players – Dubravka, Yedlin, Lejeune, Fernandez and Ritchie – that’s around £30m of that £96m spent.
Sharpy17(Quote)
What on Earth are you judging him on, Eric? Signings that he’s made whilst spending £100,000 net? Come on, Man!
Would you be happier if he hadn’t bought the players you mentioned and stuck with the majority of the Championship team? Or used players from the academy who can’t even beat Championship sides? Or who would you have bought for the same amount of money he has had to spend?
Do you think he could have got better with the money he’s had?
Stuart79(Quote)
Rafa has had some money. Carr did better.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Carr did better, yes cause the players were promised moves to bigger clubs after a season or two which meant we attracted some untapped talent . He was concentrating mainly on the French market too with that mondial agency thing he had going on. You could argue that we/he was too restrictive in where he were scouting at that time.
I’m totally over the whole players using us as a stepping stone to better things, you could see it in their play many times, they would turn up against the big boys and stroll around against lesser sides.
We may be lacking in quality right now, but the vast majority on the pitch give their all. We have been really unlucky in a few games so far as well, we could just as easily be on 5-9 points instead of just 3.
We will go down, I said that when the window closed, you need ambition, luck and a good finisher in this league, sadly we have none at the moment.
kimtoon(Quote)
What has Rafa done for us?
He didn’t win the Champions League for us.
He didn’t win 2 La Ligas for us.
We have played **** this season. Last year we had a good game against West Ham and another against Chelsea. The rest we were stunningly average at best.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I agree we have been unlucky but we have also played mind numbingly boring football that none of us would go to if we weren’t such fanatics. We don’t deserve any luck playing like that.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eric, it’s boring cause we are not scoring. We are creating chances, just not finishing them, Brighton saw 27 attempts !
kimtoon(Quote)
Kim – yeah but Saints saw 6 and none on target. It’s vastly inconsistent.
Sharpy17(Quote)
KIm – it’s not just the lack of goals. The football we play is plain boring. It was exciting for one half at Old Trafford. I watched us on Saturday and it was dreadful.
However I did stray onto the Mag site and watched a game against Man U from 1972.
The legendary Tony Green was playing (and starring). I’ve never seen him before and I was very impressed. It was all very interesting – pass backs to the goalie and lots of long ball stuff, hard tackles.
georgio(Quote)
Rafa has bought 2 good players – Lejeune and Dubravka. The rest have been average or less than average. I think we need a Director of Football. Man City have one and Pep’s ego is as large as Rafa’s.
Rafa is spreading himself too thin and we are playing cr@p football.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Fernandez?
georgio(Quote)
Ok. Let’s give Rafa the benefit of the doubt on that one.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
To be fair I think he’s got 5 players that would be PL mid-table players – Dubravka, Yedlin, Lejuene, Fernandez and Ritchie. But Rafa has spent around £130m since joining NUFC – and those players aren’t £25m players each – I think their total cost was around £35m.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Rafa has again asked for the fans to get behind the team from the first minute to the last.
Surely he knows well enough by now that the fans turn up week in week out – home or away – Premier League or Championship and do their bit.
If they see their team trying to win a game from first minute to the last – the fans will get behind the team. If they see their team playing defensive, negative football, you’ll hear a pin drop.
Basically, you motive the players and give the fans something to cheer and they will take the roof off.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Watching Chelsea v Derby in the Carabao Cup. Derby have been unlucky with 2 own goals from their CBs – but credit to them, they are back in the game at 2-2 in the first 30mins.
It’s a cracking game, and Championship Derby, with a fresh out the box manager and bunch of youngsters are playing some really good football. They are going after Chelsea, playing the high press and looking to take them on offensively – as they did against Man Utd.
It’s still early days yet and they may loose the game – but god it’s a far better watch than them sitting in defensively and allowing Chelsea all the play – and guess what, their fans seem to be really enjoying it and getting behind their team.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Rafas comments regarding people wanting to see youth development:
“Everybody wants to see the young players coming through from the academy into the first team. But when the team is in the Premier League, it is difficult and when you are at the bottom, it is even more difficult for them. You can put them in a very tough position.
“Everybody is expecting you to be the new Alan Shearer, and then you have no chance”.
I find this absolute nonsense. No Newcastle fan would put any of these kids in the same breath as Shearer.
But food for thought off the back of Rafas latest comments – so when the team is in the PL and down the bottom of the PL it’s too difficult to bring them through – 2 things off that – firstly, we are in the PL and will regularly be down the bottom – so these young players aren’t getting in – that gives them hope doesn’t it?!. What happened to ‘good enough, old enough’ – tell you what, let’s stick with older out of form players instead. Secondly, Southampton and Everton have both successfully brought through youngesters whilst being in the bottom half of the league.
Nobody expects them to be thrown in at the deep end and start every game – but if they are in form, they should have a route to the first team and put pressure on higher paid senior players who seem to be coasting coz they seem to be guaranteed their place.
Last thought on the matter. Why would Ashley place any urgency on developing the youth set up if Rafa isn’t ready to take a risk on these players – incase anyone dare mention Shearer.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Sharpy, maybe Ben Dawson has told Rafa that these players aren’t quite ready to step up to first team yet ? He sees these lads every day after all.
I’m with Rafa on this tbh, I wouldn’t want them thrown into a relegation fight, what a rotten way to start your top flight career and I think it would be chucking young lads under the bus and massively risking their futures.
kimtoon(Quote)
I remember loads of our fans going on about Arma being the next Shearer based off his u23 performances as well, so it does happen .
kimtoon(Quote)
Who knows what Arma might have become if a manager started him and gave him confidence. And Rafa, these aren’t kids anymore, they’re older that Rashford, Foden, Sancho, Sessegnon etc. Lots of teams are giving their kids a chance, even City, Manu and Chelsea, Spurs.
Rafa’s still waiting for Murphy to grow up FFS!
georgio(Quote)
Sharpy – The Under 23 coach has said exactly what Kim has said. They’re not ready. Someone I know went to watch them against Middlesbrough and said none apart from Longstaff looked anything even close to being ready for PL football.
Ask yourself this, Sharpy. Why would Rafa not pick them if he thought they were ready? Does he want us to lose every game and go down? I’m pretty sure if they were ready he’d pick them.
In other news I see Lascelles has signed a new deal. Anybody interested in this? I am not. It’s the clubs way of trying to appease the fans. What difference does it make that he’s signed a new contract? A good offer and he will be gone anyway.
Most fans probaly won’t be bothered about anything until Jabba starts providing Rafa with the tools and Rafa signs a new contract.
Lascelles new contract kind of makes a mockery of the clubs own assertions that players won’t sign for NUFC because they won’t know who the manager is…
Stuart79(Quote)