Bailey

Gray has 4 league goals, 2 of them pens. Gray can change games, like he did against City but he also pisses chances up the wall like he does every other game. Iwobi is more creative than Gray and he now has the same amount of goals. He also works harder. Personally I would mix and match between those two but its not like either one of them will be the saviour, it will be much of a muchness. The first Wilson goal had nothing to do with Keane, the second I think he stood too far off but the reason he was in that position is because we were up against the counter attack. I just checked the stats again and according to Whoscored, Wilson had 11 touches in the first 20 minutes. 5 passes, 3 unsuccessful touches, 2 tackled and loses possession and 1 offside. I haven't watched the game back to see what really happens so I can only go off those stats but at best it is a balanced duel between Wilson and our players. I disagree with the ball (if it is the one I am thinking of). Keane wasn't caught out, he just couldn't reach it and Godfrey should have been on the cover as that is his job in that position. Dyche changed tactics in both the United and Fulham games and we got back into them both. He also made changes in the Leicester game, moving us more onto the back foot and hitting them on the counter which was working. This. There is a massive section of football fans that seem to assume that the player that isn't playing is better than the one on the pitch. Sometimes new faces and new energy can work, other times they do not get up to the speed of the game and have little impact. When we have made subs, have any of them really come on to change the game in any way? I can't think of many, only Simms against Chelsea.

I would be tempted to start Onana in place of Gueye and then Garner in the same type of role Onana used to play. Personally I think Gueye is way off it across the 90 minutes for all that he does have some good patches within it. I could see Onana dominating the play a little bit more in that Rodri style role.

This. Mina and Coady are more immobile than Keane. Mina is more aggressive and Coady is better on the ball but slower and weaker. Less said about Godfrey and Holgate the better. Any one of those mentioned may come in and play better for a game or two, but you get bet your arse that after those couple of games, the same moans and groans will start coming about how shite they are and how someone else should get a go.

Wimp... He should have stayed on then

I have just read this. The sooner Mohsiri sells up and goes the better.

I agree. Sell Maupay to the highest bidder while we are at it.

He just fits the type of football Dyche is looking to play and it really shows the gap between him and the rest. If we stay up and he stays fit I can see him having a really good season under Dyche.

The issue for me is that whilst I think we are capable of getting into good positions in all 4 remaining games, the players are showing shocking tendancies of bottling it. Their keeper made some good saves yesterday but he shouldnt have had the chance. Against Newcastle we got into some good positions and the passing was shocking. I think we need something from Brighton/City because I dont see us being clinical enough to gaurentee to win both of the last two games.

He had started the game so well and showed exactly what we had been missing. Such a shame for him to go out that way.

McNeil for me. Probably should have made a couple of better decisions late in the game but there were times where he was popping up at left back then leading the charge on attack. I would love to see him with an attacking full back to give him a bit more space and another passing option.

As for the goals. The first is simple, we didnt win any of our challenges. We almost wave the first ball through. Mykolenko loses the second. I think Keane does the right thing to position himself where he does. The problem is Doucoure and Coleman both go out to Barnes and don't stop the cross and that creates the space for Soyuncu. Pickford probably should have done better too. I don't think it was a free kick to start with though. The second goal is just something you can't do against Leicester. When you are up against Maddison and Vardy you cannot give away a square ball with your team mates upfield. Its criminal from Iwobi. He had a easy ball to put Doucoure through first of all which is bad enough but to do that is just shocking. I then think he should have cleared out Maddison but his first reaction isnt to get fully goal side. I think he has a chance to do either action and make up for his mistake but he doesn't and its game over. Keane isn't winning that race and probably does well to not get sent off. Godfrey and Holgate would have. I think the penalty has to be given, but as a centre half its unlucky. His arm is out, it hits him, but he doesn't make an action towards the ball. I don't think its reasonable to expect defenders to have their arms behind their back. Whilst I didn't think Keane was responsible for either goal (the pen happens), for the rest of the game he was terrorised by Vardy. They clearly targetted him and he wasn't up to the task.

How did we not win that? Both sides had chances but how did Dom miss that? Iverson made 3 or 4 massive saves. Great game for the neutral, two teams really trying to win but not having the quality to do it. McNeil was probably a standout along with Tarkowski. Coleman was playing really well before his injury as well. Dom and Doucoure were probably then best of the rest with Garner. Iwobi and Keane were dreadful, Gueye kept vacating midfield, Mykolenko was devoid of most things and Patterson showed that he is certainly not going to be our saviour. I am really surprised that we didnt see any subs, although in fairness I thought we were leggy with about 20 mins to go but he sat us deeper, soaked up a bit of pressure and we caused them loads of problems on the counter in those last 10 minutes. The players I would have taken off, played well in that last period. I still think the extra energy would have helped, though it didn't help Leicester, so who knows.

I think that was in January. I Imagine that if we wanted him enough in the summer, we would have signed him. Whilst I do understand this to an extent, any manager gives a chance to these players in training day in day out. Its not like a fan who only gets to watch them at the game. Its another example of becoming a better player on the bench though as when they came out of the team, there wouldnt have been too many on here that would have argued given how poorly they were playing.

Gray has played 313 more minutes than McNeil. I disagree that he is our biggest goal threat. He probably takes more shots than anyone else but that is as far as it goes.

I dont think either of them are CBs at this level either unfortunately. Holgate played a whole season in the Championship at RB. The role we have our full backs play is really simple too. They arent being asked to raid forward or join in with midfield. They are basically being asked to play as a wide centre back and Godfrey in particular has the agility to do it. I don't think they are being hung out to dry at all, they just arent good enough but none of our full backs are at the moment. I have no idea what our scouts do but they clearly aren't very good at spotting talent.

This is another one of these cases whereby the player that isnt playing (or isnt at the club) becomes better by not playing. Its the same with Patterson. According to whoscored, Wilson didnt win a single aerial dual, he was disposessed 5 times (most of Newcastle players), and had 6 occasions of bad control (most of Newcastle players). He also only made 16 passes. The centre backs won 5 aerial duels between them (Keane 4), 5 tackles, 5 interceptions, 8 clearances and blocked 2 shots. The only similar performer was Onana. I didn't get your impression from the game and the stats don't back it up either. I thought they dealt pretty well with Wilson and Newcastle generally until it all fell apart at the end.

McNeil is our top scorer and Gray has only scored 2 non penalties. Iwobi is only 1 goal behind and had 5 more assists. Gray is hardly a game changer.

Brands seems to suggest him and Kenwright were on the same page trying to what was best for the club (on those particular occassions - not saying every time) whereas Mohsiri is the one doing as he pleases and causing disruption. This isnt the first article of this sort either. From everything I have read, I still believe Mohsiri is the biggest issue at the club, or at least has been in the last few years. I don't know how this supposed new investment will work, but hopefully it means he has less involvement in the club.

We need the mentality of having to win three games and nothing less will do.

With Patterson, I think he is worth a go ahead of the other two because of how badly they have done recently however lets not forget the fact he was in shocking form before his injury and needed to be dropped himself.

I don't think you can pin that result on Keane or Tarkowski. The former for the Isak goal was shocking but Godfrey was poor for two of them and Onana stopped tracking his man for one of them. Keane and Tarkowski aren't going to do a lot about that and for 70 odd minutes they kept Newcastle fairly quiet. A lot of the more hysterical posts (not suggesting you are) focus on that last 20 minutes and how the wheels fell off, not the good (albeit ugly) work that came before it. Gray is unreliable that is his problem and why I expect Dyche doesn't fancy him. He wants someone to put a ball in when they get the chance, not dribble into opposition players, which is exactly what he has done when he has played wide in the small moments under Dyche. Iwobi was shocking last night, but he got into a lot of really good positions before shitting his pants and fucking it up. One of the players you wanted back in the side (Doucoure) was notoriously bad for doing a similar thing last night. Unfortunately it is the type of player he has at his disposal to play in those positions. It is no surprise that the one attacking player he brought through at Burnley is the one who has stood out since Dyche's arrival. I have no issues with how he set the team out last night. There wasn't a lot between us and 3rd place Newcastle apart from quality when it mattered in the final thirds, which is something he hasn't had the chance to change.

Maybe, maybe not. I don't think anyone who watched Patterson earlier in the season would have thought we were particularly balanced, unless it was a case of being poor on both full backs. Godfrey can be quite dynamic going forward, but he isn't getting forward. I don't know if that is tactical or due to hesitancy. Patterson isn't great going forward either, but I suspect he would at least be more naturally inclined to play that way. I do think it is time the young lad was allowed a chance under Dyche as Godfrey and Holgate have shown themselves incapable. I didn't think Keane was that bad. The Isak goal was shocking but otherwise, I thought the performance of both centre backs was more of a factor of us being unable to control midfield than poor performance. They didn't stand out to me anyway. I think one of our biggest problems today was the midfield again. Gueye was poor, Onana was a bit of a ghost and Doucoure was doing Doucoure things (good and bad). The decision making from all three was poor and I think Garner would add that bit of control and quality we need. It would be interesting to see how he would get on alongside Onana and Doucoure. I am also worried that Iwobi losing his composure completely and it would be a coin toss between him and Gray. Everything was over hit or under hit, the one good thing he did all game, he still had a better pass on. Collectively as a group, we did not deal well at all with the pressure today.

I went with McNeil as I just felt he was the only one who was going to bring any quality and composure.

We just need to learn from this game and win the rest. For a long part of that game we matched Newcastle but their quality told in the end and when it went to two, the game gets away from you and it is what it is. We played in good areas of Newcastle's half but we were just so poor when the ball was in control and in good positions. We just wanted to play floaty high balls into Dom rather than the quality balls we have been playing in previous games. Iwobi, Gana, Doucoure in particular were the biggest culprits. Godfrey has just gone. I don't think he was a brilliant player to begin with but he has lost his pace, his defending has nose dived as a result and he shouldn't be on the pitch. I am not necessarily saying that Patterson (or Holgate) will be much, if any, better, but Godfrey isn't going to be the answer to any question. He needs to be taken out of the firing line. Another factor which is frustrating our attacking play is a lack of width. We see both wingers coming inside so often, and the fullbacks are still stuck in their own half and we play within the confines of the 18 yard box. When we don't have the composure to pick a pass or make the right decision, we need to create big chances and we are making the pitch too small. I am not sure why there is such a delay to the subs as well. I get that the choices aren't great but a handful of players had no right to play as long as they did. Sometimes just a change of energy can make a difference.

That sums this performance up. Massively over hit free kick.