ToonForum - Newcastle United Forum

Brentford and all credit to them, are a better team than us , enough said.

Aye Brentford are good in attack & defence

We were s*** in attack and defence

I think fundamentally what we are seeing here is the result of us being rudderless last summer

No DoF , no CeO

Panic buys before season started- basically wasting a lot of money .

Id say we need to change everything

Absolute shambles and regression all over the pitch. Wissa can get on the bench, he’s bloody awful. Unless he’s Johnny on the spot for a tap in he’s terrible. Thick as mince, doesn’t know the offside rule, snatches at chances. Terrible. Start Osula as at least he’s got unpredictability on his side.

Said in another thread before that the time has come to cash in on Murphy for whatever we can get. Fallen off a cliff this season. One of the worst halves of football from any of our players this season.

Botman scored but looks like he’s lost any pace he had. Tripper is obviously heading to retirement or the MLS / Saudi but unfortunately we have to keep playing him.

Only positives today were Bruno back, and Elanga did well in putting a couple of good crosses in (one for the pen) and made some good runs.

Something has to change.

Oh, and Hall clearly pissed off and will have suitors in summer as we won’t have any meaningful European football, or more likely no European football.

Time for this club up and down the hierarchy to look in the mirror and work out what the f*** they are doing.

All I can hope for is a longer run in the CL to boost revenues for increased spending next summer to replace enough of this squad who needs upgrading.

f*** the FA cup and focus on the league and making the last 16 in Europe and see how that turns out.

Howe out? Is it time guys?.. thanks for the memories but it looks like last season he peaked. If he DOESN'T get Europe (very unlikely now) and gets knocked out the FA Cup next sat I'm seriously thinking PIF will revaluate the manage position especially as it's a world cup season they'll be lots of potential suitors available who I think could do a better job tactically and have that continental reach we need to attract the best players.. let's be honest would you rather play for Howe or a Mourinho, Alonso, Fabregas, De Zerbi, Conte, etc?

We need a squad overhaul too. Lots of ageing/not good enough players. Trippier, Kraft, Willock, Burn, Murphy, Pope for starts shouldn't be in the first team as regulars no more. Ramsey and Elanga might come good but the jury's still out on them. Wissa looks like money badly spent I don't know if it's fitness/sharpness or god whatever it is he needs to do better and Wolfie should be playing with another striker (all the time) he can't cut it as the lone striker it's as simple as that. Howe's built a team full of athletes and runners but a lot of these players lack technical ability or footballing intelligence. If Tonali, Bruno, Tino and Hall decide to go I'll understand as they'll have a lot of suitors but will we use that money wisely and recruit well enough to replace them? That's the big question.

Big, big summer ahead. Howe's in serious trouble.

Sanchino wrote: Sat Feb 07, 2026 7:59 pm Howe out? Is it time guys?.. thanks for the memories but it looks like last season he peaked. If he DOESN'T get Europe (very unlikely now) and gets knocked out the FA Cup next sat I'm seriously thinking PIF will revaluate the manage position especially as it's a world cup season they'll be lots of potential suitors available who I think could do a better job tactically and have that continental reach we need to attract the best players.. let's be honest would you rather play for Howe or a Mourinho, Alonso, Fabregas, De Zerbi, Conte, etc?

We need a squad overhaul too. Lots of ageing/not good enough players. Trippier, Kraft, Willock, Burn, Murphy, Pope for starts shouldn't be in the first team as regulars no more. Ramsey and Elanga might come good but the jury's still out on them. Wissa looks like money badly spent I don't know if it's fitness/sharpness or god whatever it is he needs to do better and Wolfie should be playing with another striker (all the time) he can't cut it as the lone striker it's as simple as that. Howe's built a team full of athletes and runners but a lot of these players lack technical ability or footballing intelligence. If Tonali, Bruno, Tino and Hall decide to go I'll understand as they'll have a lot of suitors but will we use that money wisely and recruit well enough to replace them? That's the big question.

Big, big summer ahead. Howe's in serious trouble.

Nothing should ( imo) or probably will change before summer.

At the end of the day we've got acsquad depth/ quality which is probably mid table . But we've got a handful of star players who can do it on a good day .

We need to focus firmly on CL now I believe.

PL top 6 is gone .

With players like Tino , Gordon, Miley , Joelinton hopefully back for the last 16 - we at least have a chance ( assuming we do get past Quarabag )

We've looked better in CL than we do in the physical cut & thrust of PL. Gordon seems to rise to that occasion.

So let's give that a big push - stranger things have happened.

But for sure , in close season there needs to ve a strategic rethink about how we close the gap to the bug 6 .

atm its getting bigger

After Qarabag it would be two legs against Chelsea or Barcelona. Given our ‘form’ and the form of those two teams it would take a huge optimist to see us going any further. If anything the fa cup is our only hope of salvaging the season, but it’s hard to see us going to Villa park and winning. I can’t even see us going to spurs and winning and they’ve been awful.

I think we are top of the league this season ……….
I’m terms of lost points from winning positions.
I believe it’s 19, just let that sink in

Sanchino wrote: Sat Feb 07, 2026 7:59 pm Howe out? Is it time guys?.. thanks for the memories but it looks like last season he peaked. If he DOESN'T get Europe (very unlikely now) and gets knocked out the FA Cup next sat I'm seriously thinking PIF will revaluate the manage position especially as it's a world cup season they'll be lots of potential suitors available who I think could do a better job tactically and have that continental reach we need to attract the best players.. let's be honest would you rather play for Howe or a Mourinho, Alonso, Fabregas, De Zerbi, Conte, etc?

We need a squad overhaul too. Lots of ageing/not good enough players. Trippier, Kraft, Willock, Burn, Murphy, Pope for starts shouldn't be in the first team as regulars no more. Ramsey and Elanga might come good but the jury's still out on them. Wissa looks like money badly spent I don't know if it's fitness/sharpness or god whatever it is he needs to do better and Wolfie should be playing with another striker (all the time) he can't cut it as the lone striker it's as simple as that. Howe's built a team full of athletes and runners but a lot of these players lack technical ability or footballing intelligence. If Tonali, Bruno, Tino and Hall decide to go I'll understand as they'll have a lot of suitors but will we use that money wisely and recruit well enough to replace them? That's the big question.

Big, big summer ahead. Howe's in serious trouble.

I think even if we do miss out on European football, (CL/Europa looks well out of reach now) I'm unsure whether Howe will get the sack, that is assuming we finish in the top half. That being said I'm starting to feel as though we may have gone as far as we can with Howe too. I just can't see us establishing ourselves as regular top 4/5 finishers and having regular CL football. Though I have no idea who would do a better job out of the managers who would be interested... I just hope it's not Mourinho.

Agree with the overhaul... and if we do lose the likes of Tino/Hall/Tonali/Bruno then I hope we are better prepared next summer because the last window was a shambles. Our scouting team better get busy.

Slim999 wrote: Sat Feb 07, 2026 8:22 pm

Sanchino wrote: Sat Feb 07, 2026 7:59 pm Howe out? Is it time guys?.. thanks for the memories but it looks like last season he peaked. If he DOESN'T get Europe (very unlikely now) and gets knocked out the FA Cup next sat I'm seriously thinking PIF will revaluate the manage position especially as it's a world cup season they'll be lots of potential suitors available who I think could do a better job tactically and have that continental reach we need to attract the best players.. let's be honest would you rather play for Howe or a Mourinho, Alonso, Fabregas, De Zerbi, Conte, etc?

We need a squad overhaul too. Lots of ageing/not good enough players. Trippier, Kraft, Willock, Burn, Murphy, Pope for starts shouldn't be in the first team as regulars no more. Ramsey and Elanga might come good but the jury's still out on them. Wissa looks like money badly spent I don't know if it's fitness/sharpness or god whatever it is he needs to do better and Wolfie should be playing with another striker (all the time) he can't cut it as the lone striker it's as simple as that. Howe's built a team full of athletes and runners but a lot of these players lack technical ability or footballing intelligence. If Tonali, Bruno, Tino and Hall decide to go I'll understand as they'll have a lot of suitors but will we use that money wisely and recruit well enough to replace them? That's the big question.

Big, big summer ahead. Howe's in serious trouble.

Nothing should ( imo) or probably will change before summer.

At the end of the day we've got acsquad depth/ quality which is probably mid table . But we've got a handful of star players who can do it on a good day .

We need to focus firmly on CL now I believe.

PL top 6 is gone .

With players like Tino , Gordon, Miley , Joelinton hopefully back for the last 16 - we at least have a chance ( assuming we do get past Quarabag )

We've looked better in CL than we do in the physical cut & thrust of PL. Gordon seems to rise to that occasion.

So let's give that a big push - stranger things have happened.

But for sure , in close season there needs to ve a strategic rethink about how we close the gap to the bug 6 .

atm its getting bigger

Good valid points, can't disagree. Of course Howe should finish the season with us and then we see what happens in the summer.. does he potentially have one eye on the England job? (who knows).. I don't know but I feel it's also a confidence issue with some of these players as they can't have turnt this bad overnight to not beat Brentford (respectfully) at home is unacceptable for a team aiming (minimum) for European football. At this rate we'll be lucky to get a Conference League spot. Also another issue I keep having with Howe is the fact as much as he's changed formations / tactics recently he still turns to his default predictable and now stale 433 playing the same way as we have for years he's failed to adapt / switch / change our style with players like Woltemade not fitting into our current system and he has to take accountability as that was his call this past summer as his nephew was part of the recruitment team (?) similar to Elanga, Wissa and Ramsey.

He's showing he's too much of a REACTIVE than PROACTIVE manager as instead of starting a recently confident Elanga he starts a half fit/lacking confidence Murphy, keeping a 35 year old slow declining Trippier on for the whole game instead of giving a youngster like Sahar a good 20/15 minutes to blood in him AND finally switching too 4231 and making subs in the second half WHEN we should have started with a 4231 just shows how I feel he's reached his limit unfortunately, I don't think he can take us any further than he has. He peaked last season as I've said numerous times. We need someone who isn't scared to be ruthless, drop there favourites/stop being loyal to senior players, can adapt to different footballing scenarios weather we're winning or losing and can show the versatility/tactically skill someone like Emery is currently showing this season. Someone who is not scared to take risks weather it be starting a youngster, subbing him on or dropping senior players. I just think Howe's too much of a nice guy and to be at the top of the top / elite level you have to be ruthless instead of emotion use logic / emotionless when it comes to picking players and tactics.

Finally someone from Bournemouth mentioned that this is a similar pattern to how Howe failed there, he had a brilliant first 2/3 years then by the 4th and 5th year things went stale eventually ending up relegated and he couldn't turn it around with a leaky defence, tactical inflexibility, no Plan B, stubbornness and having loyalty to his ''favourites'' instead of players who deserve it via merit (form). Doesn't that sound so familiar now? Hope it's not a case of Deja Vu as I do want Howe to succeed and sacking him may not necessary solve things but if this continues it will be something to seriously consider this summer. Hope he can turn things around but it's unlikely as I don't see us winning the FA Cup or the Champions League. Hope I'm proved wrong.

jimileysbaldhead wrote: Sat Feb 07, 2026 2:18 pm

UlversToon wrote: Sat Feb 07, 2026 10:46 am

We were robbed by VAR that day as well!

...I was there, it was a disgraceful decision. The bone wasn't even sticking through the bloke's sock when the Newcastle full back broke his leg.

Spurs game.. Miley and Gordon will still be out so I say we take this approach (away game, counter attack style at pace, speed in transition and try to stay compact/tight at the back).. unlikely Howe will do this but yeah this would be my line-up (thinking about roation and the Villa game which is a BIG one in this season's context now)

Ramsdale
Thaiw Botman Burn
Murphy Bruno/Ramsey Tonali Hall
Ramsey/Woltemade
Elanga Osula

PLEASE do not play Trippier again or if you do play him not for the full match, he's clearly lost his pace and acceleration so any winger/attacker with decent pace will rip him to shreds. Try Ramsey / Bruno / Woltemade in a free roaming no.10 position so they can pass and use there technical ability to get Elanga/Osula running into space and using there movement effectively. Murphy / Hall as wing-backs to provide the crossing/width and the back three should be solid enough but when we're defending it will be a 532 but attacking it'll be like a 3412 sort of formation. I think that's the best we can do with our current injuries, confidence low and we're struggling to get a foothold of games in the middle.

For the Villa game we can then try something like this.. (If Miley/Gordon are back fingers crossed)..

Pope
Thaiw Botman Burn
Miley Bruno Tonali Hall
Woltemade
Wissa Barnes/Gordon

Gives us good flexibility and freshness for each game. Saying all this.. I know Howe won't do this, but here's hoping. We need a change of formation / tactics especially for these away games.. after that we go to Qabarg away then we can mix it up and go back to a 433 with something like this

Pope
Trippier Thaiw Burn Hall
Miley Willock Ramsey
Elanga Osula Barnes/Gordon

We need to mix and match, rotate our options and keep everyone fresh.. then for City boom again another tough away game..

Pope
Thaiw Botman Burn
Murphy Burno Tonali Hall
Woltemade
Wissa Gordon

Hopefully by the City game Tino and Big Joe are back but these are the sort of line-ups and formations I want too see now. We need to start being difficult to play against and hard to beat, go back to basics and reset.

How bad are some of these kids on the bench if they’re never given a chance even when certain first team players have played too much and are absolutely on their arse? Other than Miley when his hand was forced, I can’t recall Howe ever giving anyone a chance.

Brighton are in poor form and giving starts to two teenagers today. Who knows if it’ll work, but they’re giving them a shot.

bodacious benny wrote: Sun Feb 08, 2026 2:08 pm How bad are some of these kids on the beach if they’re never given a chance even when certain first team players have played too much and are absolutely on their arse? Other than Miley when his hand was forced, I can’t recall Howe ever giving anyone a chance.

Brighton are in poor form and giving starts to two teenagers today. Who knows if it’ll work, but they’re giving them a shot.

Exactly. Perfect example. Why have Alex Murphy, Neave and Sahar if your not even gonna give them minutes to blood them in? Were is that young korean winger we got.. Alfie Harrison? Anthony Munda? Pivas? Matheus Ferriera(scored a hat-trick the other day)?

We have talent in the youth set up but we're not using it. What's the worst that can happen? Rather take a risk than play a past it old and slow Trippier who will get burnt and toasted by any half decent winger with some sort of speed and shoehorning Burn at LB just use Sahar and Alex Murphy. Give Neave some mins over our underperforming strikers. Why not go for it? His stubbornness to his so called favourites is gonna cost him his job by the looks of it. Burn, Willock, Pope, etc.. Why start a half fit Murphy who's just coming from injury over Elanga who's looked promising in the last few weeks.. as much as people can talk about PIF/players not performing this is mainly down to Howe's tactics and team selection.

Sanchino wrote: Sun Feb 08, 2026 4:26 pm

bodacious benny wrote: Sun Feb 08, 2026 2:08 pm How bad are some of these kids on the beach if they’re never given a chance even when certain first team players have played too much and are absolutely on their arse? Other than Miley when his hand was forced, I can’t recall Howe ever giving anyone a chance.

Brighton are in poor form and giving starts to two teenagers today. Who knows if it’ll work, but they’re giving them a shot.

Exactly. Perfect example. Why have Alex Murphy, Neave and Sahar if your not even gonna give them minutes to blood them in? Were is that young korean winger we got.. Alfie Harrison? Anthony Munda? Pivas? Matheus Ferriera(scored a hat-trick the other day)?

We have talent in the youth set up but we're not using it. What's the worst that can happen? Rather take a risk than play a past it old and slow Trippier who will get burnt and toasted by any half decent winger with some sort of speed and shoehorning Burn at LB just use Sahar and Alex Murphy. Give Neave some mins over our underperforming strikers. Why not go for it? His stubbornness to his so called favourites is gonna cost him his job by the looks of it. Burn, Willock, Pope, etc.. Why start a half fit Murphy who's just coming from injury over Elanga who's looked promising in the last few weeks.. as much as people can talk about PIF/players not performing this is mainly down to Howe's tactics and team selection.

The feels like the crux of it - that he's so married to his tactics and trust in his preferred players to execute them, that he really seems reticent to introduce youth, or in the transfer market take risks on anyone unproven. And to his credit, for a long time that loyalty and detail-oriented execution was among our strengths, but now it feels like a constraint.

Again though, do we know that? Obviously the "Howe's nephew" period is an awful concept before anything else, but we've clearly had no one properly involved in recruitment for about 18 months. It's hardly surprising we've gone for known PL quantities with that kind of turmoil. It's really poor from the club.

As for the U21s, I've only heard a couple of reports but none of them sound fantastic. You could throw Shahar in but he's odds are destined for League One, I'd probably prefer shifting Hall to right back and playing Burn much as that pains me. Krafth being out isn't helping and other than being nice to him I can't see why we didn't recall Targett.

Colly wrote: Mon Feb 09, 2026 9:30 pm Again though, do we know that? Obviously the "Howe's nephew" period is an awful concept before anything else, but we've clearly had no one properly involved in recruitment for about 18 months. It's hardly surprising we've gone for known PL quantities with that kind of turmoil. It's really poor from the club.

As for the U21s, I've only heard a couple of reports but none of them sound fantastic. You could throw Shahar in but he's odds are destined for League One, I'd probably prefer shifting Hall to right back and playing Burn much as that pains me. Krafth being out isn't helping and other than being nice to him I can't see why we didn't recall Targett.

This is baffling for me. Hall is clearly an injury waiting to happen now and I doubt Boro are paying a huge chunk of Targett's wages so we should have got him back last month. Incredibly poor from the club, whoever was deciding it.

Is there a chance we didn't have a recall clause in the loan deal? I'm not familiar enough to know if that's even possible. But I can see a scenario where they just wanted off his wages and had false certainty there was no chance we'd want him back.

Remember Colo wrote: Tue Feb 10, 2026 2:41 pm Is there a chance we didn't have a recall clause in the loan deal? I'm not familiar enough to know if that's even possible. But I can see a scenario where they just wanted off his wages and had false certainty there was no chance we'd want him back.

Not sure, but they way reliable podcasts talked about it (e.g. pod on the tyne) it sounded like a legitimate option.