Relegationometer

Depends on how much worse the organisation and defence is compared to Rafa. People forget how bad some of our players can be, and Perez and Rondon were key to the system.

 

I’d say we’d end up with at least 10 points less than last season, which is relegation material.

There's a lot of merit to this. Schar looked amazing under Rafa because people were drilled to make  intelligent runs. As a defender, defending isn't his greatest strength and might struggle when under more pressure. As will The Captain, almost certainly.

If they really just get sent out to run around a bit, then we're going to get pounded.

Not too worried about this season, it's next season that worries me.

For all the good performances against the top 6 they resulted in 3 points.

The 14 games against Brighton, Palace, West Ham, Bournemouth, Cardiff, Fulham and Huddersfield gave us 17 points. Whilst Bruce is a far inferior coach to Rafa I actually think he is more likely to get a result at home against all of these than Rafa's system + our players would be.

So we are going to take a few heavy beatings, but we'll also win a few more games just by not having such a systemic approach to games. The front 3 + Carroll will get chances and will score goals. For the casual fan I'd actually wager that match day will be more fun this year, but its not sustainable and once Bruce gets his 'methods' ingrained we will see results suffer - ala Pardew.

Its when rather than if Newcastle will be relegated. It might not happen this season although its a strong possibility, but its going to happen fairly soon.

Its just not sustainable to run the club the way it is. You can't get away with cutting corners and appointing managers like Bruce at this level and expect to stay in the Premier League. You could probably just about get away with it during the Pardew era when the league was still full of pfms and badly run clubs like Villa and Sunderland.

However, the Premier League has changed, clubs are moving away from short term managers like Allardyce and Pulis in favour of progressive managers with modern ideas and long term thinking. Other clubs are appointing the best directors possible to help their clubs reach higher levels. Other clubs are scouting and buying better quality players. This was an area when Pardew was in charge that Newcastle were good at, but other clubs have pulled ahead of them in this department.

The Premier League has outgrown Newcastle under Ashley and once again they will find out the hard way.

We'll finish about 13th. We'll be swirling around the plug-hole for the foreseeable future but I think the players we have will be enough to keep us up this year.

Was a solid 12 after they announced Brewce, but seeing just how terrible Norwich were reminded me that the bottom half of the PL is pure shit.

I'm at 4.

Was a solid 12 after they announced Brewce, but seeing just how terrible Norwich were reminded me that the bottom half of the PL is pure shit.

 

I'm at 4.

Extremely generous that.

How close to Rafa’s points total do you think Bruce will get?

Because there is no god, Brewce will probably end up doing what p*rdew did where he fluked 5th, despite a string of awful managerial decisions.

Doubly infuriating because Fat m*ke has given Brewce money to spend, but let Rafa walk.

If there was any justice, they'd get relegated,  but the way things have been going, I can already see the s*** eating grin on fatty's face when Sky Sports are interviewing him and sucking him off because Brewce has got the club into the top half.

Entire season depends on Joelinton. If he flops we're down. There just isnt enough up front to keep us in the league.

Rests as much on Almiron imo.

Was a solid 12 after they announced Brewce, but seeing just how terrible Norwich were reminded me that the bottom half of the PL is pure shit.

 

I'm at 4.

 

Extremely generous that.

 

How close to Rafa’s points total do you think Bruce will get?

He could well match it, just obtain them against the real dross who Rafa sometimes struggled against.

Our GD will be miles worse though, giving the real story of the season

Because there is no god, Brewce will probably end up doing what p*rdew did where he fluked 5th, despite a string of awful managerial decisions.

 

Doubly infuriating because Fat m*ke has given Brewce money to spend, but let Rafa walk.

 

If there was any justice, they'd get relegated,  but the way things have been going, I can already see the s*** eating grin on fatty's face when Sky Sports are interviewing him and sucking him off because Brewce has got the club into the top half.

No way in a month of Sundays we are finishing 5th again, not unless Joelinton turns out to be far better than his stats would suggest - and if that is the case we will have to eat humble pie and give credit to our scouting team. That season we finished 5th we had a front three of Cisse, Ba and Ben Arfa, that would frighten a lot of teams tbh.

I think the pundits are right, survival will be all we are looking for, whether that means finishing 12th or 17th doesn't really matter.

I think the new signings will produce some results and points up until around Christmas when I think we'll go into a tail spin and a dreadful run of results.

Most bookies have slashed the pre-season relegation odds on Newcastle from 7/2 down to around 2/1 and lower.

After the Norwich result of course the swingometer will move either way - a crucial test of Brucetics and team spirit

Can’t believe I actually made a few quid profit on backing us for the top 4 this summer.

By fluke or by crook we'll stay up. Turgid season of the occasional hiding, tepid displays and the odd spark from the players to itch around 40 points. Alot of shit at the bottom and we might have threw another money for the odd flash of inspiration up front and of course the well drilled defence coached into them by Rafa should last long enough before Bruce works his magic and gets us relegated next year. This is, of course, after we have made a tidy profit on a few of our stand out players this season.

Because there is no god, Brewce will probably end up doing what p*rdew did where he fluked 5th, despite a string of awful managerial decisions.

 

Doubly infuriating because Fat m*ke has given Brewce money to spend, but let Rafa walk.

 

If there was any justice, they'd get relegated,  but the way things have been going, I can already see the s*** eating grin on fatty's face when Sky Sports are interviewing him and sucking him off because Brewce has got the club into the top half.

 

No way in a month of Sundays we are finishing 5th again, not unless Joelinton turns out to be far better than his stats would suggest - and if that is the case we will have to eat humble pie and give credit to our scouting team. That season we finished 5th we had a front three of Cisse, Ba and Ben Arfa, that would frighten a lot of teams tbh.

 

I think the pundits are right, survival will be all we are looking for, whether that means finishing 12th or 17th doesn't really matter.

Sorry to be pedantic but I can't let Pardew get away with this. We actually kept a fully fit Ben Arfa on the bench until the second half of the season. Alan preferred Obertan. Later, Sammy Ameobi would render both Frenchmen defunct.

By fluke or by crook we'll stay up. Turgid season of the occasional hiding, tepid displays and the odd spark from the players to itch around 40 points. Alot of shit at the bottom and we might have threw another money for the odd flash of inspiration up front and of course the well drilled defence coached into them by Rafa should last long enough before Bruce works his magic and gets us relegated next year. This is, of course, after we have made a tidy profit on a few of our stand out players this season.

All well and good, but Brewcie’s Boys go up against some of that “shit” this weekend and are likely to get spanked

Brighton looked surprisingly fluid, solid and clinical in the first game. Could be a fluke, but I saw enough in the highlights, like high pressing and moving as a unit when out of possession, to suggest our fellow tailenders won’t just roll over.

By fluke or by crook we'll stay up. Turgid season of the occasional hiding, tepid displays and the odd spark from the players to itch around 40 points. Alot of shit at the bottom and we might have threw another money for the odd flash of inspiration up front and of course the well drilled defence coached into them by Rafa should last long enough before Bruce works his magic and gets us relegated next year. This is, of course, after we have made a tidy profit on a few of our stand out players this season.

 

All well and good, but Brewcie’s Boys go up against some of that “shit” this weekend and are likely to get spanked

Oh I know how shit we are and believe me I'm firmly in the relegation with record low points then freefall until we kill off the parasite camp. Just reckon we'll eek out of the relegation spots. Negativity around this fucking club means we can never get what we want, even wishing a relegation will go wrong.

Because there is no god, Brewce will probably end up doing what p*rdew did where he fluked 5th, despite a string of awful managerial decisions.

 

Doubly infuriating because Fat m*ke has given Brewce money to spend, but let Rafa walk.

 

If there was any justice, they'd get relegated,  but the way things have been going, I can already see the s*** eating grin on fatty's face when Sky Sports are interviewing him and sucking him off because Brewce has got the club into the top half.

 

No way in a month of Sundays we are finishing 5th again, not unless Joelinton turns out to be far better than his stats would suggest - and if that is the case we will have to eat humble pie and give credit to our scouting team. That season we finished 5th we had a front three of Cisse, Ba and Ben Arfa, that would frighten a lot of teams tbh.

 

I think the pundits are right, survival will be all we are looking for, whether that means finishing 12th or 17th doesn't really matter.

 

Sorry to be pedantic but I can't let Pardew get away with this. We actually kept a fully fit Ben Arfa on the bench until the second half of the season. Alan preferred Obertan. Later, Sammy Ameobi would render both Frenchmen defunct.

That 5th finish came about due to a tremendous team spirit and fabulous performances from Krul, Colo, Taylor, Cabaye, Tiote, Ba, Cisse and HBA. We scored so many screamers and great goals that season. We caught teams by surprise

Cisse was literally the best striker in the world for the 6 months from when he arrived. He would get one or two half chances a game and score a worldy with each shot.

I remember our tactics distinctly, Pardew had no idea how to set us up for when we had the ball. Plan A was to put Ba and Cisse on the last defenders and have Cabaye and Tiote sit on the toes of Colo. All our defenders and keeper were tasked with lumping it as far up the pitch as possible, which would bounce of an opposing defender's head and fall somewhere inbetween our attack and midfield who were too far back to contest the second ball. Then, once the opposition had the ball, Tiote and Cabaye would press for the mistake and try to launch a quick counter if they won the ball. If not, let Krul receive a long-shot or similar from the opponents' attack and repeat the process.

It was god-awful to watch and I hated every match I saw. Even at the time I was saying that were doing well in the league despite Alan Pardew, and without him I think with the players in the form that they were, we would have finished 4th.

I know it's stupid, but I feel like the game at the weekend is important on if we go down or not. I don't see us winning the next 4/5 after, so if we lose this weekend we could be looking at 6/7/8 games without a win, without Rafa this time.

No worries, there will be 36 more games this season where people will say exactly the same thing.

Entire season depends on Joelinton. If he flops we're down. There just isnt enough up front to keep us in the league.

 

Rests as much on Almiron imo.

Dubs gets injured we're fucked

I think there is a really strong likelihood they will go down this season. Lack of goals + Steve Bruce + Rafa’s defensive work undone

Cisse was literally the best striker in the world for the 6 months from when he arrived. He would get one or two half chances a game and score a worldy with each shot.

 

I remember our tactics distinctly, Pardew had no idea how to set us up for when we had the ball. Plan A was to put Ba and Cisse on the last defenders and have Cabaye and Tiote sit on the toes of Colo. All our defenders and keeper were tasked with lumping it as far up the pitch as possible, which would bounce of an opposing defender's head and fall somewhere inbetween our attack and midfield who were too far back to contest the second ball. Then, once the opposition had the ball, Tiote and Cabaye would press for the mistake and try to launch a quick counter if they won the ball. If not, let Krul receive a long-shot or similar from the opponents' attack and repeat the process.

 

It was god-awful to watch and I hated every match I saw. Even at the time I was saying that were doing well in the league despite Alan Pardew, and without him I think with the players in the form that they were, we would have finished 4th.

People complained a lot but it was better than it's given credit for.

We were a counter-attacking team. We let teams come on to us. We worked hard, had talented players that kept teams at arms length - often through determination, bravery and hard work rather than excellent coaching but the players were motivated and up for it. And the lads had quality and belief in themselves to get us enough goals to win matches 1-0.

Man United 3-0 was an excellent example of that. The team worked tremendously hard, battled away, won their individual battles through determination and skill. Then we scored 2 worldies to secure the win. A 25-yard freekick in off the bar iirc and another from a long ball to Shola beating Evans, then Ba beating Ferdinand for pace and strength and topping it off with an excellent finish. Ba was tremendous at scoring goals from minimal chances.

We played better stuff in the second half of the season with Ba, HBA, Cisse and Cabaye all together. Again, on the counter, through quality of individuals rather than coaching but oh well.

Kind of like when Burnley finished 7th but with better quality. It depended too much on thin margins, team spirit, bodies on the line to be sustainable with a small squad and a few more matches.