OTF

I think his touch was fine actually, wasn't too heavy but it was clear it was a race to get the touch knowing that if he got there first contact from Ederson (and a resulting penalty) was more or less inevitable. It happens all the time outside the box as well . As for evening out I guess that'a fair enough, though for me it's two penalties. You don't not give one penalty because you gave one earlier that was somewhat minimal contact.

I stopped watching after the game, why were they saying it wasn't? Ederson got his foot after Gordon played the ball past him. Sure he played it up, but if you think that's a problem with Gordon you haven't been watching football for the last 30 years.

I wonder whether they'll have anything to say about Joelinton being brought down later.

LTA brought results without performances, her run was up. You have ushered in the rebirth of Eddie Howe's Newcastle. All hail King Gloom.

Deserved result and a great performance.

Why isn't that a penalty?

Well done AG, great timing in the run, good touch and a composed penalty. Controversial but this is the best we have played all season.

Grealish elbow ✅ Schär leaning head ❌

If it doesn't get a deflection off Tonali Pope may have been in with a chance of saving it.

Grealish did get lucky with the rebound from the tackle.

You never know, the bigger sides are more likely to rest players for this as the prize money is peanuts. That said they often have the depth to rest players and still have loads of quality. If nothing else now that it's at home this is a chance for us to try something a little different with not a lot to lose.

Wandered in here for a chuckle.

Howe has invested a lot into this formation and system but it hasn't worked at all this season and much of last as well. Last season Miley fit really well into it. His positioning tended to cautious and he wasn't wasteful with the ball. This season Longstaff, Joelinton and Bruno have all turned over possession way too often. Whether it's unsuccessful dribbles, missplaced passes, poor touches or being outmuscled we've seen them all frequently. When we do turn over possession we've looked sluggish and can't shutdown the subsequent counter attacks. It looks to me like it is time for a new or at least tweaked system. Tethering our wingers back to side midfield roles is one option that brings us back to a 4-4-1-1 formation where we need to be more selective in pushing high out wide. The result of this is also that our central midfielders control a narrower zone through the middle and our fullbacks are less often isolated.

Noone has said it would, and our problems aren't just with our midfield.

I never said he did, they were still all over is but I do think that he improved things and ultimately I feel he needs to get more time on the pitch so he can develop playing relationships with the rest of our team. Quality wise we know he has a very high ceiling, the best thing for him will be playing time. I'm not sure why Howe has been so reluctant to, if it's not working out, or he's tired then you sub him off.

He was trying a crossfield pass to Livramento and totally shanked it.

One bad pass, nowhere near 15 yards over and it's much better over hitting a pass than under like Bruno currently is with multiple balls (included the attempted pass to Livramento that setup their third).

Yup, it's attitudinal not cardiovascular.

This is a bit dramatic but the sentiment is right, our deficiencies are not entirely down to individual poor performances (of which there has been many). There appears to be some sort of complacency or general lack of willingness to contually work hard for each other out on the pitch. It's more evident with certain players but it doesn't happen to so many at once without there being a more central reason. If the heart of the team is gone there's a degree of speculation but it's most likely to be related to the shift in management (CEO, Sporting Director etc) which includes the departure of Amanda Staveley and Mehrdad Ghodoussi. There's no way to walk that back so it needs to be forward fixed behind the scenes. We can only hope that this happens because it currently stinks watching our football club play.

I don't believe he was injured, it was tactical at half time. Trippier was poor, not anywhere near what he is capable of.

Best in some ways but not in cohesiveness or form. We don't know who our best three midfields are in this formation, nor our fullbacks, nor how to fit Barnes and Gordon in together. Isak is not contributing enough, but he's also not getting anywhere near enough service. Howe has persisted with the formation that we played so well with when we finished fourth, but that was unique in that we had Burn at LB/LCB, Trippier as RB/RM and a super strong and ever present defensive trinity of Pope, Botman and Schär. To make the most of the players we have now we need a different formation. A more traditional 4-4-2 possibly, or a 4-4-1-1. This should leave us less exposed out wide than with a front three. The cup game is a chance to try it out.

They could have easily had 2 or 3 more. We were comprehensively beaten and were second best for the majority of the game. I don't think there's any way we could have won on another day with a performance like that. They cut through us like butter, Kid Dynamite was prophetic when he said we'd make the likes of Jiminez and Traore look like world beaters.

Nest Invaders certainly has nothing on Snuggle Bunnies. We were doomed from the start.