HKP90

I pray to McGrath you are mistaken.

I’d love Wes to score a brace.

Let’s go, boys! Season starts here. Let’s surprise some folk.

The words criticism and debate can be used interchangably. Criticism does not necessary imply negativity. I think that we played fairly well against far stronger opposition, and that not only was the result fairly positive, but also the resiliance we showed until the last 15 mins was extremely encouraging. The pace of the Prem is unrelenting, and Spurs have some top class players. Anything but a battering under the circumstances is a decent result. It was also a valuable lesson. They will all know now how unforgiving the Prem can be. It's easy to single out Jack for his mistake in hanging on to the ball in a dangerous area, but he was by no means the only one guilty of this, notably elmo in the opening exchanges, who gave the ball away carelessly which led to a shot on goal. All of this is part of us getting up to speed and integrating the new players into the team, and it will come. DS is a great coach, and will get to grips with this quickly I'm sure. That said, lets 'debate' why against a team as rampant as spurs, we played Hourahane instead of one our two DMs, or played Taylor (albeit who had an unusually decent game to be fair) ahead of Targett who has been playing in pre-season, and elmohamady over guilbert who again has been looking promising in pre-season. Don't give a fig about price tags now, that's all been talked to death, but in particular the fullbacks both looked an upgrade on last years personnel, so either DS thought they were off the pace (which didn't seem to manifest in pre-season) or there was some other reason. I don't buy that he was 'protecting the new/preferred players from a drubbing' that was mentioned on this site somewhere, because that shows a lack of ambition that I just cannot square with DS who seems driven. So it was some other reason that I just can't fathom.

I think we get that. I also think that the team selection is open to criticism.

By deliberately playing a demonstrably weaker squad? Playing Taylor is like throwing the game.

This will be an absolute bloodbath.

I hate to say it and pray god I’m wrong but this is a tough fixture, and with a team that has hardly played together I can see us getting battered here. If Luiz or Marv aren’t ready and we play Conor it could be messy. Never wanted to be wrong more. Come on Villa!

Andy Carroll is the most Steve Bruce signing Newcastle could possibly have made.

He has ‘impact sub to break the deadlock in a tight game’ written all over him (in small letters) for me.

Fair. Apologies if I misrepresented your earlier post. Long story short, we both think we'll do OK this coming season, although honestly I feel the talk of mid table or higher that I'm seeing on the forum is over the top. I think we'll be in a scrap. But I do think we have enough quality now to make a difference and keep us up. I'd be delighted if we scraped it next year, and then kick on with the development of our young squad, perhaps with some astute additions to get some more squad depth. I am nervous about Spurs tho'. Hope we don't get spanked as we have a good chance in the following fixtures. A draw for that one would be fantastic.

Well cutting to your point then, whilst I doubt DS would need the reassurance, and I doubt we would come out in public and give it, it would have to be a momentous f*** up of cosmic proportions to warrant getting rid of him. I'm not sure how it would be damaging to give him a 2yr mandate, though. It's not a legal position and plenty of boards have backed managers only to then get rid. Plus the players would not go awol mentally because they know they are going to get another manager in (even though I doubt we have many of those mercenary types left now).

You don't think it's sensible to make contingency plans in case the multitude of promising but inexperienced signings we've made don't meet the mark in the first season and we get relegated? Honestly I think that's bonkers. We're trying to build something here, and if it doesn't come off, we'll be in a stronger position next year than the last 5 or so seasons regardless of what division we're in. With respect I disagree with most, if not all of your points there. Would you really want DS sacked and someone else brought in to do yet another rebuild if it takes time for things to come together?

Think John would be crazy to go to Man U. I actually think we might finish above them this year, and I don’t think we’ll get higher than 16th. They are going to be a car crash. Who would want to be in a midfield with a twunt like Pogba who would moan that John is making his hairstyle look bad, or some other diva bulls***

Engels looks way better at CB than Konsa atm. Looks solid.

Targett makes mistake but makes it right. Nice.

What position is Jota actually playing? He's very central at times. Ripe for a fullback overlap.

To be fair, they've knocked it up a notch this half. I reckon DS has had a word.

Jota's freaking everywhere

Yeah, this is the first I've seen Jota. He's a dervish of elbows and legs. Looks good.

Who the hell is playing now? I have no idea who's been subbed. Ah, didn't see above post.

HAHA. My stream just cut out while the commentator was saying they would bring the "second half in it's enitret.............."

Now they won't stop playing it!

Wow, that was a tremedous goal. The rest of the half was rubbish, and this was the bit we missed. Damn.

Where was Taylor there???