No pressure Arnie but klopp played 12 won 12 v the Toon!
I think we draw here or goodison. We are on insane run but injuries will take their toll at some point.
Take it jota is still out?
One would be optimistic. 2 is simply overkill
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Didn’t he lose his first game against them, 2-0. Gini scored for them i think and Moreno had a volley disallowed for offside for us.
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Haha @Walshy07
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the toughest test is always the next match!
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You’ve not been here for the joke I guess.
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I have close friends in Newcastle and the Geordie fam base is losing patience with Howe and they say thats manifesting in games with crowd reaction.
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I can well understand it. Finishing fourth right away under the Saudis probably had them thinking they had cracked it, and would be up there for the duration. But they have definitely slipped back and I would imagine Howe is vulnerable, or will be before too long.
Getting back to being a CL team looks like a difficult road for them. Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Man City (trouble notwithstanding) look probable for top four. Beyond that there’s a group of teams who will all have their own ambitions for Europe, and it includes at the least Spurs, Brighton, Villa, Man Utd and Newcastle.
Newcastle are very much in that second pack.
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Clubs like Newcastle and Villa have to be aware that you cannot be on an upwards trajectory all the time. Howe getting criticism also needs a bit of context of their off the pitch events lately. Plus, the competition is higher than before when Chelsea and City went on with their big investments and targets. Those clubs have not gone away and have risen with time, plus the other biggest clubs. Howe also might look at this right now and feel if he could attract something better than Newcastle. Not impossible. So yeah… they’ve gone a long way with their expectactions in their heads. Not long ago, they were battling for survival. A few seasons later, it’s suddenly pressures all over if they’re not always in the top 4/5 and what, competing for the title? That side still needs improving and time to get there. Win a trophy perhaps, after half a century or how long.
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Absolutely spot-on.
Everyone with new owners aims for a top four finish after a period of rebuilding.
The problem for them is that the established clubs generally strengthen, too.
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Their unexpected success of 2 seasons ago was also significantly driven by the unsustainable improvement in output of Almiron. He went from being an expensive flop to all of a sudden a PotY candidate. He was at the heart of all of their good attacking work and scored 11 goals himself. While that is not huge for a forward at a top end of the table side it was both a big outlier for him and those goals were disproportionately important in the games in which he scored them. His output last year reverted back to his more typical “next to nothing” and now they are ready to let him leave for free. But that match winning impact from the golden period of his career is really difficult, and often expensive, to replace.
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Where’s the early team sheet leak, John?
I think Quansah probably goes to CB with Gomez in at RB for this game.
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Newcastle XI: Pope; Livramento, Schär, Burn, Hall; Bruno G, Tonali, Joelinton; Murphy, Isak, Gordon.
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Good to see Amara Nallo on the bench. How has he been progressing this season?
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He’s cut down on the mental mistakes significantly and has been captaining the U21 squad despite being usually the youngest player on the team. I don’t think he has a bunch of outstanding traits as a player but he doesn’t have any glaring weaknesses either and if his mental errors (he was 16 playing against adults last season so expected) have been eliminated then he’s a player who does very little wrong and coaches love that.
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so isak was supposedly injured and didnt train lol… howe thinks he is being clever
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