00:00Dan, looking at Newcastle United and obviously their next Premier League fixture at home
00:06against Leicester City. Now, looking at Newcastle's form this season, it's been quite indifferent,
00:12quite tough for them, especially in a few away games. How do you sort of look at the
00:17way they've started this season? It's been, you know, not the sort of glistening season
00:22that they had a couple of seasons ago. Last season, obviously, was really halted by injuries
00:27and obviously the European football situation as well. How do you look at the way they've
00:33gone about this so far? And Leicester, you know, they are a rampant side under Ruud
00:38van Nistelrooy now. It looks like Jamie Vardy's hitting his big form again. How crucial is
00:44it that Newcastle get a win here at St James' Park and can carry on into this festive period,
00:50which is obviously always tough for every side in the top flight?
00:54Well, they need momentum, certainly, because they've passed up a lot of opportunities
00:57of late against sides you would have backed them to beat. I mean, you lose against West
01:02Ham, you draw against Crystal Palace, you lose against Brentford. And in all those games,
01:08you think these are sides who Newcastle, with the quality and the talent they have on the
01:11side, that they should be doing better against, really. And that's what's been unbelievably
01:15frustrating so far. It has put a bit of pressure on them anyhow, to be honest, because Newcastle
01:20are a side at the moment where they play their best football against the better sides in
01:23the league. They'll go and draw 3-3 against Liverpool, they'll go and beat Arsenal, they'll
01:26go and draw against Man City, they'll go and beat Tottenham, they'll go and beat Chelsea.
01:30But then they'll struggle against the other sides because they find it hard to break down
01:35low blocks or teams sitting deep. And some of the big names as well need to book their
01:41ideas up a little bit too, because they go through the motions a little bit in some of
01:45these not-so-big games, whereas they pull it out for the big ones. And so that's a frustration.
01:53You've got your likes of Gordons, your Isaacs, your Brunos, who are good players, but they're
01:57not turning up in the lesser games, so to speak. And that's costing Newcastle at the
02:01moment as well this season. Defensively, they've not been half as good. Either they're shipping
02:05too many goals at the moment. Attacking-wise, they're doing all right, but as I say, they're
02:10still not scoring as many as they were last season. And it's just a real frustration,
02:16to be honest, for Newcastle. And it comes at an important time as well. Of course, as
02:21I say, if you can beat Leicester, then you go next into a League Cup quarterfinal against
02:25Brentford, because that's important as well, because that's sort of what your season's
02:29currently riding on at the moment. The Cups, at least, at the moment. January, where they
02:34need to also spend and recruit well. And they'll probably have to sell to do that, which is
02:38the unfortunate way with PSR at the moment, in this modern football that we live in. But
02:43Newcastle just need to book their ideas up a lot at the moment, and a lot of the players
02:46need to step up. And Eddie Howe needs to take some blame as well. It's just not being good
02:50enough tactically, intensity-wise, and just overall, it just feels a bit stale.
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