Kurzawa

[copthornemike]

Personally both Robinson and Kurzawa appear weak positionally and other sides can and do exploit this, but Robinson's pace and height mitigate this to an extent.
Newcastle certainly targeted our LHS, particularly successfully in the first match, rather less so this time.
So Kurzawa has yet to make a strong claim to date, but as others have said it is early days so hopefully his performances will improve to the extent he is at least a sound FB defensively.
In contrast Tete was in my opinion excellent at the other side of the defence in the the recent match, particularly in 1 v 1 situations.

[Bassey the warrior]

Too early to say how good he is defensively, but he's great in attack. His crosses are top quality, one area where Robinson needs to improve.

[Arthur]

He's on loan, isn't he? My guess is we'll bring in a different left-back on a permanent basis during the summer.

[Milo]

I completely disagree with the OP.

I thought he was caught out of position regularly, and nearly all their chances especially in the first half came down his side as a result of them getting in behind him far too easily.

I recognise his pre season consisted of Hull in the FA Cup, and making the jump to the Prem is never easy, so don't blame him per se. However, I think Silva should've plugged that gap much earlier in the game and his eventual subs at the end bringing James on etc (how many more games of him running around aimlessly must we suffer?) were also poor.

For all the good Silva has done this season it wasn't his best night! Oh well, 3 games to recover from the last match, and up against a top 3 side.. losing 1-0 in the final 2 minutes isn't anything to be embarrassed about.

[LC]

I completely disagree with the OP.

I thought he was caught out of position regularly, and nearly all their chances especially in the first half came down his side as a result of them getting in behind him far too easily.

I recognise his pre season consisted of Hull in the FA Cup, and making the jump to the Prem is never easy, so don't blame him per se. However, I think Silva should've plugged that gap much earlier in the game and his eventual subs at the end bringing James on etc (how many more games of him running around aimlessly must we suffer?) were also poor.

For all the good Silva has done this season it wasn't his best night! Oh well, 3 games to recover from the last match, and up against a top 3 side.. losing 1-0 in the final 2 minutes isn't anything to be embarrassed about.

For a player who virtually played no football this season, having come back off a long spell on the sideline through injury, to jump straight in against the most in-form team in the league, against the most inform winger in Almiron and Trippier, I thought he did okay. The vast majority of all their chances this season have come down the same side so it's not really surprising that was the case again. Given time, I think he will be an okay replacement for Robinson when he's injured