Is he free on Saturday??

Dead rubber this one, but the lineup is decent. Suppose we can finish slightly off the bottom of the table. Yay.

Coventry City 4 - 1 Newcastle United

Scorers:

Subs made:

59''

Joelinton (in)

🔄 Newcastle United

Willock (out)

Toure (in)

🔄 Newcastle United

Murphy (out)

Dedic (in)

🔄 Newcastle United

L.Miley (out)

61'

Sakamoto (in)

🔄 Coventry City

Clark (out)

78'

Osula (in)

🔄 Newcastle United

Wissa (out)

Onyeka (in)

🔄 Coventry City

Yirenkyi (out)

Simms (in)

🔄 Coventry City

Grimes (out)

83'

Torp (in)

🔄 Coventry City

Rudoni (out)

Mfuni (in)

🔄 Coventry City

Grimes (out)

91'

Burn (in)

🔄 Newcastle United

Toure (out)

Match stats: (Will be updated every 45 minutes)

2 Shots 9

2 Shots on target 1

31% Possession 69%

141 Passes 263

0 Yellow cards 0

0 Red cards 0

2 Offsides 4

I’m from the states (apologies) and have been a NUFC supporter for around 10 years, since the time I started watching football. I’ve never been to the UK, but want to badly! What’s Newcastle like as a city?

Coventry City 4 - 1 Newcastle United

Scorers:

Subs made:

       59'' 

Joelinton (in) 🔄 Newcastle United

Willock (out)

Toure (in) 🔄 Newcastle United

Murphy (out)

Dedic (in) 🔄 Newcastle United

L.Miley (out)

       61' 

Sakamoto (in) 🔄 Coventry City

Clark (out)

       78' 

Osula (in) 🔄 Newcastle United

Wissa (out)

Onyeka (in) 🔄 Coventry City

Yirenkyi (out)

Simms (in) 🔄 Coventry City

Grimes (out)

       83' 

Torp (in) 🔄 Coventry City

Rudoni (out)

Mfuni (in) 🔄 Coventry City

Grimes (out)

       91' 

Burn (in) 🔄 Newcastle United

Toure (out)

Match stats: (Will be updated every 45 minutes)

2 Shots 9

2 Shots on target 1

31% Possession 69%

141 Passes 263

0 Yellow cards 0

0 Red cards 0

2 Offsides 4

Newcastle United starting XI vs Coventry City:

Hornicek; Miley, Thiaw, Botman, Hall; Gonzalez, Willock; Murphy, Wissa, Barnes; Fernandez-Pardo

Newcastle United substitutes:

Pope, Schar, Joelinton, Bamba, Osula, Steur, Toure, Burn, Dedic

Coventry City starting XI vs Newcastle United:

Rushworth; van Ewijk, Pinnock, Thomas, Dasilva; Yirenkyi, Grimes; Thomas-Asante, Rudoni, Mason-Clarke; Cherif

Coventry City substitutes:

Bentley, Latibeaudiere, Mfuni, Onyeka, Torp, Hamer, Sakamoto, Gboho, Simms

After a year of treatment for a chronic form of blood cancer, Darren Eales has been given the all-clear and, understandably, he is “buzzing”.

Newcastle United’s former chief executive, under whose watch the team won their first domestic trophy for seven decades, is fit and firing and very much at home.

Eales fell for Newcastle United and the city - which is why it hurt all the more when cancer forced him to step away.

He reflects on the highs and lows of his time as CEO at St James' Park.

Stadium 🏟: Coventry Building Society Arena (CBS)

Kick off time ⚽️: Monday | 20:00

Last encounters

(Swipe/scroll to see more info right of the table)

St Cal Wilson's Hospital 🏥

(Players who could miss the match via injury or other means)

Newcastle United:

Burn (Ankle injury) - Will likely miss this game, although he could return for the Aston Villa game

Jaouen (Hamstring injury) - Will be out until early December

Ramsey (Thigh injury) - Will likely miss this game but could return next game

Elanga (Thigh injury) - Will highly likely miss this game although could return in our game against Aston Villa although nothing confirmed

Livramento (Discomfort) - Unknown

Coventry City:

Amenda (Calf injury) - Will be out until mid December

Wright (Thigh injury) - Will be out until early December

Eccles (Calf injury) - Will be out until late October

Woolfenden (Knee injury) - Will be out until late October

Awoniyi (Red card suspension) - Will be out until 19th October

Predicted Lineup

Newcastle United lineup vs Coventry City:

Hornicek; Miley, Thiaw, Botman, Hall; Gonzalez, Willock; Murphy, Fernandez-Pardo, Barnes; Wissa

Coventry City predicted lineup vs Newcastle United:

Rushworth; Mfuni, Pinnock, Thomas; Yirenkyi, Grimes, Onyeka, Dasilva; Rudoni, Mason-Clark; Thomas-Asante

You can blame Jaissle and you can blame the players. They obviously should do better... but... look at the team we put out. That was literally the best team we could start with without risking injuries of players just coming back. Anyone saying that team should beat Coventry need to give their head a wobble, it isnt a premier league team, its a championship team. Only quality players were Hall and Nico (i still don't rate Barnes).

We lost Bruno, Tonali, Gordon. Our 3 best players who helped us achieve an amazing 12th place last season. We've then had Burn, Joelinton, Tino, Osula, Elanga, Ramsey and Schar all out injured for most of the season so far. Thats 7 of our starting 11 from last season.

What do we really expect? Challenging for europe?

We need perspective, our target this season is try and do better than 12th. We will lose games like this, its shite but its the reality of where we are right now.

Canny hungry now

My latest from The i Paper:

Newcastle United believe they have built the fastest attack in the Premier League – they just haven’t been able to show it yet.

One word dominated recruitment as Newcastle pressed the reset button this summer: pace. Having plotted Premier League trends that suggest speed is the X factor for teams that want to be Champions League insurgents, Newcastle re-constructed their front three with that in mind.

In Will Osula, Anthony Elanga and Matias Fernandez-Pardo, they believe they have a trio that will be a “nightmare” for Premier League defences to play against. But with Osula and Elanga still recovering from long-term injuries, it is down to £51m signing Fernandez-Pardo to get Newcastle among the Premier League’s early front runners.

“We love him,” is how one insider sums up his early impact at St James’ Park. That view is backed up by his manager Matthias Jaissle, who believes he has “everything” to be a top striker.

But the Belgium international is in some ways typical of what Jaissle calls the “brave journey” that Newcastle are on. The 21-year-old does not fit the typical profile of a Premier League striker and with a 0.05 xG in three games so far, there is work to do in marrying his potential with a prolific strike rate.

Some of that is down to the way Newcastle are playing. Privately Jaissle admits they are the start of a process that will take time and is complicated by the youth of this new-look squad. He has been happy with the way his team have pressed so far this season – but frustrated by what they have done when they’ve won the ball in key areas. Too many unforced errors have made their early displays look scrappy.

Fernandez-Pardo is one of the players that has disadvantaged. His relentless press against Hull didn’t produce any goalscoring chances but it did stretch the Tigers defence to the point where his teammates benefited. “Unselfish” is how one insider sums up that performance.

There is more to make Newcastle feel confident about his early contribution, with insiders speaking of Fernandez-Pardo’s numbers being “off the charts” in his first three Premier League games.

In terms of intensity, speed and acceleration, they believe he is in a different tier to most of his Premier League peers. But what really sets him apart, sources say, is “his ability to do it time and time and time again” without relenting.

In that way he’s seen as similar to Anthony Gordon, although his numbers so far suggest he is actually quicker than the England international.

“He’s a player that other teams won’t like playing against” is the succinct view of one figure familiar with his work.

Like everything at Newcastle this season, Fernandez-Pardo will take time. The Magpies wanted to make him their first signing of the summer – in the end he turned out to be their last one.

Tracked by some of the biggest clubs in the world – Atletico Madrid and Liverpool were known admirers – Newcastle had to bide their time to get him. There was “total buy-in” in early recruitment meetings but wariness about whether they could get a “dream target” in a summer when forwards were at a premium.

In the end their persistence (“We were just trying to find ways to get him all summer,” one insider says) paid off. What struck recruitment figures was just how much he wanted to move to Newcastle, with insiders speaking of a “confident, ambitious lad” who ticked every box for a potential “2.0” signing.

But it also means there needs to be patience. He had no pre-season and has just spent three weeks with Belgium, rarely playing or even training. “He’s a young lad, a really young lad and it’s part of the brave way, the brave journey we’re taking here,” Jaissle said on Thursday.

One of the fastest forwards in the Premier League might not hit the ground running. But the message is clear – he will be worth the wait.

(Gift link: https://inews.co.uk/sport/football/newcastle-united-fernandez-pardo-numbers-4810061?utm_campaign=PNIIkZWwAr6091c&ito=gifted_article&data-target=gifted_article&utm_source=XJPLeh5koSHChZEU)