The Fish

At least twice!

Would you give Hall and Livramento a full debut or stick with the defence that's got two clean sheets in the last two games?

The new petit poisson will fix it, nee bother. There's absolutely no fucking chance of any more being added to the shoal. I'll go for the snip if I have to.

Is that spelling deliberate? Because, they're their to assist every time you have one of your breakdowns?

What's Silo on? And despite your braggadocio you are at your core, a bottom.

On there they have match threads about our games, some of their members actually watch our U21s play. They have formed opinions on our players, our manager, our sponsorship deals, the way we play, our chances in each competition. I don't know who, or when they're playing. Let alone their U21s. I honestly couldn't name one of their players, I know their manager is Mowbray, no idea who sponsors them, how they play or how likely they are to get promoted. I'd say the majority of them are similarly in the dark about us. Maybe less so because the Premier League gets more coverage, but the majority of them will have that knowledge by osmosis. That, plus it's got to be embarrassing that the biggest Sunderland board was regularly dominated by threads about us, instead of them. I just don't buy that they've merged and hidden all threads about us for fear of upsetting advertisers. There's no way advertisers are going to bother their arse to check on a message board to see if someone has said something about the Saudi regime, right? I mean the most basic level of scrutiny gets applied and that line just doesn't stack up.

Clearly there are Sunderland fans lurking here, but haven't the bottle to actually post. I'd like to think that if they were sound they'd be accepted. Now that essembee has disappeared I don't think anyone would follow them around trying to score internet points or anything like what happens to Newcastle fans on there. There'd be piss-taking, of course there would, but I just don't get the sense we'd be as precious as to ban them or shunt this thread off to a hidden board. Speaking of hidden boards, they claim the only reason their Mega-threads about us go to the secret board is for fear of upsetting advertisers. I don't know enough about website advertising, but is it likely that a thread criticising the owners of their rivals for their undoubted crimes would give advertisers cause for concern? I mean there are plenty of other message boards out there that have threads about us that aren't hidden away. Spurs' Fighting Cock has our thread on the first page of their general football board, so does RAWK. No idea if they're bigger than RTG, I expect they're comparable at least, but they've got advertisers and they don't hide it away. They also don't merge all Newcastle related threads off the front page. And Frankly, I'm convinced that's the real reason, it's that these 10k post threads dominated their board, were constantly at the top of the front page and it's embarrassing. There's a dozen or so regularly spending all their time posting inane shit about us and the rest of the message board must surely be sick of it?

"Kidderminster definitely set out and prepared for Gateshead playing out from the back with the high press" What press?!

Some of them have become quite unhappy. That Binxy saying that this 11yr old thread proves we're obsessed with them, when their last 3 threads about us have more posts in it, and it started in January 2023

It's like choosing between going to Manchester for something, or Bolton. Unless it's closer and what you need is pretty commonplace, why would you?

I have one fantasy involving the royals, and it doesn't end well for them.

You never get "Newcastle's a shithole" patter for a fucking reason. People for Newcastle wouldn't go to Sunderland for a fucking reason. What could you get in Sunderland that you couldn't get in Newcastle? Besides the plague?

She pulling a carriage or is someone riding her?

It would, it would be very stupid.

There are so many factors, confidence, new players, new contracts, etc.

Sunderland wouldn't have beaten their U21s, man. God, the more I see their delusion, the more I want to face them in a cup and fucking humiliate them. Jacob Murphy memeing them from the first minute to the last.

Our average PpDA last season was 9.19 (here ) Where'd you get those stats from? I have this; Liverpool is anomalous because of Pope's red card last season. But in all games we're allowing more passes per defensive action than our average last season. I reckon part of that is our form, part of that is the quality of opposition, part of it will be teams working us out a bit too. I wonder if this comes back to confidence? Looking for that killer ball straight away rather than trusting each other to pass the ball around?

That's awful for him, and them. He was such a outstanding performer for them last season.

I think we put in a 'thoroughly professional' performance against Sheffield, compete with Man City in the League Cup, then turn our baleful gaze to Burnley and raze the club to it's very foundations. Epic poems will be written about the torment and suffering those muggy little Lancashire goblins endure.

Seeing a lot of criticism of Gordon, or Isak, and Burn, but the issues are 100% the central midfield. Sort that out and everything else will fit into place nicely. Bruno's form is improving and yesterday he was closer to what we expect from him, calm under pressure, linking up with Longstaff, breaking their press with a pass or a move. Much better. However, him, Tonali and Longstaff just don't have the familiarity to play the way we di last season with Joe/Joe, Burno and Longstaff. Tonali is a different kind of player and that's taking a while to dovetail with the other profiles. I'm sure had Longstaff not been injured Tonali would have been eased into the side as is Howe's usual approach. The other issue is that teams are avoiding our high press by clipping the ball over it to the flanks. This is where we need a more front foot left back and a more cohesive central midfield. Last season, so many of our goals came from our wide men or striker putting pressure on their fullbacks and centre backs and forcing errors high up the field. So our creative play was beginning 25-30yds from their goal. We need a way to either lure them into playing to their fullbacks, or develop a creative pathway from deeper. Without a true blue number 6 I think we have to play Longstaff as his endeavour and understanding with Bruno makes Bruno + A.N. Other much much better. Our defence was solid last night, but our midfield and attack were misfiring. This is partly due to confidence, partly familiarity and partly due to injury disruptions. We'll be fine. Anyone even suggesting that we should be considering peddling Howe is a fickle prick. We've pasted Villa, competed with Man City, were unlucky against Liverpool, got pasted by Brighton, put in a professional performance against Brentford and, most importantly, gone drew with Milan. In the club's first CL game in 20yrs. 5 players making their CL debut. Several players making their European debut. Without some key players available. Away from home. At a famous old club. To last season's semi finalists. Yes they had 25 Shots but, of those, only 8 were on target, with an xG of 2.2 and a Post Shot xG of 1.2. In other words, they took a load of hit and hope shots, from not particularly optimal positions, and Pope didn't have to make any world class saves to keep us in it. Our best player was Trippier or Longstaff, their best player was Timori. By a mile. Leao was very ASM-like. Calabria didn't know what to do with Gordon and was hooked at half time because he 100% would have got another yellow if he wasn't. Once we get the midfield more confident, assured, and when we get players back from injury or out of poor form, we'll be a much better prospect. We'll do 'em in the return leg.

Where has our on-the-ball confidence gone?

I can't help you out , but I didn't want your earnest plea for help lost in the mire of petty point scoring from these useless gobshites.

It's been merged with their Uber thread, but on what I can only assume is the 15th page I saw this; So, tunstallhill here, is so not bothered about Newcastle United, he's watching our U21s play against Milan on UEFA.tv, and having an opinion about it all.