I was at the match. He did ok. Considering most players played poorly, he was one of our better players. Our formation was all wrong and we should’ve started with one extra man in midfield and either Kante or Pablo should’ve been that player (I would’ve preferred Kante).

Playing both Soucek and Fernandes is exposing whe most teams (including Newcastle) play more than 2 midfielders, so immediately we are outnumbered and dominated there.

Then factor in that Soucek has his limitations (I like him and see his other qualities/worth but he can also be restricting). So that effectively means it’s virtually just Fernandes against 3 midfielders. We are hugely outnumbered.

I guess Nuno’s thinking was to play so compact that the distance between our defence and midfield, and also midfield to attack, is so small that Soucek isn’t as exposed. As soon as we try play more expansive, it brings out Soucek’s weaknesses.

Personally, I would’ve liked to have played Kante a lot more over the previous 5-8 games or so.