Saint86

Whilst we can all agree that players should have tracked back and the defending was shite. I think its important to again reiterate that all of that is the blame of the manager. He put a bunch of players (some of them playing their first games together) in a strange formation, and clearly none of them had any damn clue what they were meant to to defensively. Ralph would have accepted the blame for that first half, Jones exclusively blamed the players.

Agreed generally on baz, and on there being no need for insults! His view was partially obscured for that shot and his defence did nothing. And generally I am with you and Toussaint on baz anyway. He's not that bad a keeper and actually makes some very good saves and often gets the ball pushed away from the danger area, even when its hit straight at him - something that can't be levelled at our last few keepers, he also doesn't make major howlers like them imo. He is also atrociously defended for most of the goals we concede. Often free shots, unmarked players on the end of crosses etc.The major complaint i have about him is when he gets flustered / under pressure at the back and his quick kicking goes awry - villa being a very good example of this. But against that hes good at coming off his line and much better at coming for crosses than macca for example. He's young and will make mistakes, but he's clearly got a lot of potential. Fans are going to have to take the good with the bad because bluntly there is no one else - and we aren't losing games because of the keeper, we're losing them because JWP is our best attacking outlet.

Ralph was blamed for Tino's ACL by some on this forum, despite it already being demonstrate that he was rested in some of the matches leading up to it 🤣

Been skimming over his highlight reels and looking into his stats a bit more. Think he's going to be a class signing, but he is still raw and will be frustrating. Fans will need to remember he is young and will make the wrong decisions a reasonable amount - still a very exciting player. Can see us lining up with Him, Edozie, or Orsic as our wingers and offering a lot more threat going forward. JWP should be getting a lot more set piece opportunities this coming half of the season thats for sure! We actually have a rather solid team now, even with the injuries. Baz is okay despite what some say. KWP, Perraud, and Bree is a decent enough set of fullbacks, with cover from salisu/lyanco and tino to hopefully make it back at some point. Sali, ABK, DCC are three good CB's for midtable prem sides, and Jan and Lyanco give good enough cover ultimatley. Lavia is class JWP is class. And between Alcaraz, stu, and diallo we have reasonable depth at CM. Edozie, Sulemana, Orsic are decent wingers. Aribo, Armstrongs, Ely offer decent depth. Che and Onachua will be enough in the CF role. Shame we wasted a month to get here, and it may be tight, but i think we'll stay up now.

Is that why we we waited until the last hours of january to sign strikers? 🤣

Isn't that aimed at our fans....

You don't need 40points to stay up this season FFS. The bottom 7 sides haven't managed to get more than 18 points with over half the games played. 18th is going to be down at around 34-35 points tops i reckon - certainly nowhere near 40!!! Or if it is 40, then all hell will have happened at the top of the table to be dropping those points to the bottom sides...

Went for 6, and I am surprised to see it being rated so highly by others at the moment. We signed our striker at the very last minute having wasted a month of fixtures. Its also not proven how good he will be at this level, he is a long way short of your Gakpo's and Ramos' re ability and playing experience to date. Not that fast, not great touch, but a beast in the air. The jury has to stay out on him i'm afriad - although fwiw, i do think he'll score important goals for us. Not convinced that our two wingers are significantly better than what we had already, and Orsic has barely featured which is a worry. I think Edozi is our best wide player, and we all hope that the new guy will play alongside him and Onochua in a front 3 i'm sure? Alcaraz i think looks class, but is young and will likely be inconsistent. No CDM, which means one injury to Lavia and its almost certainly GG for our prem status. In summary, despite being happy that we've addressed most of our key targets, we've spent a lot of money and none of the players are proven premier league level ability or necessarily ready to play for us every game. So between the manager and the delayed business, we've ultimately ended up dropping key points vs the likes of Fulham and Forest, and surrendered a cup semi final. None of that should be making an 8/10 month of footballing business IMO.

Imagine we'll see Bree and Perraud - which i don't have a huge issue with. It would be not playing DCC and Salisu to complete a back 4 that will make me mad.

Precautionary substitution, tight hamstring. Wouldn't be surprised if he is rested on the weekend though.

With the greatest respect to Jones, i cannot abide managers that throw cup semi finals. Absolutely unacceptable - Will take while to forgive him for that, even if i can see what he's trying to do generally with the side. But regardless, I suspect we'll comfortably lose this next game and probably see a limited debut from both the new signings.

Its been a while since i played FM, but 9 acceleration and 14pace if below average (for the prem) in my book - you're looking for circa 14on both for an decent prem level? 😅 What i would have done is set up a far post corner routine and let his jumping reach 20, strength 17, and heading 14 do all the work... Reckon that would deliver a goal per game average with JWP on corners 😆 When you look at it in glorified gaming spreadsheet terms, its not hard to see how he could dominate the pro league! He is at the extreme end of the spectrum for physical size and strength. Is it to late to add an FM trigger warning to this as well? 😏

https://totalfootballanalysis.com/player-analysis/paul-onuachu-202021-scout-report-tactical-analysis-tactics TLDR - Good in the air, great at chesting the ball, likes to play in front of the CB's and run back to win flick ons (so runners in behind are a must), fox in the box, bad control (but negated by his inate size), and stamina a real issue - barely manages 60min in the Juniper pro league. Should score us some crucial goals.... but lets not beat about the bush, we look to be transitioning to a Tony Pulis hoof ball style side.

A shame to lose him, one of the best young players we've produced in many years by all accounts. I hope for his sake that he hasn't just pissed his career away, would still have played at a good level in our academy, and would certainly have been on line for first team football earlier - especially if we got relegated. As an aside, not really convinced SR have any real interest in our academy and developing our own young prospects.

Embarrssing for the club that they've been this slow in announcing it...

He didn't blame the formation, he blamed the players. Now we all know that his formation and line up were the real issue here. Yes the players struggled and were poor, but ditto Bednarek and Bree didn't ask to be shoved into a makeshift back 5 with 3 other players they've not been paired with before this season, and no meaningful cdm anchor in front of them. Jones then wonders why the marking and closing down was poor, or why we had limited tracking from central midfield for longstaff etc. Add that to the fact that the whole world understood what atmosphere would be facing the players - and you genuinley need to question his perspective and ability. Especially if he can't see that his team selection and formation directly caused the bad start.

I agree with his press conference but.... The reason we were shite at the start was because he took a load of off form, non match fit, and unfamiliar players.... And shoved them in an unfamiliar formation. That is why the tracking and marking was bad, why the passing was bad. And as manager that is clearly predictable and should be expected, and it's clearly his fault.... But he left all that unsaid. If we get the two attacking players in he will have nowhere to hide if we go down. After 19 games we were 2 points off 14th...he will have signed 5 players and had more than half a season to close a miniscule gap. No way he keeps his job if we get relegated from that position surely? I wonder, if we hadn't changed mananger (and style), would we have had signings in the door circa 1st Jan? I'd have backed Ralph to keep us up with a fit lavia and kwp, let alone with someone like alcaraz and a striker / new winger...

Newcastle had twice our number of total shots and shots on target, and 5 corners to our 1. The few times we penetrated we didn't have the quality to finish the chance. People really can't be dressing that second half up as a good performance because Newcastle simply sat off us and defended/managed the 2 goal lead. All you can say is it was better than the first half. 😒

They're the future of English and European football sadly... The only thing that will maybe stop them now is that they've got to get the best players in the world to agree to live in Newcastle... That or sanctions on Saudi money.

Or stands like a camp tea pot waving bye bye...

I've said it before. Hes fine if he isn't playing at CB. At CB he is an absolute liability.

Newcastle fans are some of the worst in the country easily. They were raging against Ashley for not investing when he spent over £40M on joelinton (crazy entitlement)... They're incredibly toxic when not winning (look what they did to pardew when he almost got them champions league), and they're quite happy seeing any soul of their club / history being usurped to sportswash abuses such as the khashoggi killing whilst they not only lap up the blood money but also dress in Saudi garb... Honestly couldn't name a worse fanbase in the country... And the UK media's bias towards them is equally sickening on that front. I hope man united smash them and they miss top 4.

Bruno G also suspended for their games vs West ham and bompey ffs.

Jones needs to refund the travelling away support himself.

Newcastle just set up shop and knew we carried no threat. Easy to look better when the oppo are content for us to have the ball 😅