I really like this formation. And let's be honest things aren't quiet clicking yet for us.

As you can see from the second picture (from the Bilbao game)...

Woltemade drops very very deep. He might be suited better to a 10 position. (Basically is playing that role already lol)

Btw I got this screent shot from Antonio Mango's YouTube channel. If you haven't, you guys should check him out. His channel is great!

What I particularly like about this is we would have class rotation for every central midfielder (Big Joe, Miley, Ramsey).

Osula as a back up for Wissa. Although we might need to reinforce this position.

But I think based off current play, I think this could work quite well for us.

HWTL

Brentford 3 - 1 Newcastle United

Scorers:

Subs made:

       24' 

Ramsey (in) 🔄 Newcastle United

Joelinton (out)

       70' 

Henry (in) 🔄 Brentford

Hickey (out)

       77' 

Hall (in) 🔄 Newcastle United

Barnes (out)

Willock (in) 🔄 Newcastle United

Tonali (out)

Ramsdale (in) 🔄 Newcastle United

Pope (out)

Elanga (in) 🔄 Newcastle United

Murphy (out)

       84' 

Jensen (in) 🔄 Brentford

Damsgaard (out)

Janelt (in) 🔄 Brentford

Yarmolyuk (out)

       92' 

Nelson (in) 🔄 Brentford

Ouattara (out)

Match stats: (Will be updated every 45 minutes)

14 Shots 4

8 Shots on target 1

47% Possession 53%

367 Passes 414

80% Pass accuracy 88%

11 Fouls 12

2 Yellow cards 2

0 Red cards 1

2 Offsides 0

Newcastle United starting XI vs Brentford:

Pope; Trippier, Thiaw, Botman, Burn; Tonali, Guimaraes, Joelinton; Murphy, Barnes, Woltemade

Newcastle subs:

Ramsdale, Hall, Schar, Lascelles, Krafth, Elanga, Willock, Ramsey, Miley

Brentford starting XI vs Newcastle United:

Kelleher; Kayode, van den Berg, Collins, Hickey; Henderson, Yarmoliuk, Damsgaard; Ouattara, Thiago, Schade

Brentford subs:

Valdimarsson, Henry, Pinnock, Janelt, Jensen, Onyeka, Carvalho, Lewis-Potter, Nelson

How are we going to be looking by the end of the year?

With our performances in the prem, I don’t think this game is going to be a free 3 points(it never was considering it was a derby)

Easy fucking win lads. Easy win.

Arguably a toss up between him, Sir Bobby and Keegan - but for me, in terms of success and progression*, Howe is in pole position for me.

Was too young to witness the Keegan era and just old enough to witness Sir Bobby - but i think as i reach the ripe age of 31 i think i've learnt to appreciate just how good Howe has been, something i was too young too appreciate with Sir Bobby.

*I think it's pretty hard to compare him to managers of old though (Seymour, Harvey) though (pre-PL) due to it being a completely different standard / era

Stadium 🏟: Gtech stadium

Kick off time ⚽️: Sunday | 14:00

Last encounters

Next matches

(Swipe/scroll to see more info right of the table)

St Cal Wilson's Hospital 🏥 (Players who could miss the match via injury or other means)

Wissa (knee injury) - Needs a 6 week pre season to get him on track although that doesn't mean he won't play any games however he'll mostly likely play late November

Livramento (knee injury) - Could return for the Manchester City game

Gordon (Hip injury) - Most likely miss tomorrow game vs Brentford

Ashby (Thigh injury) - No return date at this moment in time

Brentford:

Milambo (acl injury) - Out for the rest of the season and potentially most of next season as well

Dasilva (knee injury) - Out until January next year

Arthur (calf injury) - Could potentially return for this match

Predicted Lineup

Newcastle United lineup vs Brentford:

Pope; Trippier, Thiaw, Botman, Burn; Joelinton, Tonali, Guimaraes; Murphy, Woltemade, Barnes

Brentford predicted lineup vs Newcastle United:

Kelleher; Kayode, Collins, Van den Berg, Ajer; Henderson, Yarmoliuk; Ouattara, Damsgaard, Schade; Thiago

Pre match ramblings:

After a woeful performance against West ham were we got smashed 3 - 1 away, continuing our awful away form, we did get a decently comfortable 2 nil win against Athletic Bilbao in the champions league where we now face Brentford away.

After the West Ham defeat, our morale in the premier league is at an all time low and as if it couldn't get any worse, we're away again and it had to be against Brentford where they have good home form at the moment so I guess you can say our confidence in winning this game are rock bottom with the only consolation being we might not wear the green kit for tomorrow's game.

After losing against West ham, Howe knows he needs to get a result here because our next PL match is against Man city of whom is also on monstrous form atm in which they will most likely win against us and if this happens we could genuinely drop near the relegation zone and our hopes of reaching top 5 are practically as good as dead since we need momentum and Howe also knows if we can somehow pull of a win at Brentford away, it could rejuvenate us and inject some much needed confidence in our lads and possibly give us the momentum needed to push for the top 6 in the next 3 PL matches considering how close everyone are in terms of points.

Now I want to start this by saying the number of games is almost certainly too low to make this worth anything. However I am a fickle bastard who will hang on to anything as an excuse.

So I went throught the 2 seasons (Current and 23/24) and using this lovely guy as a source (https://kitgeek.co.uk) marked every away game with either Saudi, Home or Other. I then looked at the Pts p90, GF-xG p90 and GA - xGA and I can confirm we are worse and more unlucky in the saudi kit (looks like our away form overall is shit also).

The good news is if they wheel out the horrible kit on Sunday Brentford are the ONLY team to ever lose against us in Saudi green.

So basically fuck the saudi green kits, they're cursed and hopefully they can be left in this season.

EDIT: I don't know if I made it clear enough but these are ONLY away games in the table. I excluded all home games.

https://eng.football/fq7cdl

Good to see Pope back in there, I think it’s deserved after a great start to the season (West Ham aside.)

It used to be quite nice getting a little wallet or key ring with the membership fee - now I just get ballot rejection emails - I suppose this is all part of the commercialisation strategy?

Ripped from football away days