Iborra could be out for the rest of the season

[steveherbe]

Savage, Lennon and Izzet for me please.

[Pete from the USA]

I am really sad. Puel had finally sorted out his starting 11 with Ndidi and Iborra in front of the back four in a 4-2-3-1. This system was working great with victories against Brighton and West Brom to show. Now, with both Ndidi and Iborra out, things have imploded. The usual nutballs are calling for Puel to be sacked, as if changing managers will magically fix Iborra's hamstring. The race for 7th seems over.

 

Humph.

[Farrington fox]

18 hours ago, Hugo Sanchez said:

 

 

Please please tell me though, how he looked great ? Ask a Newcastle fan if they think he looked great when he came on and I bet they wouldn't even had realise he was on the pitch.

They would have seen the lads hair if nothing else.

[Bryn]

Just play Choudhury. Don't stand to lose much.

[Ted Maul]

Shame, he's been one of my favourite players this season. Adds a real presence and our results with him out of the side have been average at best.

 

Still, our season's over anyway- no chance of Europe and top half pretty much assured. 

 

Choudhury was good yesterday too, and an extended run of games will aid his development massively. Could turn out to be a good thing.

[FoxesDeb]

15 minutes ago, Ted Maul said:

Shame, he's been one of my favourite players this season. Adds a real presence and our results with him out of the side have been average at best.

 

Still, our season's over anyway- no chance of Europe and top half pretty much assured. 

 

Choudhury was good yesterday too, and an extended run of games will aid his development massively. Could turn out to be a good thing.

Yes he most certainly does 

[Pete from the USA]

12 minutes ago, Ted Maul said:

Shame, he's been one of my favourite players this season. Adds a real presence and our results with him out of the side have been average at best.

 

Still, our season's over anyway- no chance of Europe and top half pretty much assured. 

 

Choudhury was good yesterday too, and an extended run of games will aid his development massively. Could turn out to be a good thing.

This is a good point. The stakes in the next six games are practically zero. That means they have six league games just to train people. It's a luxury of sorts.

 

[reynard]

He was woeful yesterday. Very noticeable that the physicality showed by Newcastle really seemed to shake him up.

He's ok with the ball but for me he's moves it far too slowly.

[Ted Maul]

3 minutes ago, reynard said:

He was woeful yesterday. Very noticeable that the physicality showed by Newcastle really seemed to shake him up.

He's ok with the ball but for me he's moves it far too slowly.

Well obviously he struggled physically- his hamstring went 

[reynard]

1 minute ago, Ted Maul said:

Well obviously he struggled physically- his hamstring went 

Well he struggle physically before it went. I think he was genuinely surprised by how physical their midfield was.

[Hammo]

I want to see Adrien Silva start every game from here on in so I'm not too troubled by this news. I think Iborra's season has been very hit and miss.

[brucey]

1 hour ago, Pete from the USA said:

I am really sad. Puel had finally sorted out his starting 11 with Ndidi and Iborra in front of the back four in a 4-2-3-1. This system was working great with victories against Brighton and West Brom to show. Now, with both Ndidi and Iborra out, things have imploded. The usual nutballs are calling for Puel to be sacked, as if changing managers will magically fix Iborra's hamstring. The race for 7th seems over.

 

Humph.

Well, both our last two managers were sacked due to poor results obtained while having an understrength/injury hit midfield, so there is a clear precedent. Injuries happen in football (our CMs seem unusually vulnerable too), it's how the managers try to work around these difficulties.

[Pete from the USA]

7 minutes ago, brucey said:

Well, both our last two managers were sacked due to poor results obtained while having an understrength/injury hit midfield, so there is a clear precedent. Injuries happen in football (our CMs seem unusually vulnerable too), it's how the managers try to work around these difficulties.

I don't see how a different manager could have done better with the current squad. Sacking the manager every 15 games is just a way to make sure there's no strategy at all. I get the impression the owners never wanted Shakespeare. He was a temporary fix until they could get the person they wanted. 

 

But this thread is about Iborra. He needs Ndidi next to him to do the heavy lifting. Without Ndidi, Iborra can't handle the physicality, so now they are both out.  

[fazzyfox]

Apart from Burnley away which is a massive match for us we'll have Ndidi available alongside Silva for the other games. Unless there is literally nothing to play for (including league places - remember how we couldn't even risk giving Wasilewski 5 minutes v Bournemouth last season) this should finally give Silva a foothold to establish a place longer term. If there's nothing to play for then try Choudhry with Silva then Barnes alongside Ndidi.

 

For Burnley I'd consider putting Albrighton in there with Silva, Gray or Diabate wide and Shinji behind Vardy. 

In a way it is very bad luck with Ndidi's inccorrect double yellow at Brighton, Kingy being away on loan and James out but as much as I rate James you can't give him a long deal then bleat when he's injured when you knew about his injury record before offering it, like Arsenal were with Wilshere, or Ross Barkley unavailable for Chelsea.

 

Don't know if it was the combination of the starting pair but Newcastle bossed the game from the start, no one picked up Shelvey for his goal (Diabate seemed nearest at one stage but gave up chasing and let him go) and the passing was too slow and overly unambitious until after the goal (Silvas ball for the Mahrez 'incident' was early and purposeful). Hate to think that an unwarranted yellow card could be costing us 4-6 points, I presume that ref was allocated a fixture at the weekend and will be next week too.

 

Best wishes to Iborra and someone please stick Silva in the ice chamber til the weekend to avoid the inevitable training injury or we'll be heading to Burnley with Choudhry, Barnes and Filbert as our only available midfielders. 

Edited 8 April 2018 by fazzyfox

[lancyclaret]

Burnley still without their best midfielder Defour.

[KingsX]

7 minutes ago, lancyclaret said:

Burnley still without their best midfielder Defour.

What about Mee and Gudmundsson?

[Fightforever]

kroos busquets and de bruyne for me

[Anish]

On 4/7/2018 at 18:41, funkyrobot said:

If Choudry plays next week then he’s got to position himself further forward. In a game where we desperately needed to score a goal he positioned himself almost as a centre back as if it was us protecting the lead.

 

I could see Puel playing 3 in the middle with Albrighton potentially filling in the other CM position (even though he doesn’t convince in the central role) alongside Silva and Choudry. With Choudry to be the enforcer/water carrier. 

I agree to an extent - whilst he was covering the full backs when they went forward, he was still too timid and afraid to show for the ball in my opinion. He was constantly hiding behind their attackers pretending to be marked, so that he wouldn't receive the ball. When we were in possession he offered absolutely nothing and didn't create any space to receive the ball, but on the other hand his defensive positioning was sound and he covered a lot of ground and made some good interceptions and tackles (apart from the foul on the edge of the area, which was a naive challenge).

Edited 8 April 2018 by Anish