Tom12345

Still sad for Fatawu and us that he did his ACL on international duty and is out for the year. This could have been his break out year in the PL. Should get him a 2 year extension though while he is out and out of the spotlight. Yes, a gamble, but he can’t be on that high of a paycheck and he is still young so worth the gamble, especially considering Rudkin has handed out extensions to players with a lot lower ceilings than Fatawu - Hamza (on 50k???), Ward (also on 50k???) etc.

He was very good for us and it was crazy we didn’t take up the option to buy him for 12m. Absolutely crazy.

How did Ward keep the No. 1 shirt these 2 seasons by the way?

Atrocious defending. It shows we have no idea.

I cannot believe we cannot find players from the youth team who are better than some of those we fielded yesterday. Hamza was dismal and was simply a negative. Didn’t do much defensively and was absolutely shxt in building up plays. Can’t believe he is a PL player. How can he not even string a few forward passes together as a PL player? What does he do in practice all day? Even if you put Alves there it would have been better - at least we can string a few passes together in midfield.

Vesty was way better. There was one passage of play where Vesty must have been sick of the midfield doing nothing and stepped up into midfield and was trying to orchestrate passes to force something positive. Everytime it got to Hamza he has no idea and just tried to pass back or sideways to be safe.

Not his fault but Ward came on: 2 attempts on goal and 2 goals conceded.

Nah. Anyone is better than him. Even an attacking player or a defender.

Desperately need Hamza to come off and we need FB on. Can’t believe he is on the bench when no one other than Bilal can do anything. We have no outlet and Newcastle are dominating anyway. No point to keep Hamza on. Bring FB on for Hamza at HT.

You are spot on. He is also quite a limited player going forward. His passing range is very limited unfortunately. Also, Hamza, when the ball gets to him. He just passes back or has not idea what to do with the ball. Kills moves and just not good enough.

Really shxt

Justin needs to pass to someone please. Kristiansen, please try to chest the ball down and not just to head it straight back. Hamza, geeze, do you have any idea how to play midfield?

Mads is having a good workout so far.

Hamza is really second rate. Not good enough at this level. Can’t pass and too slow in decision making.

Unnecessary free kick.

Hamza is not good enough for PL …

Crazy to say that. He has been the best player for us this season. One game and you say that. So off game and he is dropped?

I much rather Alves.

Remember that time when a player tried to tackle him while he was dribbling on the left (which led to a goal), and the other player just bounced off from him? Amazing strength and control. He has definitely woken up. Having said that, I really do think many fans were too quick to criticise him before when he was never bad in my eyes. Remember he had Brendan and then briefly Smith - in a system where even with Barnes, Maddison, Tielemans, Evans, Soyuncu, Ricardo, Perez, Nacho, etc on the roster (let’s be honest we would love to have any of these back and they would improve us) and we still managed to play so shxt under Brendan and it was not because of Soumare.

To be fair, it wasn’t his mistake. He was one of the few players who came out and said he would stay to help us to go back up, but then Enzo didn’t think his quality of being a traditional full back suits.

Fair point. Though as Enzo didn’t fancy him, it was better for him to play first team football on loan elsewhere, which he did.

I always wondered why all the hate before when he played so little for us yet he has always shown glimpses of brilliance; much better than some players who were consistently picked. Typical FT. When Cooper picked him, Cooper was crucified. Now RVN does the same and he is a genius.

He was not even playing for Maresca last season.

And then really changed it when Daka came on and we had 2 strikers.

Should have been given the corner. There should have been extra time for the goal restart and also the freekick.