S-Clarke

When he's on form he's no better than an average, solid defender. Pretty reliable. But when he's bad you just have to buckle up and hope for the best. It's certainly someone we could upgrade on, I think Vestergaard is by far the more refined player. I'd love him to have a better player alongside him.

Lots of time to get players fit/fresh as well tbf.

I'd be tempted to play Salisu for the rest of this season, take Jan out of the firing line for a bit. He is currently a total liability.

Our start felt a bit laboured, took them 20 mins to actually switch on. Not sure it was particularly tactically a problem. No complaints with the changes, we were absolutely on top - certainly in the attacking third, so didn't feel the need for any early changes. I don't think any of the changes were designed to bring pressure onto us, it was to give us some legs up the pitch and on the break. Your point is a bit confused though - you say the changes were slow, and then moan about the changes as they stopped our momentum. As you said, Armstrong was spent - we have to manage him as has been said numerous times. Same with Theo, he's just got back from a long lay off so it needed freshening up a bit. We played with purpose and verve in the attacking third today (after 20 mins!) and that is much like we were under Ralph during the good times, and unsurprisngly that return of attacking verve coincides with the return of our attacking players from injury. The link up play has clearly been worked on during the break and we looked so much sharper in the final third. This is not an 'in spite of Ralph' win as some are trying to make out.

I think that comes with KWP, really. Sadly today it lead to a goal. He does overplay quite a bit, that's part of his game. But he's still very important to the way we press and play down the right hand side of the pitch. We will always concede chances on his side though, just the way it is.

Some of his punches were a little up, rather than away, but he was at least dominant. Little bit nervous when he came running out to meet the ball at one stage, he was lucky there as it lead to a shot - which he saved funnily enough.

Absolutely feels like a Dortmund conveyor belt type signing. Certainly out of our league, sadly.

Another piss poor result for Fulham that. That's the last two games they've had a chance of getting out of the bottom 3 - at home to Leeds and away to Villa. They didn't take either. They won't get many more opportunities like that in a season. Pretty disastrous last two results for them, all being told. Not the final nail, but it's not too far away. But I think this has certainly rubber stamped it to between Newcastle and Fulham, hopefully it comes down to that last game as for pure entertainment that would be an absolute whopper.

That's a strange opinion of what battering is tbh. But each to their own.

On the ball, not great - but his running opens space for us and that's why we looked more dangerous. He's intelligent in that sense, but typical Theo is that final touch/final pass which is more often than not powderpuff.

Agree, that's the biggest plus for me today. As a big doubter of the character of this group, we just came from being 0-2 to win a game and that's as huge as any win for me.

That's not battering us. They didn't batter us at any point of that game. We started off poorly, a diabolical start from us really, but at no stage were we battered by Burnley.

Not the biggest fan of Redmond myself, but that's a bit harsh on today. Thought he was one of our most dangerous. But I do agree, a better wide player would benefit us massively (well, not particular wide - someone who can roam all over). I don't think that's a priority though.

As i said, what did you mean?

Can you expand on that? Bit of a throwaway comment with no context.

After 20 mins, we were much better. Took the game to them, attacked them, moved the ball much, much quicker. We fully deserved that win as our performance for about 60% was good - better than them, created lots of good opportunities too. It's amazing what having a fully fit attacking group can do - Whilst Theo was frustrating, his runs and movement with and off the ball was opening space. Redmond was excellent floating all over the front as well. And Ings was back to his sharp and pest like self. The break has done the attack wonders. Defense, Bednarek in particular, an absolute liability. Vestergaard was ok, but Bednarek needed to go home. That win will hopefully stop everyone panicking now. We'll still finish in the 40's imo.

This is how Jan has been for weeks and weeks tbh. He's a proper liability for us at the moment. He's either a decent PL defender, or an absolute mess at this level. There's no in between with him. I'd be tempted to sub him at HT as he seems like a mistake waiting, but I know we won't.

If we're worried about not being able to defend against Woods, then our defenders are not good enough for this level.

Define battered?

The first 20 mins of that was a disgrace, it was the lack of effort and the lack of winning any 50-50's that irked me. Keep turning up in games like that and they'll be finding new clubs in the summer. But we actually responded and we showed some belief. We started doing what we should have started doing, putting them under pressure outside the box, playing quickly in and around the box, getting down the sides etc. That' how you beat Burnley - you have to play quickly and stretch their centre backs, get down the sides etc. Didn't really want the first half to end as we were so on top, but the 2nd half is going to be different. Let's hope we can actually turn up in a 2nd half for once and turn a game around fully. We've got a chance if we keep the tempo up.

Why are you thinking about substitutes already??

Forster KWP Bednarek Vestergaard Bertrand Armstrong Diallo JWP Theo Redmond Ings Bench - McCarthy Salisu Stephens Jankewitz Tella Adams Djejenpo ------ Back to our start of season strong-ness tbh. Only Romeu missing from that squad who'd be a starter.

What does the performance against Bournemouth have to do with anything? Surely winning is winning, wherever you win a game as well as we did, i'm not sure I can class that as a negative - I'm not sure what you're getting at there. We will need at most, in my opinion, 3 to 4 points. Fulham's form has been overstated. They haven't scored in two and lost to Leeds last time out, a mid-table team. And why do you have more confidence in Newcastle, with Steve Bruce at the helm and no fit attackers, than us? I don't get it. We can do both this year - stay up and compete in the cup, so let's not worry about winning against Leicester. I wouldn't want to be relegated either, but the reality is that it is incredibly unlikely and as rank outside as us winning the cup. (I'd say we've got more chance of winning the cup)

I find it absurd that he wasn't liked by some - he's one of the best CM's we've had in our PL years.

And he was still the best player on the pitch. He didn't 'cheat' that pass.