As of now, with injured players not available
Allison
RB–RCB—VvD—Kerkez
Szoboszlai - CM–RM
RF—ISAK—LF
Bradley and Ekitike are of the quality needed and will add to the above when they return,Gravenberch will hopefully reclaim his form from 2 seasons ago but Macca hasn’t lived up to expectations for most of his time here and Wirtz still has to prove himself for us.
Missing out our best pre-season player Nyoni, also Morrison
That is truly grim.
I imagine we can have Muñoz starting above Chiesa though.
It’s the current state of things. There will be moves before the end of the window. I expect at least one winger and one CB to come in. Ideally, that CB can also cover the RB spot.
In midfield, we are ok, especially as Trey seems to develop nicely these days. In attack, we are short as long as Ekitike is injured. It would be nice to add another forward player, or another winger, allowing Gakpo to cover the CF spot.
Sorry but I wouldn’t count on it.
IF Barcola comes in i’d put money on that being the last of our business.
What happened Ricky, you used to be the life of the party in the late 90s - did all that vida loca living push and pull you down?
Probably one of the better ones this. 6/10.
Why does Gakpo have an egg timer next to his name?
Surely if it’s a random transfer rumour which we’ve said we won’t consider, then so should Curtis and Maca.
I mean it’s not great, but it’s not awful either and it’s certainly not this…
The main issue, as per always, is we have 4 or 5 players out at once. Switch Chiesa with Munoz, Mac with Grav (or even Nyoni), Gakpo with Rio and Gomez for Jacquet and it’s an XI good enough to compete.
So apart from goalkeeper, centre backs, full backs, midfield, wingers and attackers the squad is good to go 
Starting line up for Newcastle away is probably
——————Alison——-———
Frimpong—??—VVD—-Kerkez
———-Grav——Szobo———
——————Wirtz—————-
Rio————Isak———Gakpo
Centre back is up for grabs and Nyoni may get the nod ahead of Grav. Not spectacular but a good team for sure. If the core of that team (Ali, VVD, Szobo, Wirtz, Isak) play at their top level and the rest are solid it’s good enough to beat anyone and hopefully win something. A long way from the line-up at the top of the thread. But no need to wet the bed.
When all is said and done , any squad without Slot in charge is an improvement. I’m genuinely excited about what the season has in store for us , and compared to the near death experience of watching us play last year that’ll do for me.
I am not getting carried away with 45 (good) mins of a friendly against a fairly mediocre Monaco side but at the same time, I think this is a bit negative about the second half. Or reading too much into it.
We were without Mac, Jones, Araujo now, Jacquet,and then obviously Leoni, Gomez, Hugo and Bradley. That second half team wouuld have been way stronger with a few of them in.
I agree with the final part that we should be buying better first teamers, but I think it´s not based on anything we saw today.
