As Rafa Benitez took his Newcastle side down to Wolverhampton yesterday, to play Paul Lambert’s Wanderers, there was seemingly a sense amongst the Newcastle fan base that nothing less than a win would do.
In the run up to kick off, this sense was even stronger, after wins for Brighton and Huddersfield.
However, as the game started, it looked very unlikely that United would get anything, performing the way that they were.
They seemed slow to react and lacking in composure when in possession. However, after Aleksandar Mitrovic had been involved in a host of contentious moments, one of which could have seen him win a penalty, and another that could have seen him sent off, it was the Serbian who opened the scoring.
Despite this, it was soon half time, and Mitrovic was taken off in order to ensure that we would still have eleven men on the pitch come the end of the game. Christian Atsu came on, in a move which saw Yoan Gouffran move forward to lead the line.
In the second half, following this change, Newcastle seemed to play better, while still defending a lot, there seemed to be far more structure to the teams performance.
Wolves offered very little, hitting the target only once from what I can remember, with a very tame effort from Helder Costa, who failed to live up to his pre-match billing as the divisions best player.
Costa was dealt with brilliantly by Paul Dummett and if, as most of the experts seem to think, Costa is a £25 million player, then Dummett must have increased his market value by a significant amount yesterday.
As for our team ratings, they are as follows:
Karl Darlow: 6
DeAndre Yedlin: 7
Jamaal Lascelles: 8 (MOTM)
Ciaran Clark: 8
Paul Dummett: 8
Matt Ritchie: 6
Jack Colback: 6
Jonjo Shelvey: 6
Yoan Gouffran: 7
Mo Diame: 6
Aleksandar Mitrovic: 7
Subs:
Christian Atsu: 7
Daryl Murphy: 6
Ayoze Perez: – *
*was not on long enough to receive a mark
I can see them
Stuart79(Quote)
Rafa has the luxury of not having to make too many changes for Norwich since we do not play again until next Monday night and that one is at home, which always help since you don’t have the travel day. I think Atsu did enough to give Gouffy a rest. Also, Lascelles seemed to find his concentration again so I think he will keep his place. OH, AND COLBACK OUT. My expected team:
Darlow
Yedlin Lascelles Clark Dummett
Ritchie Shelvey Hayden Atsu
Diame
Mitro
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Stuart:
it doesn’t turn the page on a mobile? Does on a laptop.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Ah: Now I understand why people complained about the threads getting too long if you had to scroll through like 400 of them on a mobile. I hardly ever get on on a mobile so it would start afresh every 75 comments on the laptop for me.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I have been disappointed with Lascelles this season, and felt he was struggling with the weight of being club captain etc, but have to admit he played very well defensively on saturday. Perhaps being dropped has helped him to get focused again. Good management from Rafa.
Another ugly win, but a win all the same.
I still worry how bad we are at defending crosses into our box. I think most of the squandered chances wolves had came that way. We got lucky due to their poor finishing.
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
Agree mate, we really need to get a handle on defending crosses and set pieces too. It would help if Colback didn’t give away fouls in dangerous places all the time too. He gave one away around a minute into the game on Saturday and several others too and another late on which could of cost us dearly. Hate to be down on the lad but he really is a liability at times. Thought Clark was excellent on Saturday too.
kimtoon(Quote)
Mark Douglas Retweeted
Richard Osman @richardosman · 1h
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The best thing about having Championship fixtures on Valentines Day is imagining all the negotiations in homes up and down the country.
Ha, not a problem in my house happily 😀
kimtoon(Quote)
Kimtoon: Colback gave that foul away on 15 seconds mate. And it could easily have been a yellow if it wasn’t so early. I used to think he was OK at screening the back four, now I think he is a total liability with his niggly free kicks. The lad just cannot time a tackle, every one of them is a potential free kick and I think the stat is something like a third of all goals come from set plays.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
WOW: I just looked it up and there was a Premier League study done that found the percentage of goals that come from set pieces was 38.9%.
That’s it then. If Icedog sets up a petition to get Colback sold I will be signing it 🙂
Must have been a cunning plan by the Mackems to let him run his contract down and return to his hometown club in order to get those 6 points a season from us and stay up.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Was it by god, I knew it was very early like.
kimtoon(Quote)
Moyes has gone mental. He says that the “cold weather training” is reverse psychology and that Sunderland will feel like Dubai after New York. He said the lads will do some running and cycling in Central Park. I have news for Davey, there was a foot of snow dumped on Central Park on Thursday and there is another storm on the way to the NE USA.
He said it would be good for team bonding and they would get introduced to some “culture”, such as taking them to the site of the Twin Towers. That is basically a disaster memorial now, I am not sure how that is culture?
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/feb/10/sunderland-david-moyes-new-york
It really is madness. They should be working on tactics because they are ****. The best they can hope for is a game of 5 aside and a powerpoint in the hotel’s conference center.
When they saw the weather someone should have just cancelled the trip and hastily arranged a hotel in Malaga or somewhere and asked one of the local clubs for use of one of their pitches for few days.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Moyes also said he had done the same with Everton for team bonding so it had worked before. The difference is Moysey, Everton were not in disarray, bottom of the league and playing ****. There probably wasn’t a foot of snow and another possible blizzard forecast either.
I live in Chicago and people just hibernate as much as possible when that **** hits. It is not like the Swiss Alps with skiing and sleigh rides. It is a dirty, slushy mess and digging out your car to get to work.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Gayle in squad but I doubt he will start, will he? We don’t play again until the following Monday so my guess would be he is on the bench and see how the game goes.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Reckon Gayle will be on the bench and he will be a good sub to have…
Stuart79(Quote)
cannot even raffle Colback no one would buy a bloody ticket 😈
icedog(Quote)
Pep has got some balls. He has left Aguero on the bench again. He would not only get into every other team in England, I think he would get into every other team in the World, except Barcelona and then it would be a tossup between him and Neymar. Even Real Madrid. I like Benzema but I think Aguero is better.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Is there something behind the scenes?
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Looks clear to me that Pep is making his mark.
Stuart79(Quote)
Still don’t rate Lascelles at all. Just watch the toon defence when the ball goes high into the box from free kicks, corners or whatever, Lascelles is never where the ball lands. He is at least 80% of the time well away from the ball. He hasn’t been found out, and looked good against Wolves becasue they were garbage up front, and Clarke has to do a double shift to cover for him.
Pleeeese keep Colback out of the team for the Norwich game Rafa..
Delusional Jawdee(Quote)
I got shot down on here a few seasons ago when I suggested that Colback was a **** player and that shouldn’t be getting a start.. Good to see a few people have finally caught on! 😉
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
https://www.nufcblog.co.uk/2017/02/14/norwich-city-vs-newcastle-united-potential-line-up/
new thread
kimtoon(Quote)