Football 2025-26

[Skip997]

5 hours ago, thetime said:

Liverpool fans gone back in hibernation on here, who would of thought hey. 

 

Hands up if anyone in August, thought Slot would be getting sacked before Amorim. 

 

Massive game for Liverpool v Villa. I know Klopp liked an excuse, but slots been reeling them off in the last week. 😃

 

 

Slot wouldn’t even got to the post MU interview if I was in charge. Yes there’s extenuating circumstances, but he’s making mistake after mistake that even a Sunday league manager wouldn’t.

 

Always feared Isak may have been a mistake, especially at that price. We even had opportunity to back down after seeing how quickly the other lad settled in.

[Skip997]

3 hours ago, Gnomicide said:

 

Still here. I'll do a summary of how things have gone so far this season.

 

Start felt great, though a little worrying with all the last minute winners. Felt like we would actually sort that out and things would click into place.

 

Dear reader, it didn't. Turns out we can't defend, who'd a thunk it? I still think things will turn round, but the league has gone. If we can hang on to the knock out rounds of the Champions League, there's something to aim at. But I think this will just be a transition season. 

 

It would be interesting to see how things were looking if they'd got that Guéhi transfer over the line.

Guehi should have been the absolute priority. We should have said no to Isak.

[charlierc]

2 hours ago, Skip997 said:

Slot wouldn’t even got to the post MU interview if I was in charge. Yes there’s extenuating circumstances, but he’s making mistake after mistake that even a Sunday league manager wouldn’t.

 

Always feared Isak may have been a mistake, especially at that price. We even had opportunity to back down after seeing how quickly the other lad settled in.

Certainly a week that's coming up of Villa, Real Madrid and Man City feels like a real high-pressure trilogy to have to go for. Win the three and can just dismiss it as a weird blip like the one Man City had last season. Lose the lot and then the heat gets turned up. I don't think Liverpool will rush to sacking him but he does need a result quickly.

[thetime]

Its a bit meaningless, anybody any ideas why giggs isn't in this? Most league titles and all that. 

 

When you think Adams went to jail for drink driving, Terry racism charges. 

 

Edited October 30, 2025 by thetime

[kaosmark2]

54 minutes ago, thetime said:

Its a bit meaningless, anybody any ideas why giggs isn't in this? Most league titles and all that. 

 

When you think Adams went to jail for drink driving, Terry racism charges. 

 

Hadn't heard of this until now. Hard to know really. Don't forget Gerrard's affray/assault charges as well.

[doogie]

Why have so many of them got their mouths open?

[charlierc]

Hmmm... I was prepared to give Newcastle some benefit of the doubt for a slow start but today was pretty inexcusable. 1-0 up after 4 minutes against a West Ham side who've been mostly dreadful this season and then we just half arse it. The subs were pretty bizarre and just seemed to confuse everyone as to who was playing where while several players had off days at once. 

 

Bet certain players will turn up for the grand occasion of the Champions League match with Bilbao on Wednesday then go missing at Brentford next weekend. 

[kaosmark2]

1 hour ago, charlierc said:

Hmmm... I was prepared to give Newcastle some benefit of the doubt for a slow start but today was pretty inexcusable. 1-0 up after 4 minutes against a West Ham side who've been mostly dreadful this season and then we just half arse it. The subs were pretty bizarre and just seemed to confuse everyone as to who was playing where while several players had off days at once. 

 

Bet certain players will turn up for the grand occasion of the Champions League match with Bilbao on Wednesday then go missing at Brentford next weekend. 

Our away performances in the league have been pretty bad. Bournemouth/Brighton have always been miserable for us so I was giving quite a lot of leeway for those, but this West Ham side have looked atrocious. And while they were the better team this first half, that was largely because we were insanely sloppy. They still didn't look that good. I stand by all my criticism of their midfield - ours was just so inept first half.

 

We were a bit better 2nd half, partially as Ramsey was actually trying line-breaking passes, but it never really resulted in a decent shot. I also thought Thiaw looked a lot less comfortable at right-back. I know Woltemade/Trippier/Burn have played huge amounts with the Wissa + full-back injuries, but we're really missing energetic attacking from whoever is at full-back.

 

I guess we'll see what the international break does for fitness. Trippier getting a longer rest and players coming back from injury might help, but at some point we need to start getting points against bad teams.

[charlierc]

23 minutes ago, kaosmark2 said:

Our away performances in the league have been pretty bad. Bournemouth/Brighton have always been miserable for us so I was giving quite a lot of leeway for those, but this West Ham side have looked atrocious. And while they were the better team this first half, that was largely because we were insanely sloppy. They still didn't look that good. I stand by all my criticism of their midfield - ours was just so inept first half.

 

We were a bit better 2nd half, partially as Ramsey was actually trying line-breaking passes, but it never really resulted in a decent shot. I also thought Thiaw looked a lot less comfortable at right-back. I know Woltemade/Trippier/Burn have played huge amounts with the Wissa + full-back injuries, but we're really missing energetic attacking from whoever is at full-back.

 

I guess we'll see what the international break does for fitness. Trippier getting a longer rest and players coming back from injury might help, but at some point we need to start getting points against bad teams.

See I thought the the second became an ordeal where Newcastle had a lot of possession but never looked like they knew how to break the low block West Ham deployed, and where the subs just made the team look increasingly incoherent. I have no idea who was meant to be where or who was doing what, but none of it really seemed to click.

 

 

Guess it's the frustrating thing though given the advantage was there with scoring 30 seconds after Bowen hit the post and then getting away with the penalty VAR, and still proceeding to toss that away with a pretty lacklustre display all round. Just - yeesh. A more confident side than West Ham would've probably got the third way sooner than the 98th minute.

 

[kaosmark2]

50 minutes ago, charlierc said:

See I thought the the second became an ordeal where Newcastle had a lot of possession but never looked like they knew how to break the low block West Ham deployed, and where the subs just made the team look increasingly incoherent. I have no idea who was meant to be where or who was doing what, but none of it really seemed to click.

 

 

Guess it's the frustrating thing though given the advantage was there with scoring 30 seconds after Bowen hit the post and then getting away with the penalty VAR, and still proceeding to toss that away with a pretty lacklustre display all round. Just - yeesh. A more confident side than West Ham would've probably got the third way sooner than the 98th minute.

I mean, Joelinton was absolutely useless in both halves, as he often is against teams that use a low block. I thought Ramsey did some things and we weren't as sloppy in giving away position except when attempting to break the lines, which is what I mean by "better 2nd half", but it still wasn't incisive at all, barely managing to get a shot away.

 

I do feel, this performance aside, that the squad has all the pieces needed to compete on most fronts, but something needs to change, particularly in away league games.

[thetime]

Anyone know why Trent got such a bad reception last night?

 

 

[Neil]

On 16/10/2025 at 08:49, charlierc said:

Apparently Trump is trying to threaten to move games from various US cities at next year's World Cup if they don't suck up to him. Whether he has the power to do that unilaterally or at least bully his sycophant Gianni Infantino, guess we'll see.

 

Moving the Olympics from LA, as is also being done as a threat, might be harder given that there's quite a lot an Olympics needs at short notice.

the threats care trump demonstrating his power over those events - "do what i say else i'll mess up your showcase!"

[charlierc]

3 hours ago, thetime said:

Anyone know why Trent got such a bad reception last night?

 

 

They sure made him feel at home huh.

 

I'm more surprised how little Vinicius and Mbappe contributed. 

[charlierc]

14 minutes ago, Neil said:

the threats care trump demonstrating his power over those events - "do what i say else i'll mess up your showcase!"

Although exactly how much FIFA or the IOC would be willing to move these at short notice is another matter. 

 

Tbf one of the main turn offs for going to the World Cup next year is the outrageous ticket prices, which seem to cost as much as tickets to games at the last 2/3 World Cups combined and also have that dynamic pricing bullshit Oasis used. 

[charlierc]

On 02/11/2025 at 22:05, kaosmark2 said:

I mean, Joelinton was absolutely useless in both halves, as he often is against teams that use a low block. I thought Ramsey did some things and we weren't as sloppy in giving away position except when attempting to break the lines, which is what I mean by "better 2nd half", but it still wasn't incisive at all, barely managing to get a shot away.

 

I do feel, this performance aside, that the squad has all the pieces needed to compete on most fronts, but something needs to change, particularly in away league games.

Evidently the methods seem to work better in some contexts than others, given 9 of the 11 who stunk at West Ham at the weekend got the job done against Bilbao in the Champions League last night.

 

Looks like we're on track for my aspirations of getting to at least the playoffs. Even above Real Madrid and Barcelona at this point. 

 

Though I think it is fair to ask if the Premier League is really in it's place now as a European Colossus given 5/6 PL teams won, all of them are in the top half and there's ofc the money in English football meaning each team in the thing has a big old budget. 

[thetime]

2 hours ago, charlierc said:

Evidently the methods seem to work better in some contexts than others, given 9 of the 11 who stunk at West Ham at the weekend got the job done against Bilbao in the Champions League last night.

 

Looks like we're on track for my aspirations of getting to at least the playoffs. Even above Real Madrid and Barcelona at this point. 

 

Though I think it is fair to ask if the Premier League is really in it's place now as a European Colossus given 5/6 PL teams won, all of them are in the top half and there's ofc the money in English football meaning each team in the thing has a big old budget. 

 

Bayern could be the team to beat this season. 

 

Caught 1st half of the Newcastle game, that was some header for the goal.

 

 

Edited November 6, 2025 by thetime

[kaosmark2]

3 hours ago, charlierc said:

Evidently the methods seem to work better in some contexts than others, given 9 of the 11 who stunk at West Ham at the weekend got the job done against Bilbao in the Champions League last night.

 

Looks like we're on track for my aspirations of getting to at least the playoffs. Even above Real Madrid and Barcelona at this point. 

 

Though I think it is fair to ask if the Premier League is really in it's place now as a European Colossus given 5/6 PL teams won, all of them are in the top half and there's ofc the money in English football meaning each team in the thing has a big old budget. 

Gordon was awful mind. He's been good in the CL until this game so hopefully that's more to do with fitness/flu/injury and he'll be lively again after the international break.

 

I stand by my assessment that we're missing Hall/Livramento. I only watched the first 30 minutes (had other plans), but for all the result was good I still thought we looked flat, and having more dynamism from full-back will help. And I'm not criticising Burn for that, playing almost every minute out of position with very few defensive mistakes and his lack of pace is impressive.

[kaosmark2]

1 hour ago, thetime said:

 

Bayern could be the team to beat this season. 

Agreed. They've got Arsenal next, probably the 2 current favourites?

[charlierc]

2 hours ago, thetime said:

 

Bayern could be the team to beat this season. 

 

Caught 1st half of the Newcastle game, that was some header for the goal.

 

 

 

1 hour ago, kaosmark2 said:

Agreed. They've got Arsenal next, probably the 2 current favourites?

Aye Arsenal and Bayern both look very strong. That contest in a few weeks could be a very good watch. Could also be a decent watch when Inter, the only other team with a 100% record so far, play Arsenal on the final match day. 

[charlierc]

1 hour ago, kaosmark2 said:

Gordon was awful mind. He's been good in the CL until this game so hopefully that's more to do with fitness/flu/injury and he'll be lively again after the international break.

 

I stand by my assessment that we're missing Hall/Livramento. I only watched the first 30 minutes (had other plans), but for all the result was good I still thought we looked flat, and having more dynamism from full-back will help. And I'm not criticising Burn for that, playing almost every minute out of position with very few defensive mistakes and his lack of pace is impressive.

Howe mentioned after West Ham that Gordon has had hip issues in recent weeks. Though you'd then question why he was playing yesterday given he kept giving the ball away again then limped off. 

 

Trippier has still been alright tbf. So it's just Lewis or Tino that we need back to give us better balance in the left back role as making Burn play 90 every week is a sign that we really lack depth out there. And that's even acknowledging that Burn is a great trier and undoubtedly deserves plaudits for that brilliant goal last night. 

 

The Athletic did note we play a very flat midfield out of position that can be breached with the right pass, as Brighton did a few weeks ago. So we can have this problem. 

[kaosmark2]

4 hours ago, charlierc said:

Howe mentioned after West Ham that Gordon has had hip issues in recent weeks. Though you'd then question why he was playing yesterday given he kept giving the ball away again then limped off. 

 

Trippier has still been alright tbf. So it's just Lewis or Tino that we need back to give us better balance in the left back role as making Burn play 90 every week is a sign that we really lack depth out there. And that's even acknowledging that Burn is a great trier and undoubtedly deserves plaudits for that brilliant goal last night. 

 

The Athletic did note we play a very flat midfield out of position that can be breached with the right pass, as Brighton did a few weeks ago. So we can have this problem. 

Yeah quite. If Gordon's been struggling with injury, why did he play last night over Murphy/Elanga? 

 

I think Trippier's played much better this season than last but he can't really get forward with pace any more, and our system does struggle when our fullbacks are slow. I really don't want to criticise the 33 and 34 year olds playing virtually every minute every week for not bombing up the wings, I do just think that's contributing to both our attack struggling to penetrate, and our midfield being a bit flatter and less dynamic.

[charlierc]

1 hour ago, kaosmark2 said:

Yeah quite. If Gordon's been struggling with injury, why did he play last night over Murphy/Elanga? 

 

I think Trippier's played much better this season than last but he can't really get forward with pace any more, and our system does struggle when our fullbacks are slow. I really don't want to criticise the 33 and 34 year olds playing virtually every minute every week for not bombing up the wings, I do just think that's contributing to both our attack struggling to penetrate, and our midfield being a bit flatter and less dynamic.

Brentford feel like a team that could exploit it, given they've scored quite a few goals from a midfielder whacking it long to a winger/striker to chase. With our flat lines and slow full-backs, it feels like that could be exploitable.

 

It feels like Gordon has something to prove, not least with an editorial in a paper this morning saying he's not as good as he thinks he is, but playing him hurt hasn't exactly helped. Though that stupid red against Liverpool in August hasn't exactly helped his reputation for this season at least.

 

 

 

[charlierc]

On 02/11/2025 at 22:05, kaosmark2 said:

I mean, Joelinton was absolutely useless in both halves, as he often is against teams that use a low block. I thought Ramsey did some things and we weren't as sloppy in giving away position except when attempting to break the lines, which is what I mean by "better 2nd half", but it still wasn't incisive at all, barely managing to get a shot away.

 

I do feel, this performance aside, that the squad has all the pieces needed to compete on most fronts, but something needs to change, particularly in away league games.

Sure enough, we name most of the same starting 11 as West Ham last week, they again look wrong and lose away again. 

 

Burn being kept on was a definite mistake given that second yellow was painfully predictable.

 

Our fixture list is getting harder too so... Either we get results soon or this is going to be a bit of a painful winter. 

[thetime]

1 hour ago, charlierc said:

Sure enough, we name most of the same starting 11 as West Ham last week, they again look wrong and lose away again. 

 

Burn being kept on was a definite mistake given that second yellow was painfully predictable.

 

Our fixture list is getting harder too so... Either we get results soon or this is going to be a bit of a painful winter. 

 

League changes very quickly at the minute. Look at utd, could of gone to 2nd temporarily on Saturday and now 8th. Villa were near the bottom 3 games ago, they are up to 7th. 

 

Although the European games, domestic cup and league seems to affect Newcastle. Perhaps its a mentality issue, rather than the big European games. 

[lost]

2 hours ago, charlierc said:

Our fixture list is getting harder too so... Either we get results soon or this is going to be a bit of a painful winter. 

 

Man City next 2 points above the relegation zone? 

 

You wouldn't of thought Howe would of been in trouble with the cup win but occupying the bottom 3 at any point does seem to drain the confidence of chairman.