Newcastle Away Sat Feb 18th KO 5.30pm
This topic contains 126 replies, has 16 voices, and was last updated by captkirk 1 year, 1 month ago.
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February 16, 2023 at 6:52 pm #2178853
A week ago I’d be dreading this but it’s amazing what a win does!
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Everton were so close to taking the lead and who knows how we would have reacted after that but it didn’t go in and we won and it was against Everton so MAGIC.
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Newcastle’s only loss this season was against us in August and that even needed a last minute winner by Carvalho (no league goals since). Bobby equalised after they predictably took the lead. Just four league goals for Bobby since. I know he’s been injured but every single season he goes months without contributing but good to see him back training. We need all hands on deck for the second half push.
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Newcastle had Guimares sent off in the League Cup semi-final second leg and he’s still got one more game to serve, this! Yay, because their midfield has lost a lot of bite without him. A chance to capitalize but how many times have we said that and then gone on to f**k it up?
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Three points could be HUGE for us if other results go our way. A win would put up within 6 points off Newcastle with a game in hand and ahead of Brighton and Fulham who play each other if that ends in a draw. I fancy Brentford to beat Palace at home but a slip up there could be tops for us too. That leaves Spurs who are ‘managerless’ at the moment & have a tricky game at home to West Ham who have lost just once in their last seven games.
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But, we have to focus on taking care of business ourselves. Great to see so many previously absent players in training today which changes my line-up as follows:
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Alisson, Trent, Gomez, VVD, Robbo, Henderson, Bajetic, Keita, Nunez, Gapko and Mo.
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This is a DRAW (but three points a must).February 16, 2023 at 8:55 pm #2178870Rob question for you regards goal keeping (for everyone else I am not bagging Alisson, who is generally awesome). On the courses which hang in the air drifting to the back post, is Alisson doing enough?
By that I mean should he come out and, punch catch? When the defender in this case I think Fabhino has been turned around and the ball is going over their head (as it was in the Everton chance before we scored).
There have been a number of times in the season where the ball that loops over the defender and oppositions have scored, could/should the keeper come to meet it?
February 16, 2023 at 10:46 pm #2178884Maybe a bit delirious from the derby but I’ll go 1-3 for this one. Our players should be buzzing and there’s zero excuse to drop back into another lacklustre display like we have seen for most of the season…zero excuse! As long as we don’t concede first I think we will win it quite easily….so it’ll probably be 4-0 haha!
February 16, 2023 at 10:53 pm #2178887Tough tough game.
Newcastle have the best defence in the league.
They’ve conceded 15 goals less than us albeit having played a game more.
They’ve struggled the last coupla games without Guimares but they still need to watched.
They’ve drawn loads of games so far this season (11) with their strength being based on being hard to beat, and my head says a draw in this game too.
Unsure how fit VVD is to start or indeed Firmino and Jota but we should know more after Klopps presser. I’ll hold off on my team prediction until then.
Once again we need to see intensity and aggression, not conceding first and especially not early and no stupid mistakes from the defence, or indeed anyone.
Midfield is a bit of conundrum.
Bajetic starts, I’d prefer him to play the 8 rather than the 6 as his aggression, legs and passing range are much needed there but begs the question who plays the 6?
I don’t think Fabinho was all that great for the derby. He didn’t do anything wrong, but he wasn’t really tested and these will test him.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Klopp went for the same midfield again though.February 16, 2023 at 10:54 pm #2178888Just a question as I haven’t seen a report of the injury but what happened to Ramsey as he looks out for the season…shock horror, who da thought we’d have another long term casualty
Get well soon ❤️ @CalvinRamsay pic.twitter.com/axMD5TVgY4
— The Anfield Talk (@TheAnfieldTalk) February 16, 2023
February 17, 2023 at 6:31 am #2178890Let’s build on Monday with a win here, I’d bring in Van Dijk, if he’s ready and start the same same midfield which was solid and compact.
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Upfront, Salah and Núñez (because of his pace) must start while in the centre, when all strikers are fully fit, Jota is my first choice, but I’d go with Gakpo because he’s ready, has pace and momentum after his first goal.
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Alisson
Trent Van Dijk Gomez Robbo
Henderson Fabinho Bajcetic
Salah Gakpo NúñezFebruary 17, 2023 at 1:11 pm #2179006Vvd comes in for me. No idea what to expect from us but we can’t start slowly. We really need to build on Monday. We have to get going now
February 17, 2023 at 2:51 pm #2179030liverfife, my keepers are instructed to defend the space first and the goal second. In this situation you mentioned, Alisson was in the correct position on his ball-line ready for any ball in the box that he could potentially secure or deflect. Once a keeper chooses to ‘stay home’ which Alisson correctly did from that high inswinging corner (he had no right to come for that) reliance, then, is on a team-mate(s) to clear the danger. This didn’t happen as both Fabinho and Gapko (both not short guys) failed to prevent the header from Tarkowski and lost the 2v1.
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It absolutely all depends on a number of factors when dealing with crosses and in this incident, you hope that your tactics on corners (man to man, zonal or man to man/zonal, which is what Liverpool execute) will deal with the danger. Alisson chose to stay home and defend the goal which was a correct decision. We got away with it!February 17, 2023 at 3:10 pm #2179034This is the right game for us, I can finally see the team clicking a bit now that we have some players back… The league has been really weird this season, just look at the average point ratio right now, I mean City are getting 2.2 points per game and are top of the league, Newcastle in fourth are getting 1.85 per game…
If Bobby stays fit, I reckon we will keep a 2.0 ratio, which is a drop off from previous seasons but we got more players coming back. Jota can give us a further boost so I´m not that worried about the Champions League, at least not yet.
I think we will fight for the three points here and go on a small run finally…
February 17, 2023 at 3:15 pm #2179035Bingo, it is purely week to week with us this season with form, injuries etc. and focus only on the next game and three points/a win.
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It’s all we can do, week to week and hope by May we have accrued enough points.February 17, 2023 at 3:34 pm #2179039There is absolutely nothing since Christmas to show we can go there and win. Everton are atrocious, I take nothing from that game to show wr are going to suddenly click into gear. Let’s see we’re we are after the utd game in 4 games time
Just don’t start slowly tomorrow and concede the first goal
February 17, 2023 at 7:52 pm #2179079Well not entirely week to week, certain players have been putting a decent performance in most games… For example Bobby, if he stays fit we can expect a 2.0 point ratio per game which is not far off 4th place, we also got Jota coming back now and he gives us more options and will give us a boost. I reckon you can see the difference in training already…
I didn’t expect many points at the start of the year but i can see the lads going again now with a hiccup or two but I think they will get the three points tomorrow…
Form has gone out the window this season for most clubs… everybody is mediocre at best right now
February 17, 2023 at 8:04 pm #2179081Newcastle have conceded one goal since November and haven’t lost since august. I really admire the confidence after an absolutely terrible 4/5 weeks and a win againest a shit Everton team
Really hope you are right binbgo and we really push on from here.
February 18, 2023 at 12:16 am #2179106Thanks Rob, follow up question, why are our defenders getting caught out on this type of ball. Fabhino was facing his goal seemed to have little awareness of ball or the man and was caught flat footed.
February 18, 2023 at 3:17 am #2179110433 is not the way going forward IMO. Our quality is stacked in the forward positions. Luis Diaz is an automatic starter on the left when fit. Same for Salah on the right in a front 3. That leaves 1 starter position for 4 players to fight over. Meanwhile in midfield, the quality is lacking to the extent that we’re now reliant on a teenager in his debut season and a couple of injury prone players. The energy isn’t there anymore from the players who used to provide it. There’s no dynamism anymore and we shouldn’t be building around those players at this stage.
Haven’t seen enough going forward from Gakpo but at least he can put in a shift defensively. Read somewhere that Salah and Darwin have combined the most for goals in the league this season. Jota plays better through the middle. I think him and Darwin have the most big chances created per 90 as a partnership. I don’t understand the rationale behind tearing up something that clearly works in favor of something else that is a stop-gap at best and not even a particularly good one. I don’t know where Elliott fits in either 433 or 442/4231. I think moving forward Gakpo should be moved to the right of a front 4, Diaz on the left and either Jota or Salah partnering Darwin. Also Jones has to start defining his role in the team be it as a wide player or a midfielder. He can’t be drifting from position to position without really committing to it. I don’t understand why a naturally attack-minded player is being used the same way Wijnaldum was when we’re using a more attack-minded #8 on the right. Surely that would suit him better.
For this game I don’t see us changing anything. They’re clearly looking for as stable a system as possible so that we can grind out results. We’re in mid-Feb now and I don’t think anyone, including the backroom staff, can definitively point out what our best 11 or best formation is. It’s frankly quite shocking how poorly prepared we were for this season, even with the WC break. Since it worked against Everton, they’ll probably try the same thing again this week. Maybe VVD back in but even then, it’s a risk to start him.
Alisson
Trent Matip Gomez Robertson
Henderson Fabinho Bajcetic
Salah Gakpo DarwinFebruary 18, 2023 at 11:45 am #2179158Sean if you have a close look at our performance especially infront of the goal it goes out the window as soon as Bobby went out, it got worse with Jota and Diaz out but Firmino was one of the few players to actually start the season performing…
He opens up so much space, Salah didnt get a goal while he was gone and the same can be said about the rest of the team, we only scored the odd goal out, wasn’t our old pal OG our top scorer this year until last week?
The lads have also gotten over last season and the world cup and we’ve had a lot of match fixing this season, our games have been postponed and rescheduled so many times and every time it is done we lose 2 points on average.
The FA is claiming they were trying to protect our players with the winter World Cup, we can see how that went. Our point ratio for every postponed match is ridiculously low… We don’t have to deal with that anymore so I think we can go on a run.
February 18, 2023 at 2:41 pm #2179204I hope your right mate
February 18, 2023 at 3:14 pm #2179223Bingo, Salah has scored four times since Firmino has been out(?).
February 18, 2023 at 3:15 pm #2179224Also, what’s the ‘match fixing’ you mentioned? Haven’t heard anything about this. Which games were ‘fixed’?
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Hope this is not ‘Bingo in full on ‘just something to say’ mode.February 18, 2023 at 4:04 pm #2179239Half time scores going our way!
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