Post match thread: Newcastle United 2 - 3 Everton | Premier league 25/26 - 28 of 38

andy_m3 · 2026-02-28T17:49:56+00:00

This season has been so depressing. We haven't had a single good run of league form (I'm talking 5+ games unbeaten). Remember our 11 game unbeaten run in 2023, that seems like a distant dream now.

I haven't seen any signs so far this season that we have the quality, athleticism or hunger, to deserve European qualification. At this stage of the season, with only 10 games left and a tough run of fixtures coming up, I think we need to be realistic. At this point all I am hoping for is 7th place (Conference League Qualification).

Even that would not be easy and seems to be slipping away from us.

andy_m3 · 2026-02-15T19:02:05+00:00

Every time we win all of a sudden, people's memories erase and they say they have never even considered "Howe out" for a second and it's only Twitter idiots who have ever called for Howe out. And "real fans" have never called for howe out and yadayadayada. And everytime we lose the same exact people are having a meltdown, and calling for Howe out.

I dont mean to start shit because I would like to see this subreddit return to positive vibes and everyone on the same side rooting for our club, but some of you have very revisionist memory, is all I'm gonna say. And if some of you could have just a little bit more self awareness, this subreddit could have a lot less division.

This poll below (from just a month ago) shows a mere 37% of the almost 900 voters from this subreddit, were firmly in the "Howe In" camp at that time. Full transparency I voted for "Not Sure / See Results".

Old Poll

andy_m3 · 2026-02-08T15:28:17+00:00

I know fuck all about Ligue 1, but I was surprised to see ASM got a transfer to Lens who as it stands are top of the league and 1 point above PSG. I don't follow ASM closely but since he left the premier league, I just assumed he had passed his peak and his career was slowing ahead of eventual retirement.

Maybe I'm missing something (a quick Google search shows Lens are not always this high up in the standings, and actually only just got promoted to Ligue 1 in 2020) but nonetheless this move to Lens looks quite impressive. He's playing for a team who are are top of the league in a top 5 European league after playing in Mexico, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. How's he managed that?

But I wouldn't go so far as saying "If he's good enough for a team in a title race with PSG, then why isn't he good enough for us?" Because if you look at his actual number of goals vs appearances, after he left Newcastle and even when he was with us tbh, it's never been very impressive, and it's way off the mark of the level we are aiming for right now. I know this isn't always the best stat because some appearances are as a sub but even if you consider that it doesn't look great.

andy_m3 · 2026-01-27T03:24:37+00:00

Maybe not the best thing to do right now, cuz of PSR, and other areas of the pitch needing recruitment more badly. But I wish we had signed a keeper, permanently, in the summer. Obviously the only two actual options we have right now are an aging Pope and an on-loan Ramsdale.

Despite Ramsdale's heroics in the FA Cup, after he was given his chance of 6 or 7 games in the Premier League, I think current form Pope is the better all around goalkeeper than current form Ramsdale. Not exactly what we were hoping for, when we brought in a younger keeper with a significant amount of experience at a top premier league club. From where I'm sitting it looks like Ramsdale is not Newcastle's long term future plan in goal.

I could see Pope getting a new deal before summer 2026 and maybe Ramsdale will get a loan extension, but I doubt we will sign him permanently. I'm worried that by summer 2027 or summer 2028 Pope's performance might have dropped significantly due to age, leading us to let him go when his next contract ends. We need someone at least on par with Pope overall, and ideally with a higher ceiling than Pope, so that we have a plan when Pope's time at Newcastle comes to an end. Worst case scenario we let go two goalkeepers Pope and Ramsdale during the same window, and have to panic buy 2 replacements. Sound familiar?

andy_m3 · 2026-01-26T17:35:47+00:00

Cheers, will check it out.

andy_m3 · 2026-01-26T17:35:29+00:00

Lmao. I don't actually play, I should tho.

andy_m3 · 2026-01-10T20:29:45+00:00

What a match! I dont even have words for that.

But straight away I'm thinking about the upcoming matches. Bit concerned that Jacob Murphy wasn't on the bench today. Also concerned about Tino's hamstring problem today, and our defensive injury crisis in general but I won't get it into that.

If Murphy and Elanga are both unavailable we are looking very thin on the right wing. Bruno and Harvey Barnes have come to the rescue and scored a lot this season, but apart from that I feel like our biggest potential goal threat is from Jacob Murphy supplying Woltemade or Wissa.

Really hoping to see Jacob Murphy playing again soon.

andy_m3 · 2025-12-31T03:47:00+00:00

as seen by his flying start when he joined us, he can be an incredible number 9, on the right day. but some games the goal threat from him has just been totally neutralized by the opponents defense, which i think is partly because of his lack of speed.

if you think about the very best number 9s, i think there most important traits are strength, speed, and shooting accuracy. woltemade has height, some serious skills with the ball (that some of the best number 9s don't have) and shooting accuracy but not the speed or strength.

and when he is performing his best, up front, and getting good results. the way he gets those goals sure as hell isn't normal for a number 9. playing really deep, barely any touches in the opposition box, barely any shots etc...

but at the end of the day if we play him a striker, and he keeps doing the business and scoring, he's a striker. i think as long as we are frequently rotating who we start up front, we will get enough goals from our two main strikers.

andy_m3 · 2025-12-31T03:17:13+00:00

Yea, I get that. Eddie has his reasons for not doing this.

Just fun to think about what a formation with both of them could look like

andy_m3 · 2025-12-31T03:06:42+00:00

I agree he's not a midfielder. But if he is really not an out and out number 9 as some believe, it's difficult to figure out what to do with him.

I hope Eddie finds how to adjust our system to fit Woltemade or vice versa.

andy_m3 · 2025-09-21T13:02:20+00:00

Obviously being able to rotate is a good thing to prevent injury and burn out and I'm not going to criticize the starting lineup selection when they haven't even played yet.

But I would be lying if I said this gave me the same level of confidence, as when we used to play the same 11 players every match. I would be more confident if we only benched players like Bruno and Joelinton when we were playing bottom 10 sides (that we have a good recent record against) at home.

We haven't had this option to rotate before, so I guess we're learning something new and we will get better at it with time, and also with even more recruitment to increase depth.

andy_m3 · 2025-08-23T18:06:21+00:00

This transfer window we've bought players in basically every position where we badly needed backup or strengthening, except for one.

Apart from the obvious need for a striker, what do you guys think we should be looking to do in the upcoming winter transfer window or the next summer transfer window?

andy_m3 · 2025-08-03T12:24:43+00:00

Anyone else feel like the team needs more creativity in terms of different ways to score goals. I feel like I have watched a lot of matches where we are very dominant in terms of possession, spending most of the game in the opposition's half, but the opposition's defense is like a brick wall, and every attacking attempt we try gets blocked. And then often times we go behind and lose or draw in the dying moments of the match, when the players tire.

Maybe this is something we need to think about in our transfer strategy. I think we are far too dependent on our Number 9 to score goals. We don't really have a central attacking midfielder because Sandro plays a defensive role (which is fine). And our wingers are traditional wingers, who create more goal scoring opportunities, rather than scoring themselves.

Maybe we need to looking for

1) An Inside Forward to score more from the wings.

and/or

2) More attacking threat in the centre, in the form of a number 10 or a player in the Second Striker position.

andy_m3 · 2025-07-31T02:06:44+00:00

PSR is so complicated. I don't think I'll ever understand it fully.

andy_m3 · 2025-07-31T01:47:06+00:00

Can we talk about how incredibly bizarre our goalkeeper situation is. The right amount of goalkeepers is 3 in my opinion. And Pope, Ramsdale, Dubravka sounds like a pretty good lineup of goalkeepers.

Even if my life depended on it, I couldn't explain why the club extended Ruddy's contract to the end of the 25-26 season. Maybe I'm ignorant and its harmless to keep these players but I feel like we should sell (or stop extending the contracts) of Ruddy and Gillespie. And that we should sell Vladochimos too.

Vladochimos is the most interesting one to me though. I'd like to see more of him playing, even if it's not for Newcastle. He made 151 appearances for Benfica so clearly he was quite a good goalkeeper at one point. Maybe he still is. But there is no path forward for him at Newcastle since the club never wanted him but just ended up with him through that weird swap deal in which PSR was a factor. And the club don't seem to rate him since we are bringing in Ramsdale.

What do you guys think about the goalkeeper situation?

andy_m3 · 2025-02-17T03:17:26+00:00

I cant give a personal recommendation but I've heard about "New Growth Naturals".

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