Cabaye cracker sinks Villa! Aston Villa 1-2 Newcastle

Cabaye's strike earns three points for United
Cabaye’s strike earns three points for United
It’s been a long time coming but finally, at the 18th attempt, Newcastle have managed to win an away game this season.

Goals from Papiss Cisse ans Yohan Cabaye proved to be enough before Christian Benteke gave the hosts some hope with an early second-half penalty but it was United held out to grab the three points and drop Villa into the relegation zone. Nice poetry there…

There were also debuts for three of our four recent signing with only Massadio Haidara missing out on making an appearance, and the early signs were good. Moussa Sissoko looked quality and picked out a fine ball to set up Cisse for the opening goal, Yoan Gouffran acquitted himself well and Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa came off the bench to help shore things up in the final 20 minutes or so.

However for me it was one of our older heads who had the biggest influence on the game. Fabricio Coloccini has had a lot of stick recently but he was superb tonight. Not just his defending, but also his rallying of the players albeit not as vocal as perhaps some would like. He gave 100% tonight which is all that can be asked.

The first effort on goal fell to new boy Sissoko although his long-range effort flew over the bar. However it wasn’t long before the home side tested the water in the attacking sense and Fabricio Coloccini had to be on hand to deal with a Christian Benteke cross. Davide Santon forced a save from Brad Guzan before United took the lead in the 19th minute. The Italian passed to Sissoko who threaded a superb ball through for Papiss Cisse to run on to and fire through the legs of Guzan giving United a deserved lead.

Newcastle continued to impose themselves with some great play but former Magpie Charles N’Zogbia nearly fired Villa level only to see his powerful shot deflect off the post. However full control of the match wasn’t far away and when Ron Vlaar could only clear a Jonas Gutierrez cross as far as the feet of Yohan Cabaye it looked to be game over. The Frenchman took a touch and launched a volley towards goal which left Brad Guzan with no chance of getting anywhere near it as the ball flew into the top corner of the net. 2-0 to United at half-time and cruising. The home side were sent to the changing room with booing ringing in their ears.

That seemed ta have an effect on the home side as they came out looking like they wanted to make a game of it. Andreas Weimann and Gabriel Agbonlahor added some attacking threat for Paul Lambert’s side and fresh from a half-time rollicking Villa soon forced saves from Tim Krul through shots from Benteke and Weimann.

Just four minutes into the second-half and Villa were back in it. Agbonlahor outpaced Mathieu Debuchy and nicked the ball away from the Frenchman whoo really should have been more aware of what was going on. He tripped the Villa forward leaving Mike Dean with little option to award the penalty which Christian Benteke duly dispatched sending Tim Krul the wrong way.

From then on the nerves started to set in and you could tell we hadn’t won away from home since May 2012. Villa had their tails up and searched for the equaliser with Charles N’Zogbia rattling the side-netting with a shot.

However for all Villa’s huff and puff they were unable to blow the United house down. They had plenty of the ball and had the territorial advantage but rarely really threatened the United goal. That being said Jonas Gutierrez had to be on hand to clear off the line and Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa made a smart block tackle on Ciaran Clark, but it was Newcastle who put bodies on the line to make sure the three points came back home to Tyneside.

Relief.

I’m sure some tactical whizzkids out there will be quick to point of that we weren’t great in the second-half, which is true, but Villa were hardly going to roll over and let us tickle their tummies after such an abject first-half showing. Add to that the fact that we had players playing either for the first time, first couple of times, or returning from injury and you can perhaps see why things started to run away from us.

Remember this is Debuchy’s third game for us, Cabaye has just come back from three months out, Sissoko and Gouffran probably haven’t played a game at such intensity in their life plus we had Steen Taylor who hasn’t played since November. Sometimes it isn’t always our own fault and things just work against you a bit and we had a lot of players out there just not up to speed. Also bear in mind, if you are going to have a pop at Shola, don’t forget the 25 minutes of us being dominated BEFORE his arrival…

Having said that there was a lot of grit and determination out there on our part which has been missing on occasion this season. It’s nice to see it make an appearance just when we need it to. If we can combine that with some of the play we witnessed in the first-half it won’t be long before we start pulling away from the relegation struggle. Hopefully.

Howay the lads!

Aston Villa: Brad Guzan; Ciaran Clark, Ron Vlaar, Nathan Baker, Joe Bennett; Matt Lowton, Ashley Westwood, Barry Bannan, Charles N’Zogbia; Christian Benteke, Darren Bent

Subs: Shay Given, Eric Lichaj, Brett Holman, Jordan Bowery, Stephen Ireland, Gabriel Agbonlahor, Andreas Weimann

Newcastle: Tim Krul; Mathieu Debuchy, Steven Taylor, Fabricio Coloccini, Davide Santon; James Perch, Yohan Cabaye; Yoan Gouffran, Moussa Sissoko, Jonas Gutierrez; Papiss Cisse

Subs: Steve Harper, Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa, Mike Williamson, Gael Bigirimana, Vurnon Anita, Sammy Ameobi, Shola Ameobi

Attendance: 33,334

About toonsy

A lifelong Newcastle fan and current webmaster of this very 'blog who has the sole aim of creating a place by Newcastle United fans, for Newcastle United fans.

48 thoughts on “Cabaye cracker sinks Villa! Aston Villa 1-2 Newcastle

  1. A good result! but going to have to do better than just hang on like we have done a lot this season with Chelsea and tottenham coming up. A real test. Lets hope cisse can score against chelsea like he has done again. Or relief could just be temporary!

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  2. Coloccini or Krul MOM for me. Sissoko was immense first half but I thought he faded a bit second. Cabaye was also great again.
    Such an important result, even if we don’t manage points in our next two games there should still be a bit of breathing space between us and the relegation zone.
    Can see us scraping something against Chelsea now though.

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  3. i agree with you tooneye a good first half and second half we wernt that comfortable need to be on top of our game for 90 minutes as we have chelsea and spurs to come i think with a couple more wins we will get into a rythem

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  4. I have been asked who I would play in place of Jonas and Shola. My answer is anyone. Still, pleased for the three points.

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  5. Axel if you’re out there – what’s the lo down on Siem de Jong? Best position etc
    Cheers bud

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  6. I think we needed Jonas in the second half. defensively he is better that obertan and marveaux. just think he should have been a sub. Anita in first for perch as perch was out of the game. then Jonas for whomever was flagging most. again a coin toss between bigirirama and mbiwa for the third.

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  7. I posted last night, I’d love to know what the hell happens in our changing room at half time coz that’s a couple of games now this season where in the 1st half we’ve looked really good, then we come out for the 2nd half a different team.
    I agree that Krul and Colo were very good last night and Cabaye showed signs of class but maybe not fully match fit yet. Sissoko looked exactly how I hoped he would – outstanding. I honesty see this kid being one of the best players in the league. Gouffran looked very lively as well and will get goals IMO. However, we definately need another CF for me but if we’re to believe Pardews post match comments, that’s us done now.
    What was frustrating is that Man City and Stoke didn’t play their part last night. Hopefully Man U and Chelsea will do us a favour tonight.

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  8. Great to get the 3 points. We were good first half and at times shocking in the 2nd again 🙄 . The thing is the reason we controlled the first half was down to Lamberts tactics ,the way he set up his team we were able to flood and over run the midfield ,they couldn’t get the ball and we picked up every 2nd ball .He was always gonna change it around 2nd half ,but Pards seemed unprepared for the change . I can see why he brought on Shola and we did improve slightly after he came on but he offers no goal threat what so ever ,we desperately need another attacker imo , I would love us to nick Graham . Jonas has always been a fav of mine but he has been really below par this season though he made an excellent block late on tbf. Why we tire so quickly 2nd half is bothering me ,our fitness levels are not good and I would like to see a top notch fitness coach employed for next season. I think we also need some good technical coaches brought in to work on corners and set pieces cause we are utter **** at em. Finally ,hugely impressed by Sissoko and Gouffran ,both look intelligent pacy players ,Sissokos pass for Cisse was sheer class but both looked shattered late on ,big wake up call for them last night. They must be thinking bloody hell if relegation scrappers play like that what’s Manure ,Chelsea and Citeh gonna be like 🙄 .Talking of Citeh WTF ,couldn’t beat QPR ,go figure. 😯

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  9. Good read Toonsy the 1st half we were excellent, but 2nd half we couldn’t get going as Villa fought like lions or should I say hyennas as they were rather dirty which to be honest I never thought of Villa as being dirty.
    Sissoko looks like he could be a cracker and Gouffran looked handy.
    I also noticed Canaye grabbing hold of Jonas when he was going to get carded and it was a grab and pull that showed me that he does have some of the bottle needed for the armband

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  10. Some may think I am anti-Jonas. May I explain that ever since he arrived he has been one of my favourite players. I have defended him against people who said he couldn’t finish or cross. It used to take three men to mark him and that was a great contribution. However, at the very first game of this season I unfortunately saw a different Jonas and I came to the conclusion his legs had gone and I do not think he has had one good game this season. I do not criticise him for effort, but is it enough? As for Shola, some skill but gives the impression he can’t be arsed to apply himself. Some say he is good for winning headers. I don’t think so and there is also a myth that his hold up play is good – not true in my opinion.

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  11. Seems pretty obvious that Lambert had told them to get stuck in and play hard on our foreign legion, was obvious that the new lads hadn’t had this before with such intensity especially as ref was letting quite a lot of fouls go.

    Good intro to the prem league for them as we will get teams such as Stoke, Sunderland etc who like to put the boot in

    Be interesting to see how we get on against Chelsea at the weekend – personally think we can get a draw or even dare I say it a win – pity we dont have a no play clause for Ba

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  12. Told you that about Cabaye (or Canaye as you call him) already BD 🙂 you should listen to your mate Aussie a bit more often.. 🙂 🙂

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  13. Kim – if you’re going to try analyzing tactics, you need to be objective. That means that Pardew has some responsibility for his successes as well as his shortcomings. He outplayed Lambert in the first half, setting out the team to dominate possession and seeing that possession converted into goals. The use of Sissoko seems to have come as a big surprise to Villa.

    Frankly, I don’t think that the tactical analysis of the second half is particularly interesting. We’re bedding in a number of players from a less intense league and bringing others back from injury. (But of course, you think that a top notch coach would fix this, because THERE SHALL BE NO EXCUSES!!!!) Villa’s tactics in the second half – if you can call them that – were just to throw themselves into the game and try to batter our lads into submission. Under a tighter watch, they could have had players sent off and collapsed.

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  14. I see QPR after Chris Samba now , we should be in for him would work up front or at CB and knows the PL.

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  15. we should try to play 3-5-2 againtst chelsea and spurs – we have the players mobile enough to do it now

    krul

    taylor mbiwa colo

    debuchy-sissoko-cabaye-marveaux-santon

    gouffran, cisse

    two good wing backs, – for the first half hour yesterday – EVERYTHING went through santon.

    defence woukld be pretty solid.

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  16. Kim. Agree on fitness levels not being what they should be. It is something I remarked on early in the season. Is this the problem with Jonas this season?

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  17. 3 points won, now lets look forward to the next game.

    It wasn’t pretty second half but what can people expect in a relegation battle.

    Monsieur Pardeiu cooked a great meal but the dessert was a bit of a let down.

    Overall, compliments to the chef and a tip for the waiter, with 3 Michelin stars awarded. 😉

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  18. Agree with Groucho, Jonas’s legs are gone…reminds me of Geremi, when he could run for us either 🙂 🙂

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  19. Pardew’s subs do puzzle me. Against Reading he brought Perch on to shore up the defence. Last night he took him off when the defence needed shoring up.

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  20. Groucho – the sub made some sense, but the shape baffled me. Villa were playing pretty direct and Perch was struggling to influence the game. I thought Shola coming on meant that we were going to a negative 4-4-2 with the big man there to hold up or flick on for Cisse.

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  21. Groucho at 10 I agree 100% .
    Aussie well atleast you new who I was talking about, thats the problem with a phone and sausage fingers 😉 but I would still pick Saylor but I think cabaye would be the most popular choice

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  22. it looks like we will have jonas for a while,marv has a foot injury that will keep him out 2 to 3 weeks 🙁

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  23. In fairness the second half was never going to be cake walk. They were always going to come out fighting. We couldn’t expect them to just lie down and give up – especially at home.

    Lets not forget we are a team low on confidence and have not been used to winning recently so we were always going to be nervy.

    Good result, hopefully the stadium will be bouncing on Saturday and we can go and give chelsea a good game.

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  24. Wellington@13 ,are you happy with our corners and set plays then ?, given we been **** at both all season is it not unreasonable to suggest a better coaching set up may improve this area of our play. Also ,as for me trying to analyze tactics ,all I can say is I call it as I see it ,and to me Lambert played too defensive leaving a massive hole in midfield which we exploited .Second half he changed it rallied his troops and as you they played rather dirtily with the benefit of a poor ref helping them. You may think my football knowledge is poor ,that’s fine I’ve never pretended to be an expert and for the most part just enjoy the banter on here ,I didn’t realise I needed to be an expert to pass an opinion . Anyway off now got to see to my parents , will continue our chat later if you think I’m up to it 😉 .

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  25. Hi Guys. First ever post after reading this for ages.
    This was a great win and an indicator for the our future. Last night we played several games in 90 minutes. We showed moments of flair, resiliance, hardness, class, plus moments of the recent mistakes that have cost us this season.
    BUT.. the new additions look great and once they, and Saylor/Cabs/HBA get their fitness/form back we will be a powerhouse in the league.. and Europa too. People will criticise last night and Pards for his selections but we won.. and if this game was last week we would have lost. So many fans here seem to never be happy. course I’d love a new CF and RWV, Bony, De Jongs etc.. fill me with glee but if they don’t happen then we can, and will, complete. Gouffran ran his socks off and also pitched in with some good defending. Perchy was imperious too.. and Sissoko looks immense. I am now happy- cautiously optomistic, but happy for the first time this season. Cisse scored another goal and Collo proved his commitment with class. Imagine when we’re all bedded in.. our football will flow and we’ll win a lot of games. Chelski might prove to be a week to early but that’s another 4 days for the team to gel. It’s on the up!!! Viva Le Toon.

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  26. SOLANOS TRUMPET he a very good attacking midfielder come striker a bit in the teddy sheringham mould . To be honest i would rather we signed an out and out goal scorer . If we go dutch then van Wolfswinkel would be my choice or Bony from Vittese Arnhem but he is an african so we would miss him for long periods when he is called up by his country .

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  27. Sissoko was a huge huge plus yesterday, cannot wait until he get’s up to speed with the EPL. We need to build the midfield around him.

    Collo and Staylor immense as well, concidering Staylor has been out for yonks, and Collo has had other distractions.

    Jonas should start on the bench, and come in to offer defensive steel later in games…

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  28. munich aye gotta say taylor and colo look good together

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  29. Welcome along Big Dom. Some great points 🙂

    I’m surprised Perch got the nod ahead of Anita though. Thought Anita has been doing well recently to be fair

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  30. The points were what were important. Nowhere near convinced by the performance. First half we seemed driven by the bounce teams usually get from new signings. Not sure what tactics Pardew played either looked like chaos by we got the goals against a very, very, very poor Aston Villa in the first half.

    Great strike from Cabaye but he needs to work on his delivery in set pieces.
    Cisse good instinctive finish credit to him for beating the offside trap. Too often he is guilty of never checking his run and turning great through passes into silly offsides.

    Pardew: Failure to adapt is the reason we never win a game once going behind.

    Let us not carried away. This is a very, very poor Villa who recently lost the Bradford. There were some desperate clearances and saves from us in the second half and a Nzogbia strike that hit the post. If such a poor side could do that to us, what more the teams above us.

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  31. I saw that as well Dave. Was also impressed with how he brought the Villa players fouling to the refs attention.
    I’m with The Kid on dropping Saylor – yeah he was decent last night, but that’s all he’ll ever be. Fact is a year and a half ago there was still debate on who was better between Willo and Saylor..!
    He’s an average centre back that plays better with quality around him. Mbiwa if reports are to believed is a quality centre back. Taylor has been behind even Ba and Jonas for the captains armband. The leadership skills just aren’t there, aside from being a local lad.
    Oh and people that think Taylor for Willo solves the long ball problem need to watch the game without blinkers on.

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  32. @Axel
    Cheers, could he play on the right/left of attack?
    I think we need a signing that can play there, but fill in for Cisse on odd injury occasions.

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  33. Batty@30, aye, they did well last night against the long ball battering from a really dirty Villa side. Couldn’t believe Staylor doing his dance in front of the goalie for a toon free-kick in the first half. The bloke is as mad as a hatter, but he bleeds black and white that’s for sure.. 😆

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  34. Michael12@32, I share your consternation, and agree with a lot of your points. We are still a long way from having turned the corner, and the second half capitulation was quite shocking yesterday, it could easily have ended in a draw or even defeat. Hopefully things will improve when the new players get bedded in, however Pardew and his tactics is something different. We don’t have the luxury of time, and the Europa League “distraction” is looming on the horizon.

    Sissoko’s pass for Cisse’s goal was sublime, the time he needed to receive the ball, set himself, and thread a pass past so many bodies was immense. Now we have two of them in the side, Cabaye AND Sissoko, both of whom tired markedly yesterday which probably contributed to our second half demise. Looks good for the future though…

    Regarding Villa’s first half performance, after 10 minutes I was thinking wtf formation are they playing, at times Collo turned to play his Butch Wilkins like square pass across the defence and Villa had three strikers in our half 😯 Couple that with the fact that Villa also played with 3 centre halves then it is no wonder we had the run of the midfield. Pardew and Lambert obviously both have a lot to learn about tactical formations 😆 I agree with you Villa are garbage, that’s why I’m not going overboard about our win.

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  35. No sooner is Cabaye back and our dead ball delivery goes to rat **** … 🙄
    There again if Pardew leaves Anita, who had been delivering some great dead balls recently, on the bench then we have very few options.

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  36. Eminem, I am watching a replay of the game and I **** you not, as I was reading your Taylor doing a dance comment, I looked up and saw Taylor doing his dance.. freaky **** . 🙂 🙂 🙂

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  37. Aussie, what do you make of the Staylor dance ? A bit radgied don’t you think ? 😆 😆 He is a tad exhuberent at times 😆

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  38. While there is probably no doubting Pardew’s man management and TV/media persona, perhaps he needs to pull in another tactically aware right hand man to help him out ? He seems to know what it takes to bond the team together socially, but tactically I’m not sure. What would have happened yesterday without Sissoko in the line up ?….did Pardew get lucky ?

    Alan Pardew:

    “When you are looking for players and trying to find the secret ingredient for your team, it’s not always easy for players to come and fit in as they did in the first half.

    “I was a little bit surprised myself if I’m honest. I don’t think we would have won the game without Sissoko. That’s how important I think that signing was. Sissoko really grabbed the game by the horns and that’s what we needed.

    “With Demba Ba departing from a team that hasn’t been winning, it was a big blow for us and we really needed him for this game.

    “We have worked really hard on integrating the new players into things. They are not here to save us, they are here to help us. That was my message to the established players.

    “We had a nice night in the hotel the night before the game, a nice meeting, and you sensed there was a good feeling amongst them all.

    “It was a terrific day for us because we were under a lot of pressure to win at Villa.”

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  39. What would also be of concern is our need to score 2 or more goals to win a game. It is not just a mistake that as the game goes on the opposition begin to gain the upper hand.

    There was a point yesterday I though the equaliser was inevitable. We really have to not just to second halfs but to games.

    There should not be a set formation and team but rather a formation and team selected to either shore up a weakness that opposition are equipped to exploit or to exploit a weakness oppositions may have. Never a one shoe fits all approach as Pardew adopts.

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  40. For me Colo was excellent last night, closely followed by a superb debut by Sissoko and Krul in 3rd.

    Still concerned about the decisions being made by Pardew. When changes get made by opposition managers he struges to counter it. Hopefully with a fitter squad and the new boys settling in this will change as he gets more options to work with, but I wont hold my breath.

    Important 3 points and well done to all concerned. Howay the lads 😀

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  41. Kim@25 – “be objective” doesn’t mean “you don’t know what you’re talking about”. I don’t think you’re failing to see the game. What I do object to is the narrative you’re forcing on events. Something went right for us – it can’t be Pardew’s success, something must have gone wrong for the opposition! 🙄

    Regarding coaching, you’re right about set pieces (and I didn’t haul you up on that). However, saying that our fitness coaches aren’t doing their jobs properly with players who’ve only just arrived is a bit silly. 😉

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  42. Wellington @46 ,At no point did I say the fitness guys are getting it wrong on the new players , they are getting it wrong on the whole team and have been all season imo. From the get go this season we have looked lack luster ,especially 2 nd halfs .We have players who are struggling to see out the 90 mins and some ,Jonas cough cough , look to be carrying too much bulk. That to me suggest the fitness regime is wrong and needs someone to rectify it. With regards to Pards 1st half tactics ,I have already said we played well but it’s a fact that Lambert set his team up with 3 CB and left his Midfield light giving us all the space in the world to exploit .2nd half he made positive changes and had his team fired up and playing dirty tactics ,we struggled to cope and again looked exhausted before the 90 minute mark .My point being I don’t notice this with other sides and feel a fitness problem is to blame ,which someone is responsible for.

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