Newcastle United vs Aston Villa pre-match thread

[Somniloquism]

Yep slightly less. Two of the Newky goals came from mistakes from pressuring the PSV defence high up the pitch which sounds familiar.

[Beard82]

I would be leaning towards Mings and Digne for this one - I think there physicality would be a struggle for us - partiuclarly given onana is unlikely to be able to play a full game.

Maybe even Guessard on the right to support Cash

I think getting anything here given our injuries should be seen as a good result. 

[ChicagoLion]

They are unconvincing at the back, s we should be able to score, it’s a matter of can we compete with them in midfield.
If not we get over run.

[eamonn]

I am guessing they flew back last night to arrive early hours of this morning, off home for a few hours sleep. Back at BMH Saturday and fly to Newcastle Sunday morning?
It’s hell of a disadvantage.

I assume they would travel up the night before. Its a 2pm kick-off Sunday, too early to be going up to Newcastle on the same day without proper pre-match routine.

Unai often talks about "rest and good food" between games with a short turn-around. And I think players are often given the tactics plan the morning of a game. So I guess today and tomorrow is about recovery and travelling again to another city.

[Baldy]

I would be leaning towards Mings and Digne for this one - I think there physicality would be a struggle for us - partiuclarly given onana is unlikely to be able to play a full game.

Maybe even Guessard on the right to support Cash

I think getting anything here given our injuries should be seen as a good result.

Thankfully, they have more injuries than us.

Taken from some page on internet:

'Speaking after the match, Howe said initial signs point to an ankle issue but stressed the full extent of the injury is not yet clear. The head coach acknowledged particular concern given Guimaraes’ reluctance to leave the pitch, describing him as a player who “never wants to come off”.

The timing of the injury is far from ideal for Newcastle, who are already dealing with an extensive injury list. Fabian Schar, Tino Livramento, Jacob Murphy, Emil Krafth and Jamal Lascelles remain sidelined, while William Osula and Dan Burn have only recently returned to training and were not ready to face PSV.

[Rigadon]

Cue that Joelinton ****** to scythe down more of our midfielders.  And, of course, not get carded.

[Dave]

We've won two Premier League games at their place since football started in 1992, the last time being the game where Bowyer and Dyer had their fight and Steven Taylor was hit by the sniper over twenty years ago.

Feels like that's been a bit too long.

Looks like they'll be carrying on their curious experiment of using Ramsey as a central midfielder to replace Guimares, so you'd think Emery will know how to target that.

[AV82EC]

We know they’ll high press, they always do against us, so hopefully Emery has a plan up his sleeve to counteract that.

[Dave]

F365's weekend preview:

Team to watch: Aston Villa

Let’s continue the theme of August reminiscences, because in few places would the contrast appear more initially stark than at Aston Villa.

They began the season with a grim goalless draw against the Newcastle side that had pipped them to Champions League football on the final day of 24/25 in a game that very much continued the trending themes at the time for two clubs who had endured awkward and unsatisfactory summers.

For Villa it would set a trend that would extend into September and a five-game winless run to start the season that didn’t even contain a goal until that fifth game.

Then they just won pretty much all the games for an extended period of time to become brief yet genuine title contenders.

But the reopening of the transfer window has brought back familiar doubts and truths, and despite Villa occupying an enviable position in the table and appearing certainties for Champions League football next season there is now once again a distinct sense of a buzz harshed.

Frustration at rules that bind them while being more easily navigated by the established big clubs, of simply not being allowed to compete on even terms with Newcastle, never mind the cosseted Big Six. Even the stupidest members of that group are annoying Villa. Especially the stupidest members.

A look at the table suggests this angst is misplaced; Villa remain closer to Arsenal than they do to fifth place, which will almost certainly be enough to achieve what Villa set out to achieve this season and which they looked a million miles away from doing back in August.

But time and results and other factors all have a funny way of shifting those sands beneath your feet. And with a slight dip in results and the return of the transfer window with its now familiar frustrations, there’s just a nagging sense that Villa are neither as happy as they should be, nor as they were just a few short weeks ago.