newcastle united football club v citeh

[bodacious benny]

Still buzzing after the game yesterday. I can't recall many games where a team outside of Liverpool has gone toe-to-toe with Man City and given them a game like that. I'd be interested to see how many times Man C have conceded 3 goals in the PL under Pep, can't be many. And on another day we could have had 4 or 5 had it been for better finishing. Actually, had the game finished 5-5 you'd have said "yeah, that seems about right". I'm still more than happy with a point against a team who are certainly one of the top 3 teams in world football, yes we were 3-1 up but we were also trailing and showed amazing fight and spirit to come back from the early set back. How many times under Bruce (and even Rafa) were we resigned to losing as soon as we went 1-0 down? It was commonplace, now when we fall behind I don't sit there thinking that it's game over, we know we'll still play and will still go to get something out of the game.

Pope was tremendous yesterday, our MOTM alongside ASM. He was an absolute steal, and again showed his value when he was very quick off his line a couple of times to deny Haaland. We do struggle a bit more with Burn at LB as he's obviously not a LB but that'll sort itself when Targett is back. Will be interesting to see which of the centre backs (Schar/Burn/Botman) get dropped.

Loved how much we collectively pressed them and didn't let them settle, it was backs to the wall for the last 20 minutes but that's not surprising against a team of City's quality. The fitness of the players was evident again with the press we put on them and the amount of closing down we were doing, pre-Howe the entire team were gassed by half-time, what a turn around.

Joelinton and Bruno are forming a great partnership in midfield, you can tell the confidence is oozing through Joelinton now as his touch and some of his movement and passing is continuing to improve (as well as his all action in your face display that we all love now!). I think that Willock has done well in Shelvey's absence and adds some drive from midfield too.

I'm glad that Almiron got his goal, but it did show why we're looking to get a new right side attacker as for all his hard work that we love, in the positions he finds himself in we need someone to score/assist more regularly. But what a position to be in if we get someone like Joao Pedro and then can bring Miggy on to help see out games.

On the left ASM was exceptional, one of his best games for us and a joy to watch. I thought he could be a weak link v City if he didn't fall in line and work with the team but my God, what an outlet he was (helped by City playing their fullbacks in CM). Wilson did what Wilson does, and again could've had a couple of goals. Howe is managing him well too, in seasons gone by he'd have played the full 90 mins but Howe is smarter than that and sees the bigger picture.

Roll on next week and hopefully points at Wolves, and Tranmere in midweek probably gives the likes of Dubravka, Krafth, Lascelles, Longstaff and one or two others some decent game time.

[Colly]

For me Almiron is perfect for this time of game for us at the moment, he puts such a shift in that even when he isn't threatening he's scaring the s*** out of defenders and he was crucial to our press. It's the poorer opposition where I'd maybe not start him where we can be a bit less counter attacking.

On Wilson apparently he'd felt a bit of a twinge at half time so an enforced sub, but as you say a sensible one.

[Colback's Orange Tufts]

Wilson already feeling hamstrings worries me. If we wanna play high intesity he's gonna have issues

and that style doens't suit Wood's strengths

[seaside nipper]

^^^^ this ^^^^^

That’s the negative from yesterdays positive.
Definitely need more cover there

[Don Sholeone]

We knew it was inevitable, this is why ideally we should have already had someone in, considering we let Gayle go weeks ago I think the lack of any forward reinforcements is very poor. We f***ed ourselves by dragging the failed Ekitike deal on from January, feels like we threw all our eggs into that basket.

[bodacious benny]

I don't think letting Gayle go was a mistake, he clearly (even when Wilson was out of the picture) isn't cut out for PL football now. He hasn't even scored for Stoke in 5 Championship games so far.

Wilson has a week in-between games so if he did feel a tweak it's a good rest period as he wouldn't have been risked v Tranmere anyway presumably.

[Donkey Toon]

That is where hopefully we will get the Pedro signing over the line. Can't remember where I read it but apparently the main reason Howe wants him, despite his less than stellar scoring/assists stats, is that he is apparently a beast when it come down to distance covered, pressing and closing down in the final third. Which was a large part of the team's success in the City game. So would appear to be a good fit for that style of play.

[seaside nipper]

That is where hopefully we will get the Pedro signing over the line. Can't remember where I read it but apparently the main reason Howe wants him, despite his less than stellar scoring/assists stats, is that he is apparently a beast when it come down to distance covered, pressing and closing down in the final third. Which was a large part of the team's success in the City game. So would appear to be a good fit for that style of play.

I think Villa’s failure to land Sarr makes the Pedro deal almost a certainty now

[Colback's Orange Tufts]

My word

[Tsi]

They've got off to a flyer this season why are they even bothered what we do saying that a better showing on the match thread than ours

[bodacious benny]

Remember when we used to get massive match day threads

Quality over quantity now

[Colback's Orange Tufts]

Remember when we used to get massive match day threads

Quality over quantity now

Yeah I think fan led nufc channels on Twitter (and discord) have moved people away from forums

[PTAO?]

Personally, it was dealing with Bruce apologists here all the time that pushed me to Reddit, rather than being pulled away. If I wanted to be told I should be grateful for him over Rafa, I'd have stuck to BT Sport punditry

[beatski]

Personally, it was dealing with Bruce apologists here all the time that pushed me to Reddit, rather than being pulled away. If I wanted to be told I should be grateful for him over Rafa, I'd have stuck to BT Sport punditry

Youre on Reddit eh? What are you called on there?

(So I can ban you )

[bodacious benny]

Personally, it was dealing with Bruce apologists here all the time that pushed me to Reddit, rather than being pulled away. If I wanted to be told I should be grateful for him over Rafa, I'd have stuck to BT Sport punditry

I don’t remember many people here wanting Bruce to stay or making excuses for him.

[overseasTOON]

Personally, it was dealing with Bruce apologists here all the time that pushed me to Reddit, rather than being pulled away. If I wanted to be told I should be grateful for him over Rafa, I'd have stuck to BT Sport punditry

I still thought Rafa was a bit s*** as well to be honest. I think it was myself and DT who didn't quite get his allure.

Bruce was never going to impress me either by the way...

[Colly]

There's a lot more than that oT. Much as Bruce was a massive downgrade, Rafa's ability to turn any small achievement into a miracle in the media's eyes was one of his strengths. Easy to forget we only just scraped the Championship win with a very strong side.

[PTAO?]

Personally, it was dealing with Bruce apologists here all the time that pushed me to Reddit, rather than being pulled away. If I wanted to be told I should be grateful for him over Rafa, I'd have stuck to BT Sport punditry

Youre on Reddit eh? What are you called on there?

(So I can ban you )

meganev

[beatski]

Youre on Reddit eh? What are you called on there?

(So I can ban you )

meganev

well played

[Donkey Toon]

Personally, it was dealing with Bruce apologists here all the time that pushed me to Reddit, rather than being pulled away. If I wanted to be told I should be grateful for him over Rafa, I'd have stuck to BT Sport punditry

I still thought Rafa was a bit s*** as well to be honest. I think it was myself and DT who didn't quite get his allure.

Bruce was never going to impress me either by the way...

Yeah, I don't remember my exact comments and can't be bothered to go back and re-read them, but I recall not arguing in favour of Bruce, but more pushing back at the claims/arguments that Rafa had been any better than him. I was arguing against Rafa being a good manager for us and not that Bruce was any good. For most of Bruce's reign I thought they were equally s****. It was just last season that Bruce did reach a new low, but I don't recall there being anything to debate by that stage.