Match Day Thread Newcastle Utd v Saints Saturday 28th August K.O. 15.00

I think Lucy has talent, and unless mistaken he has been MOTM in some of Celtic’s Champions League games, so there must be something there.
He still has a lot to do to convince a lot of people that he’s not a flat track bully, i.e. a sportsperson who dominates inferior opposition, but who cannot beat top-level opponents.

 

He has always seemed too slow for the position we try to play him in

I can only think that maybe he would work as the third man in a three with wing backs and our two attackers . But even then I am not sure

 

What a lot of fans forget about Mo is most of the one season he played for us was under Hughes management

 

Did he ever get a pre season under Ralph to be assessed ?

 

Possibly but playing under Hughes It probably took a while to recover his confidence

 

I thought Ralph’s comment in the interview today was revealing. He implied that Mo’s movement in the box was getting him into space and (I inferred) this was not something Ralph had seen before. He then went on to say that loans can be a good way to develop skills that you don’t pick up in training. My impression is that Mo has improved, but the jury is out on whether it will be enough against a PL defence.
I really like Ralph’s pre match interviews because he answers everything pretty straight, I feel.

 

Mo was forced out wide in Hughes 1980s 442 formation which only seemed to highlight his lack of pace/acceleration
As others have said, think he is more suited to a more central role and offers a different style to Theo & Moussa

he also seems like a decent character and a hard worker, which don’t always seem to be traits to take for granted in a professional footballer.

Forgive my naivety on our opponents, but it Saint Max plays mainly on the left, then I’d prefer KWP to return to face him and push Tino further forward to replace the underperforming Theo.

 

Newcastle United fans broke the internet today, after disgruntled Geordies and their Whippets, turned to Twitter asking how could they let Adam Armstrong go then blew £40m on Joelinton.

One of them was Toon legend Malcolm MacDonald, who can't get his head around the club's decision to sell the striker, “Why aye man! It’s crazy they let Adam go, and a year later spent a record £40m on Joelinton, who can’t play, let alone score.” Said Supermac.

Manager Steve Bruce responded by saying “ areet pet, I know Joelinton feels humiliated and has been an almighty embarrassment to this club, but we are going to hit the lad with the severest punishment we can. Joelinton’s back in the team for the next game against Southampton.”

 

Joelinton is mocked but he played all but 7 of the possible league matches across the first two seasons he has been at Newcastle which suggests he can’t be quite as bad as people say. He just hasn’t scored the goals they would expect from a 40m number 9

But Guido Carillo he is not

 

Adam Armstrong looks like a cross between Ings & Charlie Austin IMO.

 

Yep. Looks and plays like a young Charlie Austin but with pace

 

But worth remembering that he also impressed Ralph by taking JWPs slot deeper in midfield

 

Funnily enough he reminded me of a young Shane Long. When he used to score goals for fun.

Hopeful of a win today but we do need to manage our own expectations. Remember although we were split on whether Ings and Vesty's contributions toward the end of last season was good enough, we suddenly saw them both as indispensable once they left. Spin forward .... we lose to Everton and everyone says we're going down .... we draw against Moan Utd and suddenly we are a top half team .... the B team wins 8-0 in the cup and suddenly we can beat anyone! Fans? Fickle??

Yes we can beat anyone on our day, but we're still getting into our stride this season with a new and young squad. A draw would be a good result and given our previous performances on Tyneside, a defeat is not going to be the biggest surprise in the world.

Still think we'll win though

 

Interesting to see a lot of people want to play with 2 RB’s. Personally I would prefer it if we didn’t play people out of position, especially if we’re well stocked.

I like KWP and although I haven’t seen Tino I would be happy for either to start. But not both.

 

Whilst I agree with not playing people out of positions, would Tino be out of position? He can play RB or winger IMO and the two of them are interchangeable during the game. KWP on the left is a confusing one, but if Ralph thinks he is good enough to play there then he is - he sees them everyday on the training ground IMO

 

I`m confident about this one - 2-0 Saints!

 

First game for ages. Travelling up with Toon mate. First time, in a long while, feeling as if we can get a result today. At last we seem to have a half decent squad, with subs that can make a difference in the second half. Just hope St. Max has a quiet game. Still not looking forward to the 17 flights of stairs to get to our end. My request for an escalator has been ignored again.

 

2 minutes until there is at least one complaint about our team selection. My guess is that Walcott will still be starting