Phoenix711

I would but we just won 3-1, I think winning I'll cut them some slack. If I was critical there would definitely be marks down in a few positions like you mentioned. but am really happy at the minute. But Everton were awful, Alli and VDB will NOT keep them up. They need Dacoure, DCL and Gray back ASAP.

My ratings: Dubravka: 6 - Solid enough game but poor distribution as usual. Could do nothing about the goal. Trippier: 9 - Excellent defensively and wonderful corner for first and brilliant freekick. Lascelle: 7 - A couple of rash challenges but he mopped up everything. Did not shy away from a challenge and assist for first. Schar: 6 - Not his best game, did not look comfortable but took out Richarlison - worth it as he would have been in. Targett: 8 - Really solid and offered a threat going forward which gave ASM more room. Shelvey: 6 - Not his best game, rash yellow and allowed runners through midfield, was troubled by Gordon and co Joelinton: 6 - Missed a couple of sitters and not quite his dynamic self. Willock: 8 - awful for first 20 minutes but always grows as game goes on. Extra energy was catalyst for the 2nd. Fraser: 7 - quiet first half but took his goal well. ASM: 9 - infuriating first 20 minutes but grew as game went on. Became our only attacking threat but created a lot. Deserved a goal but was the difference maker. MoM but Trippier gets an honourable mention. Key to our survival, could link up well with Bruno with his through balls. Wood: 6 - Had one chance, tries to offer a focal point but it's hard with a lack of runners to support. Could do with a goal for confidence. The subs were all solid, Guimaraes showed a few quality touches, esp the ball to put in ASM. Howe: 8 - he won, so has to be 7 min. Could have made changes earlier but he got the team right. Really happy with the win but that Everton was the worst side to come to St James Park, they were awful.

Yup this is real. I am the judge of real fans. If you think Merson is a good pundit, you're a fake fan. 😁 As for my thoughts on Ekitike, not sure why I used "real", I probably meant "most" as most fans didn't know who the guy was (because he literally only came to prominence a few months ago) and so it doesn't seem that big a loss. I blame Merson, he's spouting crap when he doesn't even know the deal is a loan not signing that's put me in a bad mood. He really hates us. Prick.

Let's be honest, no real Newcastle fan will care if we miss out on Ekitike - the chances of him becoming a worldie are low and if he does we can always revisit the situation. We want Lingard in, if they lower the loan amount to £10m total (upfront + survival fee), we should just bite the bullet. Some people have said he'd choose West Ham over us - for a permanent I'd agree - for a 6 month loan, I'm pretty confident he chooses us for one reason, Kieran Trippier (they're good mates).

Money spent on Carrasco means money that can't be spent else where because of FFP. Look at Everton, Ancelotti got best part of £100m - Benitez gets barely £1m 😂. Just don't want us wasting £50m on an Iwobi 🙂

Lingard doesn't want to come on a permanent, he didn't want to come at all at first. Loan is our only option. If he likes it here, he may sign otherwise he wants to go to London apparently. To be fair, I know very little about the lad but from his point of view, if Newcastle really wanted him they'd have signed him 1 week ago. He's probably also heard the superstars we want to sign in the summer (if we stay up) and wondering if he'll be needed beyond the next 6 months/ develop under Howe. From my point of view, I'm not convinced a 19 year year who has a few good months is what we need. He didn't set the world a light in his previous year in the Danish league (3 in 11) nor does he have a stellar youth record so I am a little sceptical. But I'm not a scout and we just have to trust the recruitment team. Carrasco on the other hand would be a bad buy at £50m+. He's a good player but seeing how Liverpool got Luis Diaz for the same amount and at that price you can get Schick (summer, not now) as well as a few others, I really hope we use the money better. If people don't know, Carrasco looked really good a few years ago, went to China, did ok but hasn't kicked on. He's doing ok at Atletico but he's just way too expensive. He's also 29 later this year. I'm sure most of us would have preferred Botman or Carlos with that money.

He's a decent LB. He went from Ajax > PSG > Leverkusen. Was a starter under Tuchel until they bought Mendes in the Summer. His main attributes are he's big (over 6ft) and built more like a CB. As such he's strong and decent in the air and wins most of his aerial duels. Coming from Ajax's academy he's good with his feet and a decent passer. He's not a bad ball carrier and has a good left foot setting up 4 assists this season. He could be a good signing, as good as Tomiyasu at Arsenal. His main weaknesses are his marking and blocking crosses. When he does have a man he'll win the duel but he can be static in the box allowing players to slip in. And he doesn't get tight enough to his opponents when out wide which has resulted in quite a few goals from crosses on his side. He has performed well this season overall and the couple of bad games were against Dortmund and a Bayern team that ripped them apart. He didn't make any calamitous mistakes but it's kinda like Watford's goal the other day, you have to prevent good crosses getting into the box. Big pluses are, he speaks very good English (as do most Dutch people) so will settle in fast and he's strong so can handle physical aspect of EPL. Main negative is how he will play in a team like Newcastle who will be underdogs as oppose to the teams he's come from (Ajax, PSG, Leverkusen) who tend to be favourites and dominate possession. I still think he's an upgrade on what we have but main thing is that EH thinks he's the right player for the job.

Schar was MoM for me. A couple of goal saving blocks, rock steady at the back and lots of important tackles. Willock was really bad first half, not tracking back and poor touches. Howe and co obviously gave him a rocket and he played much better second half but missed a gilt edged chance at the end and was running on empty, but good second half performance. Shelvey was steady but the goal is 100% keeping error. Much better defensive performance from him. Another star performer was Dubravka. He wasted so much time that it really jolted Leeds who wanted to play free playing football. He commanded his area well and made an important save. Distribution not great as always but clean sheet. Longstaff played much better than I thought he would when Joelinton went off. Wood was slightly disappointing, lack of pace that this team gets from Wilson hurt us from breaking more often. Most of the lads though did really well. Leeds missed Bamford and Phillips badly, one to ruffle our back line and the other to control the midfield. Still, things look a lot brighter, especially after Everton result earlier. We still need some reinforcements. Looking forward to next week/ deadline day.

It's because they only have three centre backs and Kounde (the other first choice) has a back spasm that kept him out last night so they are operating bare bones. They have three first teamers at Africa Cup of nations which doesn't help (none of those are CB). After this weekend they also have a 2 week window free and hence makes most sense for them where they can look for a new CB if a deal looks likely.

Fair points but I think Zapata is a better Striker than Wilson but it's hard to say if he can take his Atlanta form to Newcastle. Zapata can do what Wilson does but he is much stronger physically that he can also do the Wood role. If we're talking about a two, then I can see how Plea might fit better but I don't know how Howe will set up and his scouting/ analysing team will obviously take that into consideration. Plea is definitely more versatile but of the two, Zapata will get goals and goals will keep us up [hopefully]. The numbers being banded about too of around 30m euros for both who have 18 months left on their current deals but I think that's too high for Plea. Also, if Wilson comes back how many games will be left? 12-14? There's every chance he picks up a knock and misses a few of them and we really can't afford our best players to miss any games right now. To be honest neither is my preferred choice for another Striker but I just hope EH gets the players for his formation/ tactics because I want PIF and co to back him and not give him a Hazard and Ramsey and say here you go.

I think the difference is, wealthiest owners = potential, wealthiest club = actual money to spend. And because of FFP, we can actually be outspent because we need to balance the books. Still, there's a lot of hope around the club and talking about transfers is pretty fun albeit a little frustrating. I'm looking forward to infrastructure improvements around the club e.g. training facilities

Don't think Dubravka's been that bad. He's been missing first half of the season and he's kept his errors down. According to the stats he's save us 0.8 goals this season. Replacing him in the summer might be an option cos he's getting on but unless something presents itself, there's no urgency. Wasting one of our two loan slots on Leno would be bad imo. Leno has been average for Arsenal, is a side ways movement (worse stats than Dubravka), is 29 and I'm sure there are much better keepers out there. We should save loan slots for LB, CB, CM or RM/CF. Those are the priorities for me.

I'm thinking Zapata > Plea. At the very least Zapata will suit the EPL more. He's quicker, much stronger and a better finisher. He is 2 years older mind but the physicality of the premiership is more to the 'beast's' (Zapata's nickname) liking. Zapata is also on form with 15+ goals last 3 seasons and 9 this. Plea on the other hand has struggled in Germany compared to Nice with only 6 last season and 3 so far this.

I suspect Dembele will not leave in January, be frozen out and then leave on a free in the Summer. He has astronomical wage demands for a player who can't be fit for 3 games in a row. Look at those injuries, hamstring is a big no for players who rely on pace. My worry is we pay £20m or something for him because he can be a "marquee" signing for the owners and put him on a huge wage. He's a much bigger risk than Gosen who I actually rate and would love here if he was fit.

Its been a while since I've really paid attention to the transfer window (for obvious reasons - my club had nothing to do with it) but you can classify transfers into two broad categories in January. 1. First team players 2. Squad players or players club is looking to sell e.g. contract running out (Vlahovic), fall out with management (Aubamayang) etc The main difference is, in category 1. the selling club will not have a suitable back up and will have to buy a replacement. Given the short window this is hard, come deadline day this would be nigh impossible. Category 2, the club could already cope with the loss. We have been trying to buy players exclusively from category 1 so far because we know these players won't be available deadline day without astronomical offers. Take Seville, they have 3 specialist center backs (Carlos, Kounde and Rekik) and Kounde is currently injured. They are unlikely to sell Carlos without a suitable replacement lined up which would not be possible on deadline day. If they buy a new CB before then it might hint at a deal. This is the case for any player in category 1. The only exception is if an astronomical bid is submitted e.g. 2x the market rate or paying a release clause. Given all this, come deadline day, I think its more realistic to expect players from category 2. This isn't necessary bad, they include players like Lingard, Ramsey and highly rated ones like Zakaria, Kamara and even a few worldies like Dembele (don't want, very injury prone), Sule and Tolliso. Anyways, lets just hope we can get a few more players in and hope the team can start getting some results. tldr: We need to get category 1 players [well] before deadline day otherwise we'll be looking at category 2. And this is why I believe we haven't used our loan deals or got the bargain players yet, they'll still be available come deadline day whilst category 1 players won't.