Pliskin

I’ll start by speaking about Jordan Crooks…… who has just broken the 20 seconds barrier in the 50m freestyle…… 19.90….. (pending a drugs test) but this is genuinely insane, new world record…… I don’t think anyone thought it possible but he has done it…….

I noticed that there wasn’t a topic for other sports from around the world, niche sports that we may all enjoy and don’t often share…. From snow sports to fishing, tiddlywinks to extreme ironing…. All the other sports we can chat about here….

As long as both Skipp and Hamza are nowhere near the squad….. might be okay.

Nah, they are well drilled and well organised…. I will give them that, but in my opinion it’s mainly down to the overall lack of quality in the league…. I didn’t think they looked good against us, they just knew what they were doing, I’ve not been impressed with Brighton, I didn’t think Villa looked anything special against us, didn’t think Chelsea looked particularly good, and didn’t think Newcastle even today looked that good. There isn’t a single team in this league bar probably Liverpool (on their day) that has anything about them, I don’t know if it’s just me falling out of love with football, but when you think of some of the teams of yesteryears like the great Real Madrid sides….. I don’t know I’m probably waffling, and probably turning into a disgruntled, eternally pissed off Middle Ages man….. who happens to work with a few forest fans, whom are complete bellends.

Forest are only doing well because the league is 90% toss. That Forest team wouldn’t have laid a glove on us under Rodgers at the start of his tenure…… they’re profiting from the abhorrent standard that is in the league this year. Being organised and well drilled when you’re surrounded by average to below average teams, makes a difference. Ive not watched a single team this season and thought afterwards “bloody hell they were good”…. It’s been a poor a league as it’s been for years, and it’s been on the cards now for a few seasons, I think this is resonating through European football in general, we just seem to be in an era of not very exciting football, producing some fairly ordinary players.

If someone could explain to me how they think only having Skipp and Hamza available would yield the same results as Winks, Ndidi and lately Soumare, if love to hear it? Today was a bit like turning up to the grand national and having to ride a sausage dog, we had absolutely NO control over the midfield, and if you can’t get at least a foothold in the midfield you’ll struggle, and against a decent side….. I just think there are pockets of fans that are so desperate for us to lose, so they can come on and start the whole “told you so” bollocks. I never thought we would win today, but it was made more difficult missing key players, I thought that much would be obvious…….

To be fair, Ruud needs days like this, to really see what he needs to do. We’re not a million miles away, but, as @Corky rightly says, when a team in our position has key players missing it has a major impact. What we learn on days like today is players like Skipp and Hamza just aren’t good enough….. I don’t think we will see either again unless injuries dictate.

Some people…. What part of every first team central midfield being out are people not grasping…… not being able to get hold of a midfield at this level is massive, Newcastle bypassed us with ease because they had better midfielders on the pitch than we did….. No surprise, calm the **** down.

Not really alarming is it, considering that our starting and backup CM were missing…. We could never get control of the game at all, and Newcastle are a good team. Dust down, regroup and go again.

You expect better from two players with PL experience though? Skipp is just plain dreadful, and Hamza to be fair to the lad has never been good enough at this level. Not much Ruud could do today with starting CM and back ups all out….

Skipp is ****ing rubbish, all he does is run around making half hearted tackles and the ball just bounces off him like a ping pong. I thought he was a decent player, but **** me I was wrong, he has absolutely nothing about him apart from energy, what an absolute waste of money.

He was actually dreadful against West Ham, if he had started and played like he did then, we would be in the same position. For me, we’ve not been able to get on the ball, because neither of the CM have the ability to do so, so naturally, Newcastle have had the run of St. James’ because their CM are a streets ahead of Skipp and Hamza.

At the minute some fans are just one extreme to another. If we beat wolves next weekend, some will be demanding a statue of Ruud….

He hasn’t been helped by the omission of our starting midfield……. Which some people seem to want to overlook. Wasn’t great today, but both Skipp and Hamza are absolutely dreadful, so it’s hardly a surprise we’ve been slapped. The one thing that is disheartening is we’ve appeared to just give up, which I’m not happy about.

Mads is ill apparently….. was before the game but decided to play.

I’d still rather have Ruud, even if we lose 10-0

Problem is the midfield. It concedes a lot of chances anyway, and when it’s considerably weakened we are bound to struggle. Today was always a right off with Skipp and Hamza in the team, we’ve just not been able to get a foothold in the game, and they’ve got some quality attackers that will simply punish you. Write this off and focus fully on Wolves.

Is turning off now the same as walking out on 70?

Skipp needs taking to a distant island and being left there. ****ing useless.

Wow, falling apart thought today would be tough but this is going to be a bloodbath.

Hideous goal.

Oh ****….. Ward? Game over.

We go from one extreme to another on here…….. Our best CM isn’t available, Skipp and Hamza are no where near good enough…… so naturally this will cause us problems, which it is….

Still in the game, to be largely expected really given our first choice midfield isn’t available. Skipp and Hamza just aren’t premier league quality, Skipp must be made of wood because everyone just bounces off him….. still we are in the game, Newcastle are being wasteful and we just need half a chance to get back level. I’d be delighted if we could sneak a point.

It’s not great no, but look at our midfield? The two starting are just grafters, Newcastle’s midfield forward is very good, so naturally they’ve got a foot hold of the game and are in control. We’re need to change something to have an impact. It was always going to be a hard test today, yes their defence is ageing but their attack makes no for it. We’re still in the game.