Football 2024/25

[Gnomicide]

Seeing as there are about 300 Newcastle fans on here, how do you fancy your chances tonight? I think this could end up being Liverpool's toughest game of the last 10 days or so. 

 

Already beaten Arsenal, Spurs and Chelsea at home and a draw with Man City. Losing to West Ham a blip or is something up?

[charlierc]

2 hours ago, Gnomicide said:

Seeing as there are about 300 Newcastle fans on here, how do you fancy your chances tonight? I think this could end up being Liverpool's toughest game of the last 10 days or so. 

 

Already beaten Arsenal, Spurs and Chelsea at home and a draw with Man City. Losing to West Ham a blip or is something up?

Hey I resemble that remark 😜

 

Truthfully? Not confident. Our attack isn't doing the business right now, Isak is injured with Wilson only fit to play about 20 minutes a time, our midfield seems to be currently trying to fit square pegs in round holes and Liverpool have some kind of strange voodoo over us, not least winning from 1-0 down with ten men in the last 5 minutes of meeting last season.

 

But equally, it's football. I hate making predictions because I'm usually wrong and tbf a Steve McClaren Newcastle beat Klopp's side in 2015, so... you never know.

[thetime]

That FA Cup draw....Ouch. 

 

Although utd did beat Liverpool and City to win it last season. 

[charlierc]

4 hours ago, charlierc said:

Hey I resemble that remark 😜

 

Truthfully? Not confident. Our attack isn't doing the business right now, Isak is injured with Wilson only fit to play about 20 minutes a time, our midfield seems to be currently trying to fit square pegs in round holes and Liverpool have some kind of strange voodoo over us, not least winning from 1-0 down with ten men in the last 5 minutes of meeting last season.

 

But equally, it's football. I hate making predictions because I'm usually wrong and tbf a Steve McClaren Newcastle beat Klopp's side in 2015, so... you never know.

Ok in my defence Howe said Isak hadn't trained all week after suffering a hip injury against Crystal Palace in our last game. Coulda fooled us with that brilliant strike for 1-0.

 

What a crazy game. So close to finally getting a win against Liverpool, equally as to losing it, have genuine cause to be annoyed with the referee for blowing when we were 3 on one at the end, and plenty to ponder. Attack looked way better than recent weeks but midfield feels like it can do a lot better at controlling things.

[FeverDream]

20 minutes ago, charlierc said:

What a crazy game. So close to finally getting a win against Liverpool, equally as to losing it, have genuine cause to be annoyed with the referee for blowing when we were 3 on one at the end, and plenty to ponder. Attack looked way better than recent weeks but midfield feels like it can do a lot better at controlling things.

Waiting for a bus back from the match in the dreary rain so I’ll pass the time with my thoughts…

 

Far, far better than Palace but still some work to do. I thought it was anyone’s game up until about 80 mins until we had a rough 3 or so minutes and subsequently went 3-2 down. Defence is still a worry for me. That third goal from Liverpool was entirely preventable if I (think) Joelinton hasn’t essentially left the ball for a Liverpool player after advantage was given to us. Could have been game over at that point on another day.

 

Right wing also a worry. Murphy often a liability.
 

Agree about the whistle, infuriating because the opportunist in me says we’d have put that in the back of the net if we were allowed to take it all the way. The crowd made their thoughts known about that and rightly so. 
 

My issue is we’ve been here after Arsenal and Man City. Put up a fight against the teams you don’t expect to beat and then drop points to teams you should be beating. Let’s see if this builds some momentum and we can get a result against a revitalised Leicester.

[thetime]

Chelsea are looking impressive, nice run until 25th January after spurs. If they get 3 points from spurs, I fancy them being top come Feb. 

[FeverDream]

32 minutes ago, thetime said:

Chelsea are looking impressive, nice run until 25th January after spurs. If they get 3 points from spurs, I fancy them being top come Feb. 

Think they’ll get top 4 this season myself. I reckon Liverpool win title, and then City, Chelsea and Arsenal make up the rest of top 4 (unsure on order) come May. 

[kaosmark2]

What's batshit is that if we'd just made 2 signings - even "reserve-ish" ones using that £65m budgeted for Guehi, key players would be less exhausted and we could rotate better and this sort of performance would be more sustainable over more of the season. Or even kept hold of Minteh and Anderson. Sustainability rules are batshit and our transfer strategy even more so.

[charlierc]

12 hours ago, FeverDream said:

Waiting for a bus back from the match in the dreary rain so I’ll pass the time with my thoughts…

 

Far, far better than Palace but still some work to do. I thought it was anyone’s game up until about 80 mins until we had a rough 3 or so minutes and subsequently went 3-2 down. Defence is still a worry for me. That third goal from Liverpool was entirely preventable if I (think) Joelinton hasn’t essentially left the ball for a Liverpool player after advantage was given to us. Could have been game over at that point on another day.

 

Right wing also a worry. Murphy often a liability.
 

Agree about the whistle, infuriating because the opportunist in me says we’d have put that in the back of the net if we were allowed to take it all the way. The crowd made their thoughts known about that and rightly so. 
 

My issue is we’ve been here after Arsenal and Man City. Put up a fight against the teams you don’t expect to beat and then drop points to teams you should be beating. Let’s see if this builds some momentum and we can get a result against a revitalised Leicester.

We have a trip to Brentford in-between, which will be tricky given they have the PLs best home form and are very good at scoring goals... not so much at keeping them out tbf.

 

It was a game that could've pivoted in several different directions tbf. We had some great chances in the first half to add to the Isak thunderbastard that we couldn't take, but Liverpool really upped their game after the break. If you're a neutral, it was a good watch.

[charlierc]

12 hours ago, thetime said:

Chelsea are looking impressive, nice run until 25th January after spurs. If they get 3 points from spurs, I fancy them being top come Feb. 

Yeah I really underestimated Chelsea pre-season.

 

Admittedly last night they were assisted by Southampton's ridiculous defending but a side that had seven changes in the starting line-up winning 5-1 is decent going.

[FeverDream]

9 minutes ago, charlierc said:

We have a trip to Brentford in-between, which will be tricky given they have the PLs best home form and are very good at scoring goals... not so much at keeping them out tbf.

 

It was a game that could've pivoted in several different directions tbf. We had some great chances in the first half to add to the Isak thunderbastard that we couldn't take, but Liverpool really upped their game after the break. If you're a neutral, it was a good watch.

Forgot about the trip to Brentford. I was thinking next time we play them is EFL cup but that’s in 2 weeks isn’t it. Yeah that’ll be a tough one, hopefully we get something. Great chance to climb the table too given they’re just above us.

Edited Thursday at 10:45 AM by FeverDream

[Gnomicide]

Disappointed in the end not to win that one, given the mistake that led to Newcastle's third, but Liverpool probably didn't deserve 3 points. Not a bad result on reflection, the derby will now be a nervy one with Everton suddenly finding their scoring boots and our defence unsettled.

[thetime]

Could be a really good race this season. Media over playing Liverpool's lead for me, pundits were saying it's there's to lose. 24 games left and a 7 point lead, far from over. 3 of the big guns ready to pounce, very intriguing. 

 

[kaosmark2]

4 hours ago, thetime said:

Could be a really good race this season. Media over playing Liverpool's lead for me, pundits were saying it's there's to lose. 24 games left and a 7 point lead, far from over. 3 of the big guns ready to pounce, very intriguing. 

 

 There's been a thing of Liverpool have played teams at good times. Not to say they haven't performed well, but if they play City in early October I don't think that game is comfortable. Similar with if they'd played Chelsea later in the season. I imagine there's more but I've not followed every result/timing precisely.

[thetime]

33 minutes ago, kaosmark2 said:

 There's been a thing of Liverpool have played teams at good times. Not to say they haven't performed well, but if they play City in early October I don't think that game is comfortable. Similar with if they'd played Chelsea later in the season. I imagine there's more but I've not followed every result/timing precisely.

 

I'd imagine that's the same every season with clubs to be fair. 

 

 

[kaosmark2]

1 hour ago, thetime said:

 

I'd imagine that's the same every season with clubs to be fair. 

True enough, Liverpool always get an easy ride.

[thetime]

4 minutes ago, kaosmark2 said:

True enough, Liverpool always get an easy ride.

 

Geesh you are so bitter. 😂

[kaosmark2]

14 hours ago, thetime said:

 

Geesh you are so bitter. 😂

Apparently noone's biting!

[thetime]

1 hour ago, kaosmark2 said:

Apparently noone's biting!

 

They didn't win last game..

[charlierc]

Weather has been bad enough on Merseyside that Everton v Liverpool has been canned. 

 

Feels like it's been a while for the weather to get in the way at PL level, let alone such a high-profile contest, but I'm aware sport is not operating in a vacuum independent of the weather. I know it's usual this time of year for EFL and non-league games to get postponed, and indeed several already have this weekend as they were for Storm Bert a couple of weeks back.

[FeverDream]

Well, pathetic performance from Newcastle. Thought we responded well to the first 2 Brentford goals, but everything after than was awful. Give away cheap goals far too often. Think that’s us out of the Europe race now. Teams above us just seem far more consistent.

[steviewevie]

Looks pretty bad for West Ham's Antonio. Hope he pulls through.

[charlierc]

22 minutes ago, FeverDream said:

Well, pathetic performance from Newcastle. Thought we responded well to the first 2 Brentford goals, but everything after than was awful. Give away cheap goals far too often. Think that’s us out of the Europe race now. Teams above us just seem far more consistent.

I don't think the Europe race is out of reach just yet - 3 points to the top six is not insurmountable. But the margin for error is disappearing and if this continues, it will reach that point.

 

Something is really not clicking, whether it's players who only turn up when we play big teams, a defence that suddenly seems quite flaky, the continuing search to play Tonali & Bruno together, the attack not creating/scoring enough, any combination of these problems each week, the transfer market, PSR, Howe's tactics being stale, etc.

[FeverDream]

27 minutes ago, charlierc said:

I don't think the Europe race is out of reach just yet - 3 points to the top six is not insurmountable. But the margin for error is disappearing and if this continues, it will reach that point.

 

Something is really not clicking, whether it's players who only turn up when we play big teams, a defence that suddenly seems quite flaky, the continuing search to play Tonali & Bruno together, the attack not creating/scoring enough, any combination of these problems each week, the transfer market, PSR, Howe's tactics being stale, etc.

Yeah on hindsight I was a little reactive and we still have a decent run of fixtures compared to teams around us. Believing we can get anything from them is another matter though, haha. 
 

I’d like see Tonali back in the 6 position to allow Bruno to push further up. Genuinely baffled he was benched after the Liverpool game. Must have been fatigued (as with Gordon) given he did put a shift in but god was it frustrating not having them start.

 

I am starting to worry about our transfer strategy in going for players like Bruno, Gordon, Isak and Tonali, and I’m not surprised Mitchell said as much when he came in. They’re all in their prime and will want consistent European football and if we don’t deliver that for a second year running then I think we will say end up saying goodbye to 2 or 3 of them.

[charlierc]

34 minutes ago, steviewevie said:

Looks pretty bad for West Ham's Antonio. Hope he pulls through.

West Ham have confirmed Antonio is stable, conscious and communicative in hospital. So that's promising. Hopefully it continues to improve from there.