Kerkez turning his back on the ball and man for their first goal avoiding the challenge was beyond school boy defending. It looked like he was trying to give Guimaraes a piggy back! The guy was literally diving and blocking crosses with his head in pre season so it was especially disappointing to see that coming from him.
3 Likes
Gave me Moreno vibes
2 Likes
It is a bit of generalisation, I have been to Newcastle many times and most of the people were generous and easy to get on with. The crowd that turned up at SJP were emptying their bottled hatred fuelled by loads of lies from social media over several weeks.
4 Likes
Loved Rioās movement for his goal. Found plenty of space and when Szoboszlai sold the dummy, he was on it like a flash, with such a composed finish.
1 Like
Where do you even start with rubbish like this. I get managers sticking up for their own players but he admits to only having seen it once and having been told itās a definite red but then makes up his own story around Gordonās intentions and then calls it unlucky.
Genuine delusion from him and defending a player who clearly intended to do some damage.
5 Likes
They love Gordon?
Heās from the Wirral.
1 Like
Great result, the play to the end mentality that never seems to dio on display yet again brilliant game to watch as a neutral and a coming of age moment that probably wouldnāt have happened if weād actually played well so on the balance of things, quite happy. Some real negatives there though and we should not be allowing the result to paper over the cracks.
Jones in midfield is a black hole for us more often than not. That isnāt going to go down well amongst some sections but he was completely invisible yesterday, again, and missed a really good chance when he decided to pop up. The debate about him has been ongoing for years and while he has had some standout performances over the years theyāre very few and very far between. Playing against 10, two goals up and thatās where the midfield has to step up to control the game. I mean, I keep hearing how press resistant and good on the ball he is so yesterday should ideally have been made for him but again, invisible. At some point we have to start looking for more in there.
The defence. Fuck. To some extent I understand that football has somehow regressed to lumping it in as high as you can aa often as you can but wow. Kerkez was woeful for the goal and what the fuck was that High line for the second while Konate is digging a hole for himself go crawl into almost every game now.
There should be some major inquests after that. Great result, found a way to win but huge holes in the performance.
He should get a fine for that. Justifying violence is incitement to violence. If he hasnāt seen it then donāt comment. Donāt try to excuse something you havenāt seen.
Howe should publicly apologise to Virgil.
3 Likes
4 Likes
I love winning when we play like absolute shite.
Newcastle put everything into this game and ended withā¦
- 0 points
- Gordon banned for 3 games
- Tonali injured
- Joelinton injured
- Player they wanted to sign scored against them
- Narrative of their young striker scoring to be the new hero, only to be robbed by an even younger forward scoring with the last kick.
Couldnāt have been a worse night for them to be honest.
16 Likes
He was unbelievable. Not just doing his own job, but covering for Ibou and Kerkez also. Gordon trying to take his leg off didnāt phase him in the slightest. 115mins of dealing with long throws and free kicks being launched into the box.
If we werenāt so used to Virg being immense, if it was any other CB, there would be much more being said about that performance
6 Likes
I donāt think the two threats will be comparable. Arsenalās threat comes from smart ideas that are well executed. Newcastleās comes from them kicking the shit out of you and the presence of one unusually difficult to manage threat (Burn, who is an absolute giant).
Burn was booked for a foul on Salah that the ref initially let go. He then followed up a few seconds later with an almighty swipe at him from behind that was not in any way a football play. It was just a wild kick and deserved a red by itself. It was one of those rare sequences where the ref should have given two separate sanctions. That whole sequence makes his antics after the final whistle even worse.
I dont actually mind their combative approach. I have a grudging respect for the way Joelinton has evolved from failed forward into indefatigable hatchet man. What I cannot fucking stand is they collectively dont own it when the shoe is on the other foot. Tonaliās dive on the incident where he injured himself needs to be looked at for retrospective punishment such was the brazzenness of his attempt to get Ekitike in trouble. Its difficult to find a group of melodramatic cry babies to compare to this lot anywhere in the world outside of Atletico. If they showed up to play in the Copa Libatadores the opposition players would look at them and tell them to tone it down a bit.
6 Likes
I donāt know about pre 1970, but I canāt believe the club has ever had a better CB.
Heās a legend and in the pantheon with Dalglish, Gerrard and Salah.
7 Likes
Intention aside he clearly lost his head. You have to look at the whole sequence to get a sense of it. Virgil was the third player he tried to close down in that sequence, all of whom he started way too far away from to make any meaningful impact. The result was he started his sprint to Virgil about 20 yards away and refs are always going to penalize that harshly because it is the definition of being out of control.
Howe is excusing it because he is partly responsible for allowing his players to play with their heads on such a wobble
3 Likes
2-0, as a poster (SBYM?) pointed out up thread, is maybe the most dangerous score line. Cruising until youāre not and then youāre lost. Stick or twist? A goal back and winning teams find it hard to collectively shift the mental gears to reset - collectively being the operative word. However, Iām not sure that was the issue as on the whole we tend to deal well with the various pressures of game management.
The high line for their equaliser was odd - odd as I cannot recall a situation where we tried it earlier in the game (may just be my memory..). The only thing I can think of is that it was a ploy to negate Burns threat closer the the box. Did we (nearly) out thunk ourselves?
2 Likes
Felt similar to Bournemouth the oddest thing is someone mentioned time wasting and they could have done, Newcastle had lost all interest when Hugo scored it could easily have been played out perhaps until at least the subs but the goal changed everything.
As for Gordon his intention was to injure VVD and we got lucky, we also got lucky that VAR ref actually showed an interest in it or it could have been another one added to the list.
2 Likes
That has to be the reason but I genuinely dont get it. Weāve seen over a couple of seasons now an acceptance that we cannot outcompete him so instead we want to concentrate on second balls (see Mo taking the MacAlister role of marking him on corners 
). So I think the idea is accept he will get a flick on and force it to come down in a less dangerous area than it would be if we had a deep line on the edge of our box. But it was executed terribly.
3 Likes
Itās most probably a very ggod fake, cause itās a Nike 66 kit btw
6 Likes