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Poe
Desperate for identity - if we're playing 4-4-2 we need to sign some proper wingers and two good centre midfielders (creative and a DM) as Colback and Anita are just not going to cut it in there (although Anita has been playing well this season).
We're dying for a left back who can actually play football too as Dummett is absolutely hopeless and Haidara is perma-crocked and also not very good. We need a good partner for Mbemba too although it can probably wait until the end of the season if we get the other players in.
Another 4-5 maybe?
Likelihood of us selling Ayoze/Sissoko to fund it is quite high too probably.
Shola
We could buy another Wijnaldum, Thauvin, Mbemba and Mitrovic.
The dream is some real stupid cunts who've seen MOTD come in and offer £25m for Wijnaldum. Imagine that.
8th impossible I admit. imagine as being as good as Watford, Palace or Leicester. Imagine the superstars of World Football at SJP, like Danny Simpson, Damien Delaney or Ben Watson. Unthinkable.
Poe
And we wouldn't have won against Tottenham or Liverpool without Sissoko - he's more important than most people think despite his obvious lack of want to be here.
Shola
Basically if Anita and Colback aren't totally overran due to being outnumbered we've got a chance. When Sissoko comes alive after an hour.
Think De Jong actually looks like a good player now that he seems fit. Which is a positive though.
Poe
They're clearly our two most talented players.
Sell Williamson, Dummett, Colback, Gouffran, Riviere and Obertan and replace each of them with genuine quality in the same position and we'd be alright. 'The squad is full' isn't an excuse if he actually wants to move us forward. Sell some of the shit and replace with good players. That would give us another CB, LB, DM, LW, RW and ST. Over the next 2 windows, then you probably could let Sissoko go if he wants to go and sit on the bench somewhere better.
De Jong is suffering because he's not really an AMC nor a ST and clearly not a CM/CDM - bit like Perez tbh. I'd love to see a narrow 4231 with Wijnaldum, Perez and De Jong in the three AMC spots, proper wing backs providing the width and two top quality DM's providing cover.
Never going to happen though. McClaren and Charnley are out of their depth.
Fuck knows what our new motivational GURU Steve Black is getting paid for, too.
Shola
Steve Black sorts the players personalties into colours. We'll hit top gear as soon as he realises Karl Darlow is a Maroon rather than a Vermilion.
If anything this season has exposed is the manager needs to have more imput into the players bought. The Managing Director and Chief Scout are buying players to suit their tactics. And the manager is playing a different set of tactics. Pointless.
Poe
Wijnaldum and Sissoko are different types of players to Anita but I agree Anita has been probably our best/most consistent this year.
Number 1
Sissoko and Wijnaldum don't work as wide players, so would rather have one in the middle, and also preferably a motivational rocket up Sissoko's arse, even if he's been better than usual of late. Not sure about De Jong - there's some footballing intelligence there, but the fitness issue is a big stumbling block, and he's looked fairly off the pace in all of his recent starts, whereas Perez has looked more able to stretch opposition defences. I'm also not sure on Mitrovic, but it does look like Cisse's extended absence gives him a chance to show he can be the striker he thinks he is. Or to get a stupid sending off and leave us with Ivan Toney as the only option. Either one's likely tbh.
Agreed about the formations thing. Least he ditched the useless 4-2-3-1 tried earlier in the campaign.
I'm more surprised the MD and Scout don't appoint someone who matches their philosophy, rather than the mis-matches going on both with Pardew (although player and manager motivation for being there could have been an issue for both of them) and now here. Then again the claim was Remi Garde was that, although I'm guessing he's more gutted at turning down a then-midtable club now he's washed up at the bottom rung than we are at him saying "Non".
Shola
I dont know just imagine Charnley doodling formations in his notebook and buying players to suit that - and McClaren realising its not going to work weeks into the season. He was lucky Pardew managed to make it work for so long.
Number 1
Colback seems to have a bit of an odd standing - some weeks, he's down as a good player and then on others, he's viewed as a total waste of a shirt. The truth's probably more complex, but I do agree Anita has improved significantly. Attacking from wide is a moot point, hence the confusion over the role's Sissoko and Wijnaldum play I guess - both of them cut inside with Janmaat and Dummett used as overlaps, and while it does kinda work in a counter-attack, there's an issue of vulnerability there. Still, all of them are better options than Gouffran in centre-mid, or the continuing law of diminishing returns that is Tiote.
Maybe that formation doodling is what Graham Carr does.
Poe
Charnley is massively out his depth, as is McClaren.
Ashley for once is blameless - however Charnley is his appointment so I dunno - is he going to get rid of a guy he trusts regardless of how bad he is?
Is there a consistency issue with Wijnaldum? If he scores 4 like he did against Norwich every week he's literally the best player ever - he's been more than good enough for us this season.
Shola
I think our board room looks wrong. Ashley doesn't seem to want to be involved on a one to one basis. Means Charnley seems to have free reign. He's picking the players, picking the manager, sacking the manager. Dictating the longer term aims of the club. He seems to be Chairman and a proxy 'Sporting Director' - I think his heart is in the right place, but he seems to have unchecked power, and seems quite bad at it.
Poe
Sure we were trying 4-4-2 without wingers about 2-3 years ago and it wasn't working?
Number 1
Clearly, something has to change, as what we're currently trying just isn't working on any level.
Poe
Good lord
Shola
Also big up the Carr and Charnley Express - Seemingly eager to sell Rob Elliot for next to nowt and spending £4m on a much worse goalkeeper. Must have spent £30m on Cabella, Thauvin and Wijnaldum and Sammy Ameobi is still the better than all of them.
And when we played a 4-4-2 with no wingers under Pardew - Newcastle went to win 7 from 8 or something.
Shola
And people still believe getting rid of Pardew was an excellent decision.
Number 1
I had no idea how bad it was until that. Totally repulsive.
It would have been the right call if the idiots hadn't fucked up the recruitment of the replacement.
Poe
And I know you're being sarcastic but I'm sure Wijnaldum has more goals and assists in 15 games than Ameobi does in his entire career.
Shola
And it's easy to say he's inherited a better squad or something but this stage last year Newcastle had 26 points and Palace had 16. He's racked up 89 points in the past season and a half non Pardew teams have got 46.
Mark Hughes' has got 54 points over the past 38 games, Koeman 51 points, Martinez 52 points. West Ham 42 points. Pulis 50 points. Swansea 47 points.
Alan Pardew is massively outperforming better resourced clubs. He seems the standout manager of the Premier League, mid table and lower club. Only Koeman is comparable.
Shola
Started 2014 in 8th finished it in 9th. Were 17th. Not comparable in the slightest. And our poor form was a lot down to Remy who basically stopped trying in the second half of the season.
Wijnaldum attacks the ball brilliantly. He does nothing else though. I'm sure you wouldn't take any of the West Brom lot, but at least one of their players but a decent cross into the box. Wijnaldum was up against Craig Dawson, and he completely disappeared after half time.
Number 1
To me, it all looks better because we then gave the manager's gig to a man who is barely qualified to be a coach, and then to a man who is clearly not a Premier League-capable number one because Charnley and Carr are his mates. I didn't enjoy supporting Newcastle in 2014, yet even that poor year is paradise compared to this unending cavalcade of horseshit.
Also Sammy Ameobi isn't as good as Shola Ameobi, never mind Wijnaldum for fuck's sake.
Shola
And does come across as delusion for tipping Newcastle for relegation, when the manager leads them to a top ten finish with the best player leaving mid season and 4 other 'stars' seemingly stopped playing over the season.
Poe
He done well when we finished 5th but was determined to shoehorn our players into 442 or 4231 when 433 was working so well. he wasn't helped by the board only signing Anita after we finished 5th but to go from 5th to 16th is unacceptable.
I dunno why you keep referring to calendar years either - seasons aren't played over calendar years. Pardew underachieved in 2 full seasons of his 3 full seasons at Newcastle. Simple as that.
You're keep pointing out how Wijnaldum is bad which is fair enough - he's playing out of position so is always going to struggle at first/not produce consistently yet keep referring to Sammy Ameobi as better who is a bad player yet playing in his natural position?
Ashley needs to invest more in January, Charnley needs to get signings made quickly rather than drag them out until the last week of January and Carr/his scouting team need to identify players who are good enough for Newcastle. It sounds simple because it is. We could do with sacking McClaren due to his terrible performance but I really doubt that will occur. He will relegate us imo unless something huge occurs in January. That will make it 2 relegations and 2 relegation battles under Ashley - surely he can see his business model isn't working?
Number 1
Either investment is made in January or its relegation. Going further, the club structure and ideology needs reform as its clearly fucked.
The consensus from Cardiff fans is that Sammy Ameobi is shite, which is hardly glowing. Regardless, we have no width as neither Sissoko nor Wijnaldum are any good playing out wide - GW even less - and its even more unhelpful to play both Anita and Colback, who essentially play the same role and have similar limitations.
Poe
Shola
He had a contract here. We could have said no. Newcastle let him leave, just the same as we let players leave. Also 'ambition' we've massively outspent Palace.
He is adaptable with his tactics, he's played 4-3-3 loads. Everyone romantices that period Cisse was scoring loads, and HBA was brilliant, but it was literally 6 games of the season. The next year and people moaned about Cisse on the right. He also played it the next year again with HBA and Remy on the wing behind Cisse.
I agree calendar stats are totally meaningless, I never use them today, as it's exactly one season on. Remember that next time someone point out Newcastle had the most losses of any team over a 15 month period spanning two season. Meaningless.
Wijnaldum has moved inside in each of the past three games. It's quite possible you just haven't noticed. He disappears completely every time.
Underachievement is amazing. The mega fans were all insisting Newcastle would be relegated as we 'only' signed Remy. Newcastle finish 10th = Underachievement.
Finishing 16th was poor, but Cabaye stopped playing, Ba left, Cisse went off form, and HBA got injured. - We didn't get the luck that season, (whereas we did when we finished 5th) And we still at least had a good Europa League run. Which does seem to often cripple mid table clubs.
At the very least the next season Newcastle regrouped.
Number 1
That 19 total is the same also registered in 2012/13, and 2014/15. To manage it once is bad enough, but we lost 50% of our league games in the last three seasons, and that is not something we should accept. The first two and a half of those are on Pardew's watch, so it is a fallacy to say he is not immune from criticism for this period. But its equally not to say he is the sole issue, and clearly this group of players is in a rut, given we've now added another 10 to that total. There also appear to be doubts that this a coaching staff that can get whatever number of points that would keep us up, not least the damaged goods tag that McClaren and Simpson legitimately have over them from the Derby implosions.
We know Wijnaldum cuts inside - that's why there's barely any width on the left flank, hence the recent calls for Thauvin, given he actually added some width on the left flank during the Villa game. Or rather his cameo, given McClaren refuses to play him for more than 5-10 at a time if he can help it. In essence, the main policy is playing a player out of position who is roaming but drifts in and out, which wastes our main threat, and leaves the barely PL-standard Dummett to do most of the wide work. This ridiculous idea doesn't work. To a lesser extent, its the same on the opposite flank, only Sissoko seems more willing go wide, and the barely capable Janmaat is behind.
Least GW is willing to put himself about a bit. Cisse on wide right was an idea only pursued because Ba was a little bitch about being on the left, and it remained insane when Cisse was then moved to wide left near the end of that campaign.
Poe
Pardew is a better manager than McClaren btw I agree with you there, but he needed to leave when he did - just the replacement had to be better.
Shola