Newport County v Newcastle - League Cup 4th Round

[HowayTheLads]

Such a long time till these fixtures, few days before Christmas, will be interesting to see how either we or Brentford are playing by mid-December.

[bodacious benny]

Yeah, lots of games between now and then, no doubt injuries and rearranged games too for different reasons so lots of variables.

[Colly]

This is a massive statement, but I think Jonjo Shelvey has affected my enjoyment of this club far more than Mike Ashley over the last 3 years. I genuinely hate the man.

I've been having an argument with someone on twitter who believes he was our best player last night and put in a very good performance as a 'DCM'.

I think this is one of the worst bits, people who don't watch us regularly or frankly don't understand football think he's brilliant. Still baffled he managed to fool Benitez for so long.

[Colback's Orange Tufts]

I've been having an argument with someone on twitter who believes he was our best player last night and put in a very good performance as a 'DCM'.

oh god. He's such a liability defensively that his midfield partner wants to push up to help the attack, but knows it'd leave a big gap behind.

[jpg]

I've been having an argument with someone on twitter who believes he was our best player last night and put in a very good performance as a 'DCM'.

I think this is one of the worst bits, people who don't watch us regularly or frankly don't understand football think he's brilliant. Still baffled he managed to fool Benitez for so long.

Even if we did sign another CM you know Shelvey would still keep his place...

[bodacious benny]

Rafa did eventually drop him didn't he?

[Colly]

He got that injury which meant that Ki and Longstaff got to play and struggled to get back in afterwards.

In Bruce's slight defense he doesn't have the benefit of Schar and Lejeune making "auxiliary CB" Shelvey redundant, but with four at the back we can't afford to have no midfield. The possibility of a hollywood ball working once or twice can't outweigh the negative impact he has on us in terms of actual possession football.

[bodacious benny]

When Schar and Lejeune were playing it did make Shelvey a bit redundant given the way he plays and how deep he sits. Both Schar and Lejeune could pick that pass out of defence, especially Lejeune Who could make some cracking passes and Schar Was comfortable bringing the ball out of defence.

[Cal]

Team of the Round

[ALF]

Team of the Round

[bodacious benny]

Did Garth Crooks pick it?

[Colly]

I honestly don't know how he's managed to fool so many people for so long.

[bodacious benny]

I guess every club has a Shelvey; a player who from the outside occasionally looking in has a reputation for adding something special but in reality is very average / non-existent for much of the time but builds their reputation on doing something decent once every 5 or 6 games.

[Cal]

WhoScored player ratings are all down to the player stats, I believe, which doesn't really cover actions he wasn't involved in when sitting deep and watching play.

https://www.whoscored.com/Matches/15079 ... tle-United

He did, however, have the most touches (88), passes (61/72), key passes (6), and completed crosses (4/7) in the game, then also scored a goal and his penalty. The only things he's probably being marked down on are 3 fouls and the yellow card.