saintant

He's got a head that he can move and a pair of eyes that can see so he's a bit stupid if he's not using them.

Sorry, must have missed all those matches where he was given a chance to show what he can do.

Why doesn't he simply control the ball and pass it to the player to his right?

And this is why it will keep happening

TM is too stubborn to use Tall Paul as a plan B. He'd prefer to keep passing and doing the same thing thus making us very predictable and easy to defend against. RM has lots of good traits but his lack of a plan B is frustrating.

Not deemed worth a spot on the bench today so how did RM expect to change things when we were chasing a goal? Why can he not see that we need a plan B? We lumped a series of corners and free-kicks into the box and never looked like scoring from them yet we have a 6'7" guy who can head the ball not being given even a sliver of a chance to show what he can do.

You forgot to mention they were down to ten men after 30 minutes and the fact that their goal was an absolute gift.

It was because he is certain to be on big money that could have been channelled elsewhere.

Which joker decided to give McCarthy a new contract and how much is he earning?

I think it's gutting because we gave a good account of ourselves until they went down to ten men. To gift them a goal and then fail to rectify it in 45 minutes leaves a sour taste.

But they had ten men for an hour. That's the point.

You have to ask ourselves if we'd been at home today and gone down to ten men after 30 minutes would we have come away with anything other than a comfortable defeat? I think we all know the answer.

Did you miss that they had ten men for an hour?

My take is that we played well and were the better side against eleven men. The sending off should have meant we'd push on, put them to the sword and take the three points. Instead, we gift them a goal then huff and puff with no plan B and come away with nothing. Failing to get anything against ten men for 60 minutes uses up all the credit for playing well in the first 30 minutes. This is an unforgiving league and we were a soft touch today giving Newcastle 3 points on a plate.

Madness that RM refuses to even contemplate deviating from the one predictable plan. Needs to learn and quick.

This is a poor poor effort against ten men.

We don't have the players for set pieces and corners. Dead easy to defend against us.

Amo is a better option but RM doesn't seem to think so.

Maybe left it a bit late.

Tall Paul might have been a useful option today.

They have always been well drilled at the back so gifting them a goal when down to ten men was criminal.

The way I saw it his options were limited and he panicked. The safe option is to put your foot through it with half time just around the corner.

Indeed. And they score from their only shot on target which we gifted them.

The issue for me is that he clearly had nowhere to go and rather than hoof it the first thought which has been repeated into his brain again and again is pass it don't lump it - hence he made the wrong option.

Don't think people are turning on him. Just pointing out that a goalkeeper shouldn't be made to feel obliged to try to play out from the back when cornered. RM's blind insistence that we do this leads to bad decisions and it has cost us a pathetic goal today when we should have been going in level at half time and confident of getting at least one point if not three. Now it'll be very tough for us.