Iraola’s Premier League debut. Newcastle at St James’ Park. 90+7 on the clock, 1-2 down, and Szoboszlai steps up to save it. A 2-2 draw — and the four of us can’t agree on what it means. A “5/10 for the season”, a car crash disguised as a point, or quietly the best-case scenario? Spoiler: we don’t land on anything.

JD’s confident verdict — and the tactical reality check

JD opened the show against the grain: he felt more confident in this setup than under peak Slot, and stood by it. Then Sheik’s tactical breakdown arrived to cool the room — both Newcastle goals, he argued, were 100% avoidable. Not moments of magic, not the run of play. Structural. The kind of goals you concede when the shape isn’t right, and that’s the uncomfortable part of a point on the road.

The double-pivot problem broke both goals

This is where it kept circling back: Gravenberch and Szoboszlai as a double pivot. Two excellent footballers, but overlapping profiles rather than complementary ones — and when it broke, it broke for both goals. It’s the same worry we aired in the season preview, only now with match evidence attached. Which teed up Vivek’s cold, cold take of the night: “Szoboszlai is NOT Gerrard — not even close.” Ask a midfield to be a metronome and a leader and you get neither.

The four debutants, ranked

The bright side, and there was a real one. Four debutants, and we ranked them:

• Jérémy Jacquet — a Rolls-Royce. The summer hype survived contact with St James’ Park.
• Araújo — the calm we said would settle a back line, mostly delivered.
• Muñoz — a solid first showing.
• Koumas — into the deep end, and held up.

The flip side of the team sheet: Rio looked like a fish out of water on the right, played out of position and never able to settle.

The scary bit: long balls and the Van Dijk gap

Newcastle went long and direct, and it exposed something we don’t love — a gap opening up between Van Dijk and Alisson that a smarter, quicker forward line punishes. Which brings us to Isak: a full 90 minutes, the St James’ boos ringing down on him. Did he actually deserve them? We weren’t unanimous, but the performance didn’t demand them.

Have we already looped back to Slot’s problems?

The title asks it and the episode couldn’t shake it: new manager, and yet the same tactical questions we spent last season on. Which fed the argument nobody quite wanted to have again — should FSG have picked Xabi Alonso instead? One debut isn’t a verdict, but it’s a seed of doubt, and we let it grow for a good ten minutes.

The signing that fixes everything

If the midfield is the fault line, who patches it before the window shuts? We put three names on the table — Adam Wharton, Ibrahim Sangaré, Lamine Camara — and argued the profile each one solves. And the other side of the ledger: with September 1 looming, who leaves? Curtis Jones and Harvey Elliott both came up as players who could be gone before the deadline.

Forest preview + the leaderboard reveal

Then the small matter of the next game: Liverpool host Nott’m Forest, and everyone put a number on it. Those calls now live on the Predictions page, waiting to be graded — and after Week 1, it’s Sheik sitting top of the leaderboard. Early bragging rights, duly noted on air.

Watch the full episode above for the arguments behind every take. Then do the honest thing: give us your rating for Iraola’s debut — a 5/10 or a 7/10 — and drop your Forest scoreline on YouTube or Instagram below. We read every one, and the best calls get read out on the next pod, which drops straight after full time on Saturday.