We tripled our points tally from the last four games. Of course our form is on the up. 
COYR YNWA 
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I’d say 5 would be the magic number for that…
Managed it once this season I think, and world cup came between those 5 wins too…
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Well somebody should…taking one for the team there, Dutch!
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Well, until we get there… this did the job against the blue shite:
Twat them, they’re gash!
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Beating the bitters was the start, the first step… This is where we see what these boys are made of…
Got to get at them from the off, show that intensity we did and keep it up till they are battered into submission.
Win this and we get top 4.
With Bobby and Jota back this becomes a bit more tricky to pick a line up. Start with one of them to give them minutes ahead of the Madrid game, stick with Gakpo who is slowly finding his feet in the team? I’d go with Jota, by far the most dangerous of the three when on form. Hendo was great against Everton but I’d rest him for this ahead of Madrid, bring him on later on.
---------------Allisson---------------
TAA—VVD----Gomez----Robbo
--------Keita—Fab—Bajcetic----
-------Salah–Jota–Nunez------
A couple of thoughts from the Everton game, which was a welcome relief from what went before.
- We played much faster and by that I mean we moved the ball on much quicker. We did not dawdle on the ball looking for the perfect pass and instead passed quickly to move the opposition out of position. Hopefully at Sandcastle we can maintain that system and rhythm. My worry is that they will physically try and bully/dominate us - the tried and tested technique that tends to break our game plan.
- We had good position and for the most part looked to have intent… again hopefully it will be the same in this game.
- We were (still) not that incisive when we had “continued/prolonged” procession. It would be great if we scored more when we are camped in the opposition third rather than from breaks and set pieces.
p.s. would still take a 0-1 - any which way the goal comes…
Wow, the lesser spotted Kavanagh.
So we have Anthony “didn’t see it until VAR got involved” Taylor as ref with a clear and obvious cheat on VAR. What could possibly go wrong?
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A petrochemical sponsored club get decisions in their favour?
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Bournemouth 1-1
West Ham: 1-1
Southampton: 2-1 League Cup
Southampton: 1-0 League Cup
Palace: 0-0
They seem to be struggling lately.
Who’s getting sent off first…Klopp or Darwin?
No Gomez 
Fingers crossed it’s just lack of photo.
Though good to see Diaz and Carvalho seems back from whatever injury he was supposed to have, no one else missing that I expected to see.
Hopefully Klopp has some good news on Konate tomorrow. Jota and Firmino still very much involved.
It was much better against Everton, so we go into this one with renewed hope. Obviously we haven’t been able to string much together this season, and on the occasions we have played well, we have typically failed to build on it.
So we are all cautious. Will we kick on and put a run together? Or will we keep stumbling over?
My hope is that we win - it will be a tight game, they give very little away - and then continue to build on it and finish top four. Newcastle are probably our closest rivals for top four, in terms of the teams we have the best chance of overhauling. Three points at their place and it is game on.
I would probably go with the same team, although then I would bring VVD in for the second half in place of Matip, presumably as we will want VVD up to speed for the Real Madrid game.
Bajcetic to continue in the middle. He is rapidly becoming our best midfielder, regardless of his age. Mind you, it is reasonable to expect there will be times when he is pulled out of the side as he continues to develop.
I’m backing Darwin Nunez to score here too. He looks so sharp, so fast, so threatening. It is surely only a matter of time before the goals begin to flow a bit more freely for him.
Hopefully Mo Salah will look for Nunez a bit more, and hopefully Gakpo will build on the last game, where he looked a lot more threatening.
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I think some of that is a function of going back to our “functional” midfield. I love Thiago but for a couple years at our best, the knock was a lack of creativity in midfield. When we suddenly had more of that (Thiago, Harvey), we started losing more control…
Not saying there’s definite causation but there seems to be a correlation at least.
Having a more in-form Hendo certainly helped, but my guess is the tactical instructions were to move backwards in a sense towards a simpler time (for our midfield).
Edit: to be clear, I know Thiago has a good tackle in him as well. I think it’s more tactical instruction/assumptions from other players in terms of movement.
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It was, just watched the “inside training” video and he was perfectly fine.
Van Dijk, Melo, Jota, and Firmino all trained and were not holding back from what I could see. Looks like we have a proper squad available.
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I’m not sure Thiago or Harvey are the problem. The way I gauge our tempo is how quickly TAA takes his throw-ins! This was obviously a bit flippant but it was more universal - from our defenders up to the forwards.
Some Newcastle team news:
Almiron and Maximin have been training and they’re fine, while with Wilson they hope he trains today which would then mean he could be in contention. Lascelles also back, although of course not expected to start. Krafth, Targett, Manquillo, Guimaraes and Willock are still out.
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They’ve been overrated in a relatively shite PL year. We’re gonna smash (narrowly defeat) them!
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