If he is fit I'd be playing Kante on front of the back four and benching Jorginho. It's a Steve Bruce team we are playing which means lots of huff and puff and chasing players down when they are in possession. Exactly what Jorginho struggles with.

4 hours ago, loz said:

If he is fit I'd be playing Kante on front of the back four and benching Jorginho. It's a Steve Bruce team we are playing which means lots of huff and puff and chasing players down when they are in possession. Exactly what Jorginho struggles with.

Kante never played a deep-lying playmaker in his life  You just hate Jorginho the conducter, but he's now on 6 goals same as Pulisic, our great vice-captain 

Assuming neither Pulisic nor Kante return I would like to see a similar team to Burnley with maybe 1 or 2 changes.

 

Kepa

 

James

Christensen

Tomori

Azpi

 

Jorginho 

Kovacic

 

CHO

Barkley 

Willian

 

Abraham

Hopefully Kante is rested and our midfield trio of jorginho mount and Barkley are given a chance to show that last weekend wasn't a fluke. I am not a Barkley fan ,more like a Barkley hater but he earned my respect with his disciplined role against Burnley. He kept the game ticking ALA MIKEL but also had more toward passes unlike Mikels sideways passing. His conservatism in attack allowed for CHO and James to run riot on the right and I feel like Kante returning will just disrupt our attacks on the right because he will want to take up the spaces cho and James were taking on the right instead of staying back next to jorginho like Barkley did.

I honestly feel the problem is with lampard.. He should be man enough to tell Kante to stay deep and limit his runs upfield but he encourages that bullsh*t . If I was a defender I would definitely want Kante in an attacking position because he is of no threat there. 

I will stick with the line up as against Burnley and I think lamps will to as he didn't even make any subs against Burnley

Massive game.

Assuming United lose to Liverpool, this is our chance to go 8 points clear. It’s absolutely crucial for the tough games we have coming up.

Pretty sure Zouma be back for this game if he's match fit, don't fancy Christensen at all against Caroll. Either Kante or Kovacic will return, Barkley was good last week, but 90 minutes doesn't guarantee him another start. This is the kind of match we need to win, and despite their improvement, I don't see Newcastle as that good of a team, our lose if we can't take 3 points.

Kepa

James   Rudiger   Tomori   Azpi

Jorginho   Barkley

CHO      Mount      Willian

Tammy

 

On 11/01/2020 at 22:03, Gol15 said:

Kante never played a deep-lying playmaker in his life  You just hate Jorginho the conducter, but he's now on 6 goals same as Pulisic, our great vice-captain 

Please stop being so overly sensitive about Jorginho mate, its getting tiring. 

I know it's off topic but can someone explain why we have recalled Conor Gallagher from Charlton even though he was playing week in week out but have left Ampadu to waste a year of his development on the bench in Germany.. 

I just hope Gallagher doesn't have an Amadu season wherever he goes...

P.s IF IT AINT BROKE DONT FIX IT

Edited January 14, 20206 yr by The Don Antonio

Always dread us playing up in Tyneside as it's been a tough away trip for us in the past.

Big opportunity to extend our lead as Manchester United are playing at Liverpool away from home on the same weekend.

1 hour ago, The Don Antonio said:

I know it's off topic but can someone explain why we have recalled Conor Gallagher from Charlton even though he was playing week in week out but have left Ampadu to waste a year of his development on the bench in Germany.. 

I just hope Gallagher doesn't have an Amadu season wherever he goes...

P.s IF IT AINT BROKE DONT FIX IT

Makes sense to recall Gallagher as Charlton doesn't seem to be testing him.

As for Ampadu, we might not have a recall clause.

1 hour ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Makes sense to recall Gallagher as Charlton doesn't seem to be testing him.

As for Ampadu, we might not have a recall clause.

I dont think Wigan was testing for James seeing as they were in the same position as charlton are right now but he got to play week in week out,won their player of the year and developed from that. It would have made more sense for Conor to have a full season under his belt where he would have clearly been Charltons player of the year instead of disrupting his progress. Hopefully he is a starter wherever he is loaned to or it just defeats the purpose.

      I remember we had this same issue with jamal blackman. He went on loan to sheffield utd and had a good season but we thought it would be smart to send him to a testing environment. We sent him to leeds where he warmed their bench and then broke his leg during a training session and his career has been downhill since then.

* As for the lack of a release clause for Ampadu , it just goes to show how Daft our Technical/loan department can be. Why loan a kid with no first team football experience except with Wales to a Bundesliga team that are in the champions league and competing with Bayern for the title. The sensible thing to do would be to break Ampadus loan and send him to Charlton but looks like we dont have that option

11 hours ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Please stop being so overly sensitive about Jorginho mate, its getting tiring. 

Jorginho > RLC

So guys are we going to win at Newcastle?

28 minutes ago, evissy said:

So guys are we going to win at Newcastle?

Of course we are! We're brilliant away against the big clubs.....oh, wait....

19 hours ago, The Don Antonio said:

I know it's off topic but can someone explain why we have recalled Conor Gallagher from Charlton even though he was playing week in week out but have left Ampadu to waste a year of his development on the bench in Germany.. 

I just hope Gallagher doesn't have an Amadu season wherever he goes...

P.s IF IT AINT BROKE DONT FIX IT

I would think that lovable little weasle that is manager of Charlton isn't developing him enough or in the right way, so we maybe we see a better manager around to progress him further

23 hours ago, icecoolguy22 said:

Pretty sure Zouma be back for this game if he's match fit, don't fancy Christensen at all against Caroll. Either Kante or Kovacic will return, Barkley was good last week, but 90 minutes doesn't guarantee him another start. This is the kind of match we need to win, and despite their improvement, I don't see Newcastle as that good of a team, our lose if we can't take 3 points.

It will be bad mangement and unfair to drop Christensen after he was brought out from the cold and played very well v Burnley. Burnley are also a physical side and he coped well. 
Personally hope he stops chopping and changing, keep the same side and let’s build some momentum.

6 hours ago, Valerie said:

Of course we are! We're brilliant away against the big clubs.....oh, wait....

Big club?

49 minutes ago, dkw said:

Big club?

Hence the second thoughts at the end 

15 hours ago, Munkworth said:

Jorginho > RLC

Do you like making me upset, Munkworth?

On 14/01/2020 at 12:13, The Don Antonio said:

I know it's off topic but can someone explain why we have recalled Conor Gallagher from Charlton even though he was playing week in week out but have left Ampadu to waste a year of his development on the bench in Germany.. 

I just hope Gallagher doesn't have an Amadu season wherever he goes...

P.s IF IT AINT BROKE DONT FIX IT

For many reasons.

1. Charlton are down to the bare bones and are practically playing an U23 side which are inferior to the development sides Conor played for here.

2. Charlton are fighting the drop, Swansea are battling to go up, for all intents and purposes it's a transfer that you see similar of up and down the football pyramid all the time.

3. The new Swansea manager use to manage at England youth level, Guehi and Brewster have both also gone there for the same reason.

Furthermore the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" notion is a massive myth, it promotes complacency that leads to stagnation.

Edited January 15, 20206 yr by Argo

1 hour ago, Argo said:

For many reasons.

1. Charlton are down to the bare bones and are practically playing an U23 side which are inferior to the development sides Conor played for here.

2. Charlton are fighting the drop, Swansea are battling to go up, for all intents and purposes it's a transfer that you see similar of up and down the football pyramid all the time.

3. The new Swansea manager use to manage at England youth level, Guehi and Brewster have both also gone there for the same reason.

Furthermore the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" notion is a massive myth, it promotes complacency that leads to stagnation.

I obviously wrote this the day his loan was cancelled and didnt know he was going to Swansea. If he plays regularly for Swansea then i am all for it. I just dont want a situation like Ampadu has found himself in. The main purpose of a loan is to get gametime. We could have done the same with Reece james last season and cut his loan with wigan short so he could play for a team battling for promotion but thankfully we didnt. I also recall Tammy Abraham being touted to leave Villa in january to join Wolves but thankfully he stayed back and fully developed. Lets just hope The Swansea coach plays him, it wont be the first time a swansea coach has loaned our player and  not played him. ALA  Brendan Rodgers with Scott Sinclair and Paul Clement with Tammy Abraham 

5 hours ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Do you like making me upset, Munkworth?

 

With United going to the Unstoppables this is a good chance for us to regain some of the breathing room we threw away before.

Really big game for us. If we can get our home form back on track we can push the foxes for 3rd as well.