Following Sunday’s 1-2 defeat to Chelsea, we’ve been chatting to a Blues fan to see what they made of our approach to the game.
Mant pundits and fans up and down the country criticised our performance and defensive approach, but I was interested to see what a Chelsea fan had to say about the game and Benitez’s tactics.
Here’s our chat with Chelsea fan Raj:
Q1) What did you make of our set up? Rafa’s got a LOT of stick from fans and pundits, but some argue that we defended superbly and were a few minutes away from a valuable point..
I was shocked to see how defensive you were. In the end it turned out to be like watching training ground drills of attack vs defence.
The issue Newcastle faced was they had no real outlet. Rondon got hold of the ball a few times but was dealt with fairly easily due to support taking so long to push up the pitch. I don’t remember at any stage of the game Newcastle holding the ball for let’s say 10 -15 passes.
In the end it could have worked and was extremely close to doing so and that would have definitely included some Lady Luck along the way. To defend so deep is asking for trouble especially when playing against good teams with the ability to break you down.
Q2) Which Newcastle players impressed you – and which did not..
I wouldn’t say there was any stand out players for Newcastle but as a defensive unit they performed very well and complimented each other.
Having the experience of Ki in front of the back 4 helped.
Diame had a good game and got in our faces.
Q3) What did you make of the penalty and the incident involving Yedlin and Giroud in the build up to our goal?
I most certainly have a bias view on this and believe the penalty should stand. I can understand he got the ball but he also took the man out. Which in the referees eyes makes it a penalty. It was very well taken.
In the view of the Giroud and Yedlin incident I would most certainly see this as a yellow card and elbow to the face but none the other players covered them selfs in glory by not playing to whistle.
Do you agree with him?
Were we asking for trouble or was it very nearly the perfect game plan from Benitez?
