NEWCASTLE UNITED v Burnley , St James' Park KO 7.45pm (Wed 31st Jan 2018)

[Howmanheyman 32715]

I'm starting to think we maybe should've got a striker in the summer, one that wasn't £5m from the Mark Hughes bargain bin, (Stoke branch). Who'd have guessed?

[Howay 12496]

49 minutes ago, David Kelly said:

I thought Atsu and Yedlin were fucking terrible last night. Diame was good though and his recent performances have been quite pleasing.  Unsurprisingly they've happened when he's played in midfield instead of as a number 10. 

 

Hopefully Slimani is fit enough to play some part on Sunday and we play Kenedy and Murphy on the wings.  That might give us some hope of getting something out of the game.

Aye Diame has really improved in recent performances. I agree that CM suits him far more than the number 10 role, having Jamaal try and give you a kicking probably helps the motivation as well. 

I liked the look of Kenedy, he does seem to have a spark of creativity that the majority of our squad lack. Overall we deserved the win so it’s frustrating to miss out again due to poor finishing, as you mention hopefully Slimani can come in to the side soon and he can start putting away some of these chances. 

[ewerk 30240]

Christ, Diame has really lowered expectations if his performance last night is drawing any sort of praise.

[David Kelly 1221]

He was our best player for me, and most people I spoke to at the match.  I mean all our expectations have been lowered massively in the last ten years but he's doing a decent job at the moment.  Certainly looks better than Hayden.

[ewerk 30240]

Maybe I'm blinded by the fact I think he's worthless as a footballer but I saw misplaced passes and a failure to track Ashley Barnes at the throw in for the chance when he was through on goal.

[Ayatollah Hermione 13793]

He was head and shoulders above Merino and not even sure how that's disputable. As for the match, it's becoming more and more frustrating when we simply cannot finish chances. Not sure I've ever seen owt like Joselu, every single shot is a scuff. How many is that he's missed now and how many points has it cost? As always, the blame lands at Ashley for only sanctioning 5 million quid for a striker but fuck me, some of the chances he's missed. 

 

Anyway, thought we were well worthy of three points there but we basically gave them every chance to come back into it and fair play, they did. It seemed that as soon as Joselu missed that one-on-one, Burnley collectively went "Right, we'll get something here" and we collectively went "Oh, fucking hell, we're fucked" They had height, strength and pace off the bench and how damning is it that we can't even offer that off the bench? It was ugly but against tired minds and legs, it works. Especially against a team whose confidence is pretty much shot and needs a strong win on Saturday. Diame was, and has been, excellent; he was making tackles, finding the kinds of passes that Shelvey does and was covering for a lot of Merino's fuck ups until he tired late on. Kenedy looks promising; good left foot, always has his head up and can whip a corner in. Hopefully he can find Lascelles/Clark/Slimani as the season goes on. Atsu looked injured to me, either that or he couldn't be arsed. Dummett had another solid game defensively but whenever he tries to actually play football, it's canny embarrassing. He definitely needs to stick to the back half of the pitch and let Kenedy and Perez cover the attacking down that side. In all, another one where you leave thinking that we had to try harder to lose it than win.

 

And after all that, we actually ended this game week higher than we started  We could well fluke our way to safety yet.

[David Kelly 1221]

1 hour ago, Ayatollah Hermione said:

He was head and shoulders above Merino and not even sure how that's disputable. As for the match, it's becoming more and more frustrating when we simply cannot finish chances. Not sure I've ever seen owt like Joselu, every single shot is a scuff. How many is that he's missed now and how many points has it cost? As always, the blame lands at Ashley for only sanctioning 5 million quid for a striker but fuck me, some of the chances he's missed. 

 

Anyway, thought we were well worthy of three points there but we basically gave them every chance to come back into it and fair play, they did. It seemed that as soon as Joselu missed that one-on-one, Burnley collectively went "Right, we'll get something here" and we collectively went "Oh, fucking hell, we're fucked" They had height, strength and pace off the bench and how damning is it that we can't even offer that off the bench? It was ugly but against tired minds and legs, it works. Especially against a team whose confidence is pretty much shot and needs a strong win on Saturday. Diame was, and has been, excellent; he was making tackles, finding the kinds of passes that Shelvey does and was covering for a lot of Merino's fuck ups until he tired late on. Kenedy looks promising; good left foot, always has his head up and can whip a corner in. Hopefully he can find Lascelles/Clark/Slimani as the season goes on. Atsu looked injured to me, either that or he couldn't be arsed. Dummett had another solid game defensively but whenever he tries to actually play football, it's canny embarrassing. He definitely needs to stick to the back half of the pitch and let Kenedy and Perez cover the attacking down that side. In all, another one where you leave thinking that we had to try harder to lose it than win.

 

And after all that, we actually ended this game week higher than we started  We could well fluke our way to safety yet.

Would agree with most of that.  I would say that I thought Merino, while not at his best, was better than you seemed to think he was.  The amount of times the rest of the team play awful balls to him because he's the only player we have with good control is ridiculous.  He get's dropped in the shit a lot but fortunately manages to get out of it most of the time.

 

What you say about the bench is interesting.  The lad next to me regularly bleats on about Rafa not having a plan b and not making changes off the bench.  But we don't have anything to bring on that's any different to what we have.  But then anyone with eyes can see the squad is just not up to scratch.

[essembeeofsunderland 811]

Are we to believe that Rafa had been impressed with what he had seen of Joseph prior to signing him

[Dr Gloom 21809]

i wouldn't have thought he was his first choice, but when you're told you have £5m to spend on a striker....

 

[adios 717]

Diamé defo one of the best performers out there last night.

[Howay 12496]

2 hours ago, Dr Gloom said:

i wouldn't have thought he was his first choice, but when you're told you have £5m to spend on a striker....

 

Aye, I think he was intended to be back up.  Rafa probably then expected to get a properly priced player of a similar mould (like Slimani I guess) in the summer but ran up against the wall of incompetence that is Lee Charnley aka Ashley’s bullshit excuse for why he’s such a fucking tight cunt “oh I fort Lee would sort it ahht I was away on ‘oliday like I ahm every transfer window”. 

[Tom 14011]

We don't have a plan B and tbh Rafa's actual plan a is probably a couple of hundred million pounds worth of players away  

 

So given what he was promised and what he got. Proportionately he's looking for a plan F to come off the bench but we haven't even got that.

[Dr Gloom 21809]

I havent been a big fan of diame since he’s been at the club bit fair play, he was one of our better players last night. And he looks loads better playing deeper than as a number 10

[Anorthernsoul 1221]

Forgot to mention I got my cock deep throated by wor lass last night after playing the downhearted card after another disappointing result so thanks Joselu, well played.

[Tdansmith 3207]

I'm surprised the stewards didn't kick you both out.

[Slayer 3]

4 hours ago, Anorthernsoul said:

Forgot to mention I got my cock deep throated by wor lass last night after playing the downhearted card after another disappointing result so thanks Joselu, well played.

Lucky bastard. I only get one if we win at home by two goals or more. 

[Noelie 103]

4 hours ago, Anorthernsoul said:

Forgot to mention I got my cock deep throated by wor lass last night after playing the downhearted card after another disappointing result so thanks Joselu, well played.

 

 

Is her name Linda?

[Noelie 103]

3 minutes ago, Slayer said:

Lucky bastard. I only get one if we win at home by two goals or more. 

 

No doubt you have high hopes now we've got another striker.

[Anorthernsoul 1221]

15 hours ago, Tdansmith said:

I'm surprised the stewards didn't kick you both out.

 

Touche!