Brighton v Newcastle 24/09/2017

[rogerbarton 24]

Makes you wonder if playing 2 up top might be the answer. Gayle doesn't look cut out for leading the line on his own in this system at this level. But playing off a bruiser like Mitro or Joselu he might get himself into the right positions. And he's far and away the best goalscorer we've got.

[Alex 35062]

It might be the answer but I don't think the manager would go for it. I think it would certainly be worth a go against the 'lesser' sides, especially at home. Think you'd get overrun against the likes of Chelsea.

[David Kelly 1244]

Rafa won't play 2 up front because he believes the formation we have best covers us for where we need to have players.  If he moves one of those players to play an extra forward it will take a player from the position he wants them to be in and we will be short.  He might do it for spells if we are a goal down and thinks it worth risking us defensively for an extra forward but I don't see him ever starting with a different formation to what he's played every game for the last two seasons.

 

Personally I don't think swapping an ineffective number 10 for a potentially effective number 9 weakens us defensively but my opinion counts for nothing to Rafa.

[Tdansmith 3259]

On 26/09/2017 at 8:27 AM, ewerk said:

 

To me it was blatant but if there's any chance he might get away with it (and there is) then a manager will defend his player, that's how it works.

 

Anyway, he's been charged with violent conduct.

Three match ban after he lost his appeal.   

[ewerk 30560]

Good.

[Ayatollah Hermione 13860]

Means nowt for us really but at least they're attempting to show some consistency in the early days of the retrospective bans. I give it 6 month until they piss Mourinho off and they get shit scared to do it again.

[Haydnator 45]

Think this game/result has a correlation to last season, in which we struggle to break the shite teams down when we need to. Hence the losses to absolute garbage like Blackburn home and away, Wolves at home, Ipswich away et cetera. We'll do better against the better sides: against Tottenham we restricted them to absolutely nothing before the red card and I'm confident that if Shelvey had not been a petulant wanker we would've gotten a point at the very least from that game.

[Howay 12496]

9 hours ago, Tdansmith said:

Three match ban after he lost his appeal.   

Chuffed to hear that, as AH said it has no impact on us but that rotten cunt deserved punished for his clear and nasty attempt to hurt Yedlin. 

[rogerbarton 24]

At least it'll weaken a potential rival. Looking forward to the game on Sunday actually. Can see us frustrating Liverpool who've been finding it hard to break teams down.