Football – 2023/24 Season

To be fair to Spurs, Ange playing that suicidally high line makes for some really entertaining games. Not an accusation thats been levelled at Spurs for many years.

You’d be doing a lot better if Son managed to maybe stay onside once or twice a match, if only for the novelty value

Son was very unlucky yesterday.

Those offside calls were really tight.

Spurs are definitely in the top 4/5 mix. They should have been two or three up v Chelsea before the mayhem, lost v Wolves in injury time, should have beaten Villa yesterday with the chances they missed. I guess that’s what you call Spursy? They’re a good watch.

Yea, Spurs are up there for top 4. I think there will be a really close finish to the season. We weren’t great against Brentford, but winning away from against them is never easy. Rice has been great for us this year, and thank goodness for the Saliba Gabriel pairing.

I’m a happy fan,  spurs seem to hedge moved forward after 4 or 5 years going backwards. In fact they seem to have leapt forward.   It’ll be tight for the cl places this year and if spurs edge it I’d be ecstatic.   We will see if we have a chance come late January…. if players have recovered,  if we’ve managed to buy in the January window,  and if Ange is learning or not

The high line didn’t do any trouble yesterday, bad finishing, bad defending and Son not being at the races didn’t help, the winner was a bit of a crap goal to lose as well, there is no way Watkins should be playing a one-two and getting a shot off with the entire spurs defence in front of him, you could tell you had a defence made up of full backs by their movement at that second goal!

Yeah, no van de ven or cuti is a problem.  We’ve even lost Philips (a nearly/ possibly ready for a try youngster to injury in the last week).  Davies worked OK as part of a 3 cb group under conte but doesn’t yet get what ange wants as a cb pair.

Midfield was missing bissouma,  sarr and madders, bentancur was a quality step in but is now injured.  Its positive that lo celso and Co made chances though.   I don’t know how far off son was,  I didn’t get to see the game,  he ‘scored’ 3 didn’t he?  Some days the opposition defence get that offside line working to arsenal standards, doesn’t mean gambling on when to go isn’t right.   

So there are positive things to take from the performance.  Still feels very good over all. Although with city and Newcastle coming up things could feel bad in a few weeks if you aren’t a ‘big picture’ guy.

Probably an unpopular opinion among toon fans but I really do wonder what people see in Nick Pope.

I tend to agree a bit, particularly ball at feet.

@dazh @theotherjonv
Nick Pope is a goalkeeper, not a CB and he was absolutely superb last night.

Where 8 mins of injury time came from I have no idea and VAR being VARsie.

Any fan of club that has played in Europe for the past decade or so knows full well the handball rule is enforced with ridiculous zeal, the decision against Newcastle last night was par for the course.

the decision against Newcastle last night was par for the course.

Maybe. But can you explain where the stoppage time came from?

Whistle should have blown way before.

Welcome to the CL Newcastle, where decisions like this are par for the course for the big boys, give it a few years and you’ll be getting dodgy penalties and sendings off for the opposition 🤣

Yep, this. Pope was great, as befits a goalie with the third best save percentage in the league. He is average with his feet though, wonder at what point Eddie Howe will deem this as an issue that needs resolved. 

Newcastle were excellent though, hope they go through. 

Yep, this. Pope was great, as befits a goalie with the third best save percentage in the league. He is average with his feet though, wonder at what point Eddie Howe will deem this as an issue that needs resolved.

As someone who’s just watched their club get rid of a top notch shot-stopper to ‘resolve’ said ‘problem’… be careful what you wish for

be careful what you wish for

I don’t want to get rid of Pope. World Class last night.

A goalkeeper’s primary role is to make saves.

Although, the way Newcastle play, a ball playing keeper would be helpful.

I have no doubt Howe will have him working on his kicking.

Yes, I didn’t mean to be overly critical and accept it does come across that way. As a shot stopper he is immense. The areas he needs to improve are his ball playing, that’s a given; I also get nervous when he leaves his box to sweep as he has made some errors in the past there.

But even in that, you have to look at the full picture. Best example is Grobbelaar, who used to come and catch crosses 15 yards off his line and prevent attacks and headers on goal, which as a result didn’t need saving. But drop the odd one and that’s what is remembered more. If he’d stayed at home and a fraction of those had turned into attacking headers, some of which would have resulted in goals – he wouldn’t have been blamed for them. 

Similarly (and Ferguson admits it) – he got rid of Jaap Stam because he missed the big picture – he realised he had got a bit slower and wasn’t making as many tackles and thought his time was up. What had actually happened was he’d got so good at reading the game, he could now intercept before the ball even got to the attacker, and so didn’t need to make tackles.

Except Binners……

No Premier League keeper has kept more clean sheets than Onana this season. No Premier League keeper has a better saves percentage. I was surprised to read this given perceptions that he’s useless……

And he’s better with his feet than de Gea. Not sure there’s a ‘gk howler measurement’ as he’s prone to them, but so was de Gea, increasingly so. 

To be fair to Onana, he’s been brilliant in the last few games. Some world class saves to keep us in games while everyone in front of him… well… have you watched us this season?

Keepers always take a bit to bed in. The first few games he looked very wobbly and there were a few absolute howlers. But what can he do with that makeshift, cobbled together defence in front of him? He’s used to playing it out from the back in a squad that was set up to play like that. Now he’s got Harry Maguire

This Garnacho fella isn’t having a bad week

What were we saying about Onana?

😀

And breathe……that could have been 6-6! 

Well that was absolutely bonkers! 😳

Well I’m glad a last minute penalty wasn’t given in the Bayern game, correct decision. However it then just highlights the inconsistency of refereeing and the ongoing madness of the handball rule.

Yes, I didn’t mean to be overly critical and accept it does come across that way. As a shot stopper he is immense.

Me too. If Nick Pope can continue making critical saves then that’s good enough for me. However it’s still bloody annoying seeing him hoof the ball into touch multiple times per game for no real reason so I’m sure there are better out there, but the toon have much higher priorities in the January transfer window than GK. Either that or just put Lewis Miley wunderkid in goal as he can’t really do any wrong ATM. 😀

Either that or just put Lewis Miley wunderkid in goal as he can’t really do any wrong ATM. 😀

Wasn’t there some odd stat that there were more homegrown players in the Newcastle XI at the weekend than in the whole Chelsea squad or something.

I dunno but whatever the toon are doing with the academy and development team it’s working very well. I can barely get my head around a 17 year old being able to play at that level and not only hold his own but make 100M players look average.

One of the few bright spots recently at United has been seeing 18 year old academy player, Kobbie Mainoo, start the last couple of games. He’s been absolutely brilliant! And like Lewis Miley didn’t look remotely over-awed by competing in the Champions League at that level

Should be a good game on Saturday night Daz. A good old Newcastle v Man Yoo ding dong like the good old days. It’ll probably be 5-3 to someone 😂

England women look like they still have a world cup hangover.

So now Scotland need to lose heavily to England next week for the GB squad (ie both teams) to qualify for the Olympics. Somewhat unusual situation.

Probably an unpopular opinion among toon fans but I really do wonder what people see in Nick Pope. 

Well we’re about to find out. Following on text but sounds like dislocated shoulder or collarbone 

Anyway, more sublime goals being scored for fun at Portman Road…..

Well 1-0 certainly doesn’t tell the story of that game.

Yeah, ManU robbed again 🙁

Yep. Watched in a drinking establishment and I’ve seen better grass growing.

Absolutely dire! Truly bloody awful! I don’t know why Martial or Rashford even bothered going on to the pitch? It’s difficult to see what the point of either of them is this season. They contribute absolutely nothing! Antony is busy making Pogba look like a good buy

I’ve slated him in the past but Maguire, along with Luke Shaw, we’re the only two players who turned up today

I’m so bored of watching this half-arsed shite, week after week!

Said it before, you have a manager that doesn’t seem to have improved any player at the club, and brought in a load of players who are struggling as well. It’s not helped that he seems to fall out with a few, Varane looks pointless on the bench, Sancho hasn’t been seen in weeks, not sure if Hojlund did anything, but having Martial picked ahead of him time and again looks suspect as well 🤣

Look at the opposition tonight, Almiron was a punchline a couple of years ago, Joelinton the same, Gordon had a poor start to his career at Newcastle, Lascelles was almost the forgotten man for a long time, but they’ve all come in and picked up their games to push for their place in the line up.

Martial and Rashford can’t be arsed can they? At least United had £160m of talent to replace them with, in Antony and Hojlund.

One of the more one sided 1-0 wins I’ve seen.

Could easily of been 4-0 on another night.

Rashford looks completely disinterested.

If it wasn’t for Luke Shaw and Maguire it would have been 4-0 or worse.

Rashford looks like he’d rather be anywhere else in the world than on the pitch. Martial always looks like that anyway. Rashford was unplayable the second half of last season. He hasn’t even looked a shadow of that player this time around. Something is obviously very wrong.

Mind you: our two central defenders looked like the only people who knew what it was they were meant to be doing last night. The rest of them didn’t even seem remotely interested in finding out

Absolutely woeful!

Looks like we’re saddled with the Glazers for ever, Ten Hag doesn’t look like he’s got a clue how to try and make it work and we’ve a squad full of expensive, overpaid, bone-idle mediocrity

I’ve slated him in the past but Maguire,

Today’s award for understatement goes to…