Newcastle v Aston Villa Saturday 19th December 2015 5.30pm kick off

Veretout and Ayew head and shoulders above the others. Thought Okore and Hutton were decent.

Shape and intensity in 1st half was laughable. Sanchez Gana and Westwood should never ever be on pitch at same time, huge error from the start.

January is so important, we are desperate for a Keeper, General, LB and a striker, but they must be quality, however, anyone will be an improvement in goal, Bunn must be biblically bad in training for this muppet to start every game.

...........It aint over till its over!

Veretout MOTM for me.

I find it hard to criticise Bacuna, he always gives 100% and has been stuck in various positions, some games he is ok to good and others are poor but seems to get through.

Thinman wrote:I think Gil would have been in danger of drowning on that pitch!

It does seem odd he's not even making it on the pitch as a sub. Even out of position on the right wing he played well with Hutton, defended and put in some decent crosses. It's the bloody 4-1-4-1 again, I just don't think he fits in. He and Grealish are looking like they're not going to get much game time when we get a big striker in next month. Ayew looks excellent on the left wing, better than when he's the lone striker up front, and he's happy busting his balls for a full 90 minutes so unless you let him take over on the right from Traore (yeah, right) to allow Grealish on the left, I can't see Jack seeing any action either.

avfc85 wrote:I find it hard to criticise Bacuna, he always gives 100% and has been stuck in various positions, some games he is ok to good and others are poor but seems to get through.

Yes, I agree, plus (like Richardson) it's not his fault he's played out of position, at least they try. The problem is that he's just not particularly good in his preferred position! He would, however, be better than Westwood or Sinclair in front of Hutton, but even then I'd rather see Traore or even Gil play there.

We improved to play much better in the second half we need to play like that second half from the start in every game.

We went for a long time only playing one good half each game. Recently, we have played no good halves. However, the tide may be turning. In Fox / Krulak we trust.