Following Saturday’s 3-1 defeat at Stamford Bridge, we’ve been in touch with a Chelsea fan whose given us a very interesting insight into what he made of our performance – commenting on our string of criminal errors for Morata’s goal, and feeling we showed a startling lack of communication and leadership.
It’s always going to be a tough game at Chelsea. They are the reigning champions and have a team full of top class talents, however we really did shoot ourselves in the foot when you look at the goals we conceded.
We spoke to Chelsea fan Raj after the game, who firstly commented on the unforgivable string of errors that lead to Morata’s goal to give them a 2-1 lead, criticising Ritchie and Mbemba heavily for this one:
“Newcastle as a team did not do themselves any favours at all in this game. Chelsea did not play their best game.
“Morata’s goal represents all the issues Newcastle had in a 20 second window. It was a nothing long ball from Rudiger which Ritchie could have easily taken down if he had some basic COMMUNICATION ( issue 1).
“Then Moses controls it very easily and, without much effort, is able to cross so easily. ( 50% conviction to stopping the cross from Ritchie).
“That’s been big issue for Newcastle over the weeks. Your wide players lack of defending. Not sure why Ritchie was played there; I can see most of the game that he’s struggling.
“Final straw has to be the soft defending in the middle. Mbemba just falls down. Yes there is slight hand on his back but, 9/10 times, the referee will never give that. You’re a central defender, you have to be a presence! Can’t be doing things like that.
“Until these basic things are sorted out every game will be difficult. I’m sure Rafa will be working on these aspects.”
He makes some very valid points here and probably echoes the thoughts of quite a few of us NUFC fans from Saturday’s game.
The same old errors are costing us from a footballing perspective, however Raj also admitted that he saw a total lack of leadership, communication and rallying spirit in the NUFC side:
“It is now time for the players to stand up and be counted.
“During the match there was not one player you could look at and say ‘yeah he is very upset’ and he’s saying something to rally his team mates.
“They need to show leadership and communication which at the moment isn’t something Newcastle seem to have from what I saw on Saturday.”
I know what you’re thinking. ‘Jamaal Lascelles’. I was too, and admitted to Raj that we are missing our skipper badly. To that he responded with a very good point:
“Yeah but thats just one guy. Your other players act like they are youth players and so quiet.
“Nobody wants take ownership.”
An interesting insight from the eyes of a Chelsea fan.
Let us know your thoughts folks..
