Newcastle United vs Aston Villa pre-match thread

[PaulWinch again]

A view from the Tyne:

They’re a better footballing side than us but the overall level of quality of the players is very close. Reckon Eddie will have the team snarling and ready to kick them all over, force fuck ups and nick some goals.

They remind me a bit of De Zerbi’s Brighton/Marseille.

Set traps to commit two players towards the ball and aim to use spare man to advance. That and Watkins long out ball which he likes to pin the defender wide and draw players in before finding the spare man.

Don’t really see the De Zerbi analogy. He’d far more dogmatic than Unai, and tactics are different.

[BoVillan esq]

Thing is their are some teams that just seem to go up a level when they play Villa, that could be just me focusing on Villa and a particular game but it does seem that way, the Newcastle games do seem like that, Newcastle form is not good at the moment, yet tomorrow  whole new story.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Sounds like they had a bit of a handy win at home v PSG.

PSV. Which is still handy, but not quite as handy.

Yeah, it was the mighty Sporting who beat PSG.

I still fancy up there. As always a single goal difference should do the job. 1-2 Villa.

[Clark W Griswold]

I'd go

Martinez

Cash
Konsa
Pau
Maatsen

Onana
Bogarde

Buendia
Tielemans
Rogers

Watkins

Me too except I'd chuck Bailey straight in for Buendia (assuming he's fully fit), so Rogers left Tielemans middle Bailey right.

[Toronto Villa]

It’s going to be really hard even if they don’t have Guimares. Newcastle can go 4th with a win. After a good result vs PSV in the CL in midweek they will be up for it.

[RamboandBruno]

Their home league record is: W7 D2 L2
Losses to Liverpool snd Arsenal. Good record, but they haven’t really humped anyone, most wins by one goal, biggest wins are 2-0 over Forest and Palace.
Our away league record: W5 D3 L3
We haven’t humped anyone away either. I know our record is terrible up there, and we mostly get battered, but I don’t think so today.

[eye digress]

I’m on board with that, too. But because today is one of those days where we win against all odds and expectations, I’m going to have to say we lose - otherwise it doesn’t work, right?

[RamboandBruno]

I’m on board with that, too. But because today is one of those days where we win against all odds and expectations, I’m going to have to say we lose - otherwise it doesn’t work, right?

The football Gods agree

[LeeS]

Well I’ve got a treble on United, Chelsea and Newcastle. I can’t do any more than that.

[Drummond]

Well I’ve got a treble on United, Chelsea and Newcastle. I can’t do any more than that.

You mentioned Newcastle twice. Or was it Leeds on Monday?

[oldhill_avfc]

John Percy in the Sunday Telegraph is reporting that Elliot is in the squad.

It seems the 10 game issue was 5 in echo half of the season.

[dave.woodhall]

It’s going to be really hard even if they don’t have Guimares. Newcastle can go 4th with a win. After a good result vs PSV in the CL in midweek they will be up for it.

We can go joint second and we had a good win in midweek.