The one lesson Eddie Howe must learn after Newcastle United's performance against Barcelona
It would be easy to sit here and write about all the things that Newcastle United did wrong tonight as they fell to a 1-2 defeat against Barcelona.
However, the truth is, the lads did us proud on the whole. The spirit was there, the tenacity was there, but, and this is honestly getting annoying, how many times do we have to say it - there was just nothing in the final third.
The difference tonight, though, was that the creativity was there, the balls into the box were there, but what wasn't there was a centre-forward to do something with it.
We don't know what Eddie Howe sees in Anthony Gordon that makes him think he's a suitable replacement as a centre-forward, but literally nobody else does.
NUFC Twitter all seem to agree that Anthony Gordon should never play as a centre-forward
The Gordon as a striker experiment has failed every time Howe has tried it, and when we saw that teamsheet tonight, we, along wth pretty much every other Newcastle United supporter, collectively rolled our eyes as we knew what was going to happen.
Unfortunately, we were all proved right pretty early on when Gordon fluffed that glorious chance by kicking fresh air instead of the ball.
It's no coincidence that Gordon's 90th-minute goal came from him playing in his favoured position because that's where he's best, that's where his instincts are, more often than not, spot on.
Eddie Howe needs to rethink his approach when it comes to Anthony Gordon
Tonight is the night that Eddie Howe must retire the idea that Anthony Gordon is a centre-forward.
Will Osula is an absolute wildcard and clearly isn't first-team ready yet, but we'd rather see him on the pitch than Gordon through the middle again.
We know it's early in Nick Woltemade's Newcastle career and that he struggled to keep up on Saturday after an hour, but had he been on the pitch from the start, we genuinely believe we'd have won tonight.
