Holmes_and_Watson

Ruin

NJ *is* the next manager. The one after that is a foetus currently coaching a German under 8s team. Rasmus will sabotage the foetus' bid for under 12 team glory, to teach it failure, and despair. Only then, will it be ready to take over our first team. 🙂

Comedy thrives under adversity. If the material put on the main channels doesn't appeal, then it could be problems with their commissioning or the same production companies they frequently use. Or it might just be your personal taste differs. Fortunately, there's loads of comedy venues and online content available for you to find new funny things. The last golden age of comedy had strong roots in radio comedy. Lots of various shows there. The same with music. I don't catch a lot of new music. But it doesn't take too long on something like 6 music to find something I really like, and listen again to/buy. I get the bonus that, by the time I've heard it, they often have a decent bit of material out, so I get to binge. One very mainstream example in a load of other stations, online platforms and live venues. Again, a lot of lasting music comes through adversity. It always has, and there's no signs it's changing. It might not be in radio 1 play lists. But that doesn't mean it's not around. The list of horrible recent things are echoes of similar horrible past events. Some on the list have never gone away. I'd disagree that their appearance has led to the end of either music or comedy. You list 8 that you already like, with some of the Apollo too. That's a decent start. Is there a figure where that becomes a special age of comedy? Would we recognise one, if we were watching it, while at bit of us kept trying to compare it to Fawlty Towers? 🙂

Harry Rednapp's fantasy transfer windows.

I imagine he was bruised after Stoke, and wanted to see if he could recapture his Luton mojo, and carry that into a strong championship season. A premier League job wasn't going to come up often, it was the next step without getting a team promoted, and his back 5, stats based approach matched Rasmus. Not short on self belief, like lots of managers, it was the right time. Oh, and that he'd failed at Stoke, and done a lot of self appraisal over it, was a big hit too. It couldn't go horribly wrong twice, after all. 🙂 He has time to turn it around this season. It would have been far better had he not got the reinforcements in at the last minute. Considering how long SR stuck with Ralph, I don't see NJ going anywhere, if there are some clear signs of progress with the new look attack. We'd have to be getting thumped, *and* have Forest like performances, for a change to happen.

Presser Comparison Site... Press: Could you explain why a back 5 is your preferred choice? Response: Confused face Press: Despite 2 recent goals, Perraud was serving burgers today. Why was that? Response: passive aggressive confused face Press: Despite a couple of months, your players look baffled at your instructions, and can't put the ball in the net. Any thoughts on how to turn that around? Response: Confused face. OR Presser Comparison Site... Press: Could you explain why a back 5 is your preferred choice? Response: It's about the system to best enable us to score goals. It's not about individuals or personal outcomes. It's not about my bosses favouring that formation from their xGC stats, wanting to show horn it in regardless of suitability, and only hiring me as I agreed with them. Press: Despite 2 recent goals, Perraud was serving burgers today. Why was that? Response: It's about personal outcomes. It's not about systems or individuals. Perraud has to learn to develop outcomes that aren't just goals. Such as the outcome of feeding all the hungry fans at half time. Press: Despite a couple of months, your players look baffled at your instructions, and can't put the ball in the net. Any thoughts on how to turn that around? Response: It's about individuals. It's not about systems or personal outcomes. It's all the other things to absorb and use information. They couldn't do it before me, even including those runs of winning, attractive football. My messages of hoof it across to the small side men, are clear and consistent. The players inability to create things from where the ball ends up, is entirely their fault. Hmmmm. Tougher than I thought. I've not taken xP (expected pedantry) into account though.

Like a first match in charge, a manager's first fans' forum doesn't count. NJ has learned from the Liverpool game. 🙂

Jacob Murphy's hand waving, and stupid grin when he was a subbed sub get a mention. Bruno's disbelief at getting sent off, despite numerous fouls and terrible challenge, and general man-child behaviour gets another. Not in the Greenwood class, but still...

😀 Weston had even added buses in the list of broken things. Getting old is not being able to retain information from one thread to the next. 🙂

Like everyone else in the squad, perhaps outcomes will improve now we've actually got a striker. KWP is always first choice. I could see a manager switching the other based on the threat, or if Perraud doesn't offer quite as much support if we're playing three at the back(doesn't seem any worse considering how rubbish that is). Perraud may be unlucky, in that the specific outcomes NJ is looking for are the deep, direct passes from the new Teacher's Pet signing. Rather than getting in at their defence and actually putting the ball into the net. Who would want that, after all? 🙂

Nah. Over there some folk pre judge a manager before his first day....oh wait... 🙂

Don't we still train the police of dodgy regimes? While our own armed forces are a bit tatty, don't we still sell lots of killing things to various regimes? We might not be world leaders in it, but I thought we were top ten... ... here we go...

Every season I visit their forum, they are invariably saying it's the end of their club, they'll never come back from the certain upcoming relegation, the sky is falling in and not even their dugouts will protect them. Perhaps as a fanbase they broadly have higher minimum expectations. No doubt they expected a heck of a lot more return for the huge sums they've spent. They were no doubt dreaming of a Newcastlesque rise, only to watch the car crash unfold. Add to that the vocal minority on forums, a cup of tea, and you have a fun 15mins reading about the apparent end of the universe. They are now failing to sign free agents, and diddling their accounts to massively overclaim the impact of covid, just to stay within the rules. I'd take any 3 to be below us this season. So, not a shred of sympathy. 🙂

If you get to the bus stop closer to it's scheduled time, then it will be quicker. And at a state pension age, it will be free! Not all bad news. 🙂

Sudden

Thanks for that saintscottofthenortham. Good to hear the players are enjoying working with the new boss. When we have won, there have been some genuine looking smiles between players and NJ. I had thought Che was for a move last summer, when we were bringing in new strikers that never arrived. Interesting that it was the other windows, although someone did mention it again this window. Hopefully the new signings will give him more chances, rather than have to put away the few, if good chances, he gets. I have always liked that he just gets on with it.

Luck

I'd like to see them play for a game or two. While it's been an impressive amount of money spent, it took to the last hours of the window to address the massive scoring gap in the team. That's a risk that will take to the end of the season to see if it paid off. Romeu is still a massive loss. Not helped with Lavia's fitness. Baz looks less than impressive, a problem in narrow games. Also emphasised by the strengthening others have been able to do. Lots of money. Lots of players. Yet still weaknesses in the first team, even if the new guys all do well.

For a moment I thought it was going... 🙂 Well Jones hopefully now has better finishing options, so let's hope that corner is really near.

Over a dozen players in plus one on loan, and certainly lots of investment from SR. Certainly a lot more than I expected. Both in number, and cost. Even after all that, the biggest gap is the Romeu one. While I've not seen Baz be atrocious, he's not impressed either, and should be stopping more than he has. Not unexpected, considering his age. But a problem in games where the single goal makes the difference. I don't know enough about our incoming players to have confidence/ or lack of on how they will settle in. Like everyone, hopefully it will be enough to stay up, rather than an expensive stable door with the horses long gone with Ralph. I'd be surprised if every one of the new signings ousted the others as seen from some of the line ups up above. Orsic and Alcatraz haven't set the world on fire yet. It's only fair that it can take a little time. But there's pressure from needing those points so badly. Somewhere in the new lot, there just has to be goals. Broja's finishes and play made such a difference for a spell. If we can even get that, we'll have a chance. Bree was as pants as a lot of the team first half last night. Like the others, we saw some of their strengths in the second. You could see the style NJ is looking for with the long, direct passing. But we only got to see that, because Newcastle's job was done. Watches swannymere reach for the tissues.... Indeed it is. Indeed it is. 🙂

Standard Saints Odd selection, in odd formation that the folk who hired NJ wanted, and RH jettisoned after being seemingly told to try it. Disjointed start, where we get overrun due to lack of midfield or attacking outs. Go behind, and make plucky but futile attempt to get back on level terms. Have at least one decent chance to level it, but miss. We lost that one partly on the team sheet, as we struggled to impose any identity on the game, with that selection. As usual, we looked more comfortable in a back four. But the club know best, and we'll have another losing back 5 along shortly. We did look better in spells of the second half. But that's no surprise as Newcastle already had their goals. The subs nearly all had an impact. But that just showed that Lavia and Perraud should have started. We struggled to get a couple of passes together first half, while our opponents were all over us. We didn't have the composure to beat their pressure, had no midfield to generate anything and no attack getting either service or creating anything, until Adams' goal. We got to see better parts of Bree's game, as Newcastle stopped overrunning that flank. Lavia had some incisive passing. I was pleased for Che getting a goal. It was AA's turn to miss a decent chance tonight. Where Adams is too slow to release a shot, AA could have waited another half second and it would have gone past the keeper. Some poor passing in a rattled defense at times. Bednarak playing team mates into danger was like old times. Poor passing in midfield didn't help us either. Edozie is raw and young, but isn't offering any real assists or creating chances yet. Delighted to see Bruno shown red, as he's been a moaning hacker throughout both legs.

Bree no more effective down that flank, than we were last time. KWP =right Perraud =left In a back four, with a solid DM covering like Romeu, who the club moved on. Dumplings.

Oh heck. Hopefully not serious for KWP. We really need him. Any number of other players, I'd miss a lot less.

AA should have attacked that one.

Oh well done Che! We don't create much. He needs plenty of chances to find one he can put away. But he gets on with it, so credit for creating and finishing that one.