tajjuk

100% agree, said in the match thread that second half Moi was running through on the counter and Armstrong made a run through the middle where he would have been 1v1 with the keeper if Moi could have picked him out but he saw the pass too late and couldn't execute it, whereas someone like Tadic would have picked him out easily. We have one of the fastest strikers in the league but I have barely seen a good ball played in behind for him. Tadic was far from his best IMO for the last two years for us, bar maybe a little improved patch right before he left, but you have to wonder whether the atmosphere at the club and the insipid managers we had caused that more than him, he got a new lease of life playing for Ajax. We basically need to find a Tadic of like 2015/16 Mk2.

New manager bounce? You'd think considering that you can often drive a double decker bus sideways through some of the gaps in their defence they will get a defensive organiser type manager to make them harder to beat and hope they have enough attacking players to score some goals.

No one in that middle pack seems very consistent, 9 teams separated by 3 points at the moment (albeit with some games to play), you'd think if it carries on like this and we can get a good run, maybe some luck with injuries a sneaky 7th or 8th might be available. Leicester don't look as good as they have been the last two years, and none of Everton, Wolves, Spurs, Arsenal etc. the usual candidates for those 5-9 spots look that great either. Seems to be a very clear 3 best teams in the league that are better than everyone else, and then a big mess of inconsistency, sackings, new managers, etc. in the middle.

'sky team' no the club announces it, they literally announced the attendance on the loud speaker. No way the attendance was 20k, whole sections of the stadium would have to be completely empty for that to be the case, 2k people will leave gaps and over 30k for a Friday night game on TV on a cold November evening is a pretty damn good attendance IMO.

Not really, Chelsea absolutely battered Burnley today, they had a hatful of chances and only really got the draw through luck, some poor finishing and Pope being a good keeper. We matched Chelsea for most of the game until the 10 men, and still conceded less shots and had more possession than Burnley did, even though they had 11 on the pitch for the whole game.

I think it was tackle to be fair, he basically won a 50/50 ball and it ballooned up off the other guy forward.

His best performance of the season so far IMO, back to more what was seen regularly last season. Thought his passes were more progressive when it was on, recycled possession well, was always wanting to the ball and his work rate, interceptions and general tackling/harrying caused Villa all sorts of problems. I feel like a lot of our fans might admire someone like McGinn, but I think JWP showed tonight who the better player is. Also key point someone above said, JWP is a very intelligent footballer and has been praised by multiple managers for carrying out their instructions on the pitch, he does the role Ralph asks him to and is basically the manager on the pitch.

Excellent first half, should have scored more and killed them off as they were not at the races. S.Armstrongs miss at the back post was awful for a player of his quality, if that had been a centre-back there you'd be annoyed but it would be understandable, hopefully just lack of match sharpness. Great to see JWP back to more his best, he's been sluggish and a little bit off so far this season, but it almost looks like his enforced break did him good, he was everywhere, even still pressing hard in the 97th minute, he was intercepting, he battling well and his passing was a lot more progressive when it needed to be and he was even popping up in positions to get some shots which I feel he hasn't done for a while and produced a shot almost as sweet as Armstrong's for the goal that produced a great save from Martinez. We just need to be sharper in the final third still, I think we have decent strikers who will score, we just need to get them a few more chances. Like 2nd half Elyounoussi drove forward on the counter and just held on to the ball too long, when he had the strikers running through, one of which would have led to a clear 1v1 for Armstrong, just feel that is what is lacking from our number 10s, they work hard, are good runners with the ball and can take a man on but they lack that vision and composure just to slide a ball through with good weight. You have to wonder had Ralph come earlier what he could have done with someone like Tadic and he might have re-invigorated him. Fair play to Ralph though for the changes, they started humping it with some physical guys forward and he reacted, I thought all 3 centre-backs had excellent games, Lyanco had one little rush of blood to the head charging forward to try to win it and then leaving space behind but hopefully that is something he'll learn you just can't do in the PL, the game is too quick. Aside from that I thought he brought some aggression, aerial prowess and some pressure breaking passes and bringing the ball out of defence, he has abilities that the other two don't have. Salisu was were good overall, bullied their players to be honest but maybe a little laid back at times and Bednerak just quietly and efficiently did his job. KWP was very good too, caused them all sorts of problems but you do wonder whether a left footed player might have created more chances with that space. You kind of see the media talking that Villa deserved a point, but I didn't really see that. We dominated the first half completely, they created very little even in their little spell after half time and the better chances/moments in the 2nd half were still created by us, Adams produced another great save from Martinez, Armstrong broke through and Tuanzebe cleared him out, getting a yellow with an argument that could have been red as I seriously doubt Targett is catching Armstrong at all. Plus as mentioned Moi just had to slip a ball through to Armstrong and he was free and clear on goal. Plus they should have played like 60 minutes with 10 men, though overall we deserved to win. One final minor criticism, McCarthy's kicking is utter crap and creates some nervous moments. We look very hard beat, massive improvements defensively and we have good squad depth to keep up the work rate up for longer to hold on to leads, we look like a very annoying team to play against, just feel we need to create a few more chances to have a comfortable season. I think if we can do that and the strikers get on a run we could easily be looking top half maybe pushing higher, but if not I think we will be in the flirting with danger but probably ok sort of 12-15th range.

Che has 2 in 2 now I think and tends to score in bursts, so I reckon he'll definitely start, plus aside from missing an easy chance last week his all round play was pretty good. I suspect Broja might come back in, he's not been out long so 2-3 days full training might be enough. If Redmond is out then is Djenepo fit? I'd hope Armstrong would come in anyway, but it might end up being Moi and Armstrong.

Yep, they also have next up Brighton away who are playing well, and Arsenal away, who have found their form as well, so they have to get some wins from Brentford, Norwich and Burnley all at home before that run. Even if they win those three, and maybe pick up 3 draws somewhere else, they'd still only be on about 16-17 points with more than half the season gone.

Thing is any decent manager is going to be thinking that you are on a hiding to nothing taking the Newcastle job, stay up with the millions you'll get no credit, go down with their cash and you'll be branded the biggest failure. And going down is a real possibility, they'll have played realistically 21 games until they can get signings in and trained (because they play us away on 2nd Jan, so anyone coming in would literally have to get them in on the 1st Jan), which means even if they get decent signings in and early in Jan, whoever is manager only has 17 games with his new squad, to potentially keep them up. Cos you could easily see them only on about 15 points or something by Jan, especially as they have to play Arsenal, Leicester, Liverpool, Man City, as well as in form Brighton away, Everton away, (and hopefully in form us away). So the games against Norwich, Brentford and Burnley become massive. You want the Newcastle job in like 3-4 years, when they have gone through their 'Robinho' phase and have started to mould into top 4 challengers.

Howe is a project manager, he built up Bournemouth over time, improving players on the training pitch, when he started to get some money they generally recruited poorly and got relegated. Most of them were lower league players who grew with the club and formed a solid core, so I am not sure he's also that capable of dealing with the sort of mercenary egos that might be the only sort of players Newcastle can attract. Newcastle are basically currently a relegation team, their squad is not good enough by the looks of things and few injuries to Wilson or Saint-Maximim, who are a bit injury prone and they are probably Norwich level, so they need someone to quick fix them and get the new players bedded in and working as a team in a better system/style of play straight away. Don't see Howe as that person, they needed someone like Conte, or Mourinho, but I doubt any of them would go that low. So I think even with their money they are in trouble, they have to attract players to that squad, who are likely to be in the bottom 3 in January (as IIRC they have like 5 or 6 good teams to play before then) and probably without a big name manager to attract the players in either, with no real indication of what the project or the plan is, whoever comes in might also need to get like 28-30 points in about 16-17 games as well to stay up. It's a tall order.

That was Hause, but Targett should have got something for an awful flying neck grapple he did on Antonio.

They've done the usual Everton thing, start the season well all their fans get carried away talking about European football and then they hit their usual crap form. I also get the impression with Everton, that whilst on paper you'd say they have a better squad than ours, it's a bit like Spurs, you get the impression they are a bit soft, maybe a bit too full of themselves so they don't grind out results or fight as hard as they should. Doubt they will get a points deduction and if they get Calvert-Lewin back they are not going to be anywhere near relegation. But I don't think them, Villa or Wolves are particularly any better than us.

What are you talking about you muppet? The guy I quoted posted on 26th October, even ignoring Saturdays result his comment was absurdly dumb.

Yeh odd one that, because there is no way he needed to tackle like that, even if not deliberate very clumsy and dangerous. Villa fans moaning the other one wasn't a red but clearly Bowen was in on goal and no one else was getting back, you could see he'd even got into a body position to push the ball back near the centre for the shot on his left foot. Also Moyes was awful at Sunderland and Sociedad, and just not suited to Utd. I think he's struck lucky with getting some gem low cost signings like Soucek and Coufal that really suit his style of play, plus Antonio having this late bloom as a real handful of a number 9.

Injuries, suspensions, poor form, day less to prepare, just got hammered, we are going to eff this up aren't we. Hope Ralph does his homework and they really pressure Mings, he was dropped today for too many eff ups, but will have to play now with the sending off.

I mean overall this thread is hilarious, but posts like this are baffling. Do people like you even actually pay attention to reality? We are 14th, we are just one win from the top half, and we have probably had a tougher start to the season than anyone in the bottom half. Newcastle have 4 points, can I just re-iterate that? They have 11 games realistically before they could put any new signings into the team, (and that is if they get them in really early) and have to play Man City, Man Utd, Liverpool, Leicester, and Arsenal in those games. Plus signings in Jan are generally pretty tough, and who of great value is going to join a team very likely to be still in the relegation zone? Our 15-20 goal a season striker, has 3 goals for Villa, one of which was a pen. (oh and he only got 12 goals last year btw) and is seemingly now injured, with people questioning his purchase for Villa because they are shoehorning him into their tactic. Aside one very poor half against Everton, performances have been generally decent to good IMO, yes chances haven't been finished, but defensively we have been solid, attacking play has been decent and with a little more luck we'd have another couple of wins IMO. That includes games against Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea, and a clearly very good West Ham team. I just do not understand how people can be so negative.

Have a feeling we are this years Brighton, performances a lot better than results, just not taking chances. Really need the strikers to get some goals and get their confidence up, then I think they could go on a run.

One caveat is that Havertz looks like he could be knocked over by a strong wind, physically bullying him is not much of a marker, be interesting to see him against someone like Lukaku. But one thing I noted is he looks like he enjoys defending, I feel that is part of the reason Hojberg is quite successful as a DM, he was up for the fight and liked doing the dirty bits of the game and relished them, Lyanco looks similar, looks a bit of a nutter to be honest, you could see him doing a John Terry esque diving headblock. I feel someone like that is quite valuable to a team, even if maybe he has a mistake in him or two because he'll get more out of those around him and get the crowd going as well. It's the thing I feel is somewhat missing from Bednerak's game, he seems a bit too nice at times. Also let's be honest Bednerak has a mistake in him or two from time to time, so even if Lyanco is not a massive upgrade defensively, if he offers more passing range, more threat from set pieces and bit more passion/leadership than Bednerak then that is an upgrade. Plus Salisu seems a rather calm defender, and you get the impression from many great centre-back pairings that a nutter with a calm dude seems to work quite well, a la Ferdinand and Vidic, Terry and Carvalho, etc. One guy glides around the pitch calmly intercepting stuff, the other guy is throwing his face at everything.

Sheldon in the Athletic.

Wonder if there was anything significant to Katharina watching her first live game for two years last night?

Nketiah scored for Arsenal last night, only his 2nd appearance of the season and is out of contract in the summer. 22, young English promising player, needs more game time and cheap, something we should look at in Jan I reckon, like £4-5 million bid, show him the likes of Tino getting game time and developing.

They seem ok attacking wise but can't seem to defend at all, just leave space and overloads all over the place. 6-0 without a recognised striker as well, Lukaku must be gutted he is missing this match. LOL 7-0. also unusually for Chelsea, every goal scorer is English.

Agree my worry too, traditionally a game we struggle with.