Newcastle's one success this season was that surprise at Spurs. They did that by defending en masse in an organised and bodies-on-the-line way. But they are second from bottom and playing at home against the bottom club. That must give Bruce all sorts of different ideas. It is difficult to believe they will start with all-out defence against us. Apart from anything else their crowd wouldn't have it. If they come at us they will be ordinary at best and we must have a chance. As so often the first goal is very important - because we know they can defend it. Sarr, and to some extent Gray will not be effective against a packed defence. Some difficult planning and a bench that enables flexibility for Javi to consider. We all know this is already a six-pointer, but panicking will not help. In fact it's worse than a six-pointer because of what it can do to morale. No pressure, then, Javi.
Looks good but surely that front 4 are too attacking away from home ? They'd provide no defensive cover at all !
Surely everyone is clever enough to know by now that Javi won’t change much - if anything. 4-2-2-2 All the usual suspects will be there.
Got to play our strongest 11 for this. Foster Kiko - Catchard - Dawson - Holebas Capoue - Doucoure Hughes Prayreira Deeney Gray I know Deeney isn't 100% but we need his leadership.
Imagine if you're one of the mugs who leaves at 9am to go and watch it, then at 2pm you get the alert to tell you the line ups and you see my post above - perhaps with Gray for Deeney. Imagine that. Just imagine it. I'm fuming at the theoretical possibility of it!
Even if we only play 10 players surely having Deeney cheering them on from the sidelines in his full kit, in between hot dogs and JDs, would be more effective than playing our 11 most in form players in a less suicidal formation than 4222.
Pretty much spot on bar Gerard. I could see Hughes making way for Cleverly though as he was one of the better performers against West Ham.
I am currently preparing Mr IBB for sacrifice to appease the footballing deities. Unfortunately he appears to have hidden the knife sharpener. I may be forced to use a pencil.
I need whatever the FTRE podcast guys are drinking. Parkin on the radio this morning predicting we'll win 3-1, then be pushing for Europe by Christmas. Mental.
If we lose this game I think Javi is gone. Up next we have Arsenal, Man City and then Wolves. Realistically we could be looking at 0 points from 6 games. Was it last season or the season before Palace were in a similar position and everyone said they were as good as down, OK they performed a miracle but we don't have the defensive players to shut up shop which is the normal approach of a team fighting to survive. Im sorry but this part falls totally on the board and the recruitment policy. Everyone could see we were crying out for at least 2 decent CBs. Tomorrow is huge, I hope it doesn't define our season.
Good plan, but you still haven't told us how you got on last Saturday. Still Captain Leader Legend? If so, can you play in defence?
We’ll be playing in last year’s green away kit as we’ve managed to design an away kit in a colour that is too similar to our home kit. Brilliant work.
Assuming we take the expected total from those 3 games and fail to get anything tomorrow, that would actually be 0 points from 7 games. Knowing Watford though, we'll lose to Newcastle then go on to win against Man City, Arsenal and Wolves! That would be just so typical of us! What are we like!?
We'll win tomorrow comfortably, probably by 2 or 3 goals - our easiest 3 points this season. Newcastle 1-3 Watfrord Delefou, Gray, Dawson
On the official site. We are wearing last season’s away kit (with our new sponsor) as the club have realised we can’t wear our home kit or away kit against a team that has predominantly dark colours. So a de-facto 3rd kit that won’t be for sale to fans.
I wouldn’t care if we were on a ten game winning streak. If you lose against a Steve Bruce team, you deserve to be fired. It’s that simple.
It’s what Javi does innit. His record against Barcelona and Real Madrid has translated beautifully to the PL.
I hope we make changes. Janmaat for Kiko is obvious, and I think Kabasele deserves a chance, though it’s hard to decide which Craig I’d drop. Neither have covered themselves in glory. I think the midfield 3 will remain the same. I don’t know if pragmatic/stubborn Javi would be willing to change, so I can see Cleverley remaining as the more advanced of the central 3, though I’d love to see Quina given a chance as I think his fearless attitude would serve us well at a time when form is poor and people are low on confidence. It’s time to start Sarr. I’d go with him on the right, Deulofeu on the left, and Welbeck up front. I know that’s harsh on Gray, but I think Welbeck is clearly a better all-round player and will link things together better, with Gray coming on later to work against a tired defense. Finally, I want Penaranda on the bench. This is a long shot, and he’s not really been given a chance to make an impression, so I’ll assume he’s perhaps not impressed during training, either attitude or performance wise. That said, we need guys who can come on and change the game from the bench. Having someone a bit unpredictable coming on is something that is worth having. Beyond Geri, who usually comes off at 70 minutes anyway, we don’t have anybody who can come from the bench and provide us with a spark. For too long, we’ve been bringing on the likes of Success or Sema, who are unlikely to give you anything beyond workmanlike performances (if even that in the case of Success). If we had Gray and Penaranda to come on late in games, that’s two guys with pace and directness to provide a spark when we need a goal, or to keep the opposition defenders on their toes.
I love the way all the optimists predicting a Watford win are not optimistic enough to predict a clean sheet. (I include myself in this.)
We need to try to score more goals and stop conceding them. If we achieve that we will start winning games of football. We need players performing well at both ends of the pitch to deliver this. A bad result here could really cost us, but a good result would be a huge boost. That is my analysis. Prediction Newcastle 4-0 Watford Deulofeu (og 88, 90+1, 90+4), Carroll (90+6); Deulofeu (sent off 90+4)
