An appalling display from Newcastle United as individual errors and a total lack of drive all over the pitch saw Southampton run away 2-0 winners in a game they dominated from start to finish.
Almiron and Sean Longstaff gifted Adams and Armstrong goals in each half, however the scoreline flattered us in the end, with us forcing McCarthy into just one save all night, losing the midfield battle unanimously and failing to have any answer for their non-stop pressing and intensity.
Steve Bruce named an unchanged side from the one that put Everton to the sword on Sunday – meaning Isaac Hayden again missed out as Jeff Hendrick controversially kept his place in the heart of the three man midfield; a decision we’d all go on to bemoan.
As for formation, he again trusted the new – and somewhat successful – 5-3-1-1:
I was feeling hopeful as the game kicked off, with the Saints without star man Danny Ings, however Miguel Almiron singlehandedly ruined any hopes of a strong start just seven minutes into the game.
He dwelt on the ball for far too long on the corner of his own box and unforgivably allowed Kyle Walker-Peters to pick his pocket.
Theo Walcott picked up the loose ball and he passed the ball across the box towards Che Adams who struck a fierce first time volley past Karl Darlow, who could’ve done better with the effort.
The dismal start continued as we looked completely smothered by Southampton’s energy. We lost possession on numerous occasions as a result of slow passing and laboured attacks. The opening quarter can be perfectly summed up by Karl Darlow, as Lee Ryder reported the ‘keeper telling his teammates to ‘wake the **** up’.
The football followed the same pattern for much of the first-half, with Southampton dominant. We only created two chances in the entire half – and they came from set-pieces. Said chances fell to Jamaal Lascelles and Sean Longstaff, who both should’ve done better with their headers; failing to test the goalkeeper.
Before half-time struck Southampton should’ve made it two. A moment of quality from Djnepo – and some awful defending from Schar – saw him flick the ball into the path of Walcott who drove toward goal and curled a low effort just past the far post.
Thankfully for us, the half-time whistle soon followed. A half full of defensive errors, needless fouls and terrible attacking game to an end. Fabian Schar, Jacob Murphy and Jeff Hendrick looked particularly out of sorts – all three were completely swallowed by Southampton’s intensity.
If anything, we were lucky to be just one goal down and I had little optimism ahead of the second-half.
Southampton nearly put the game to bed just five minutes into the second-half. Janik Vestegaard misjudged a free header at the back post and the ball eventually fell to Jan Bednarek, whose effort was heroically headed off the line by Jamaal Lascelles.
Moments later, Oriol Romeu’s sensational strike from distance rattled against the crossbar. It easily could’ve nestled into the top corner of the net if not for a brilliant fingertip save by Karl Darlow!
Darlow was again our saviour in the games next notable event. Jan Bednarek rose highest at a corner but saw his powerful header saved by the outstretched gloves of our stand-in number one.
As the final act of the game approached the only positive was that Matty Longstaff was back playing football, making his first appearance of the season – putting his injury and contract issues behind him in the process.
Southampton really should’ve had a penalty as the 75th minute struck, as Jamaal Lascelles hacked Theo Walcott down just outside the six-yard line. The skipper might’ve got a little bit of the ball, but it was a rash challenge and I’m amazed he escaped a VAR check.
Relief soon turned to despair as we saw Callum Wilson holding his hamstring. He limped off, being replaced by Andy Carroll. Joelinton also replaced Jacob Murphy but their impact was minimal.
When I thought the game couldn’t get any worse, it did. Sean Longstaff did his best to impersonate Miguel Almiron’s mistake as he needlessly lost the ball, being easily dispossessed by Stuart Armstrong; who then thumped a low effort past the helpless Darlow – making it 2-0 and game over, not that we were ever in it!
Joelinton nearly clawed one back with just minutes remaining in the game. Jamal Lewis found the Brazilian on the edge of the box with a fantastic delivery, and his excellent header was met by an equally stunning save; denying us any hope of getting back into the game.
I have to admit, I was glad to hear the final whistle which put an end to a truly horrific performance. We had no answer for Southampton’s intensity – we constantly lost possession, made unforgivable mistakes and created nothing going forward.
I’m not sure Steve Bruce even had a plan A in that game – never mind a plan B when we struggled to deal with Southampton’s energy from the off!
We’ve got the quality in our side to be playing so much better. Southampton’s team is no better than ours man-for man, but Hasenhuttl has given them an identity and a clear game plan – something we’ve never had under Steve Bruce.
Absolutely abysmal.
Follow us on Twitter (@NUFCBlogcouk) and on Facebook HERE
Looks like Boris loyalty to Cummings is coming back to bite him on the ar$e.
Quitting by Xmas coz his mate didn’t get the job he wanted – some way to repay a boss who stuck by you when the nation wanted you sacked!!.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Scum on verge. of takeover by billionaire
Icedog(Quote)
Ice – we’ve got one of them mate, doesn’t count for much at all these days – and even with a good one, they’ve got one hell of an up hill climb.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Yep, a week’s a long time in politics, as Harold once said.
Also, IF it’s true that Boris’s Mrs Carrie is putting her two penneth in then that’s not idea given the last time i checked she’s not in the cabinet .
kimtoon(Quote)
I hope he’s got more ambition than our billionaire for their sake.
kimtoon(Quote)
Is it possible that you can look stupid?
YES. These people prove it.
https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/knife-wielding-thugs-caught-north-19264131
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I am not sure if I would hire any of them as a hod carrier for fear they would drop the bricks on their own heads.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eric, I would rather hope they would drop them on their heads and perish, save the tax payer the cost of imprisoning them.
kimtoon(Quote)
Kimtoon: I fell out with my brother almost a year ago to the day. I told him he was a bad father.
I had reasons. His 24 year old son had finger tatoos. I said that restricted his career choice to PL footballer, chef or phone double glazing salesman.
He hasnt talked to me since. But he moved to Holland when the kid was 1 and has lived in Thailand for the last 15 years. Good parenting!!!!!
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Kim – if she’s advised him to get rid of Cummings it would be that she’s the only one giving him good advice.
On a serious note though. However it’s come about, to have such unrest just weeks before Brexit & in the middle of the pandemic isn’t good.
These are 2 of his closest advisors, and from what has come out so far, their leaving is a result of a petty power struggle & toys being thrown out.
It’s pathetic really.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Sharpy, agree and sadly it doesn’t surprise me either.
kimtoon(Quote)
Eric, you can’t choose family, never a truer word.
kimtoon(Quote)
Kim, the taxpayer doesn’t pay for anything. By continuing to use such terms as taxpayer funds, taxpayer money, etc, you are perpetuating the myth that taxes fund government spending. They don’t. It leads you to accepting that full medical care and support for your son is not possible.
It is only not possible because the government has other, richer clients that it prefers to fund.
Brisvegas(Quote)
Josh Reeve in his blogpost got me thinking of which pundits/commentators I actually like. Not just tolerate and ignore mostly, but actually like?
There are quite a few cricket commentators I really like, beginning with the great Ritchie Benaud. But why cant more football pundits be more like him? Or Ricky Ponting or Michael Holding or Nasser Hussein or David Gower?
It is not like they are shrinking violets, but they dont hold back and are not idiots. Like Danny’s Mills and Murphy!!!!.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
The commentators in the US are almost exclusively British and we get Sky TV from time to time as well so I know who I like form that TVisPhere.
Martin Tyler is a bore and that is the way it has all gone now. Giving us meaningless facts about the number of times Liverpool played Everton in the post-war/PL/at Goodison/in the last 15 fcn miniutes.
So who do you actually like Graeme (real name)/ Eric?
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Warren Barton. Toon fan. Not afraid to express himself but also a football fan and not a d!ck.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Erm…. I think that is my list done 🙂 I will not bore you with any more 🙂
There are about 5% I like and 95% are fools and blowhards sucking up air that the rest of us need. Collymore, Owen, PNev, Lawrensen. Mostly ex-Man U and Liverpool. Opionated w@nkers. A few from **** but they seem to be mentally feficient like Paul Merson’s Giant Balloon Heed and Yelling Martin Keown so I can excuse them.
In life, I am abourt 50/50 on who is Ok. The pundit group just seem SO much more agressive and stupid.
Good article Josh Reeve because it has gone all fcn mad. I am not on Twitter for a reason. It is quite civil most of the time on here. Even Stewie is not that bad 🙂 And I havent had an argument with the Aussies for 6 months!
Eric Sykes(Quote)
RIP Des O’Connor, seems every time I look at the news lately another bit of my youth has slipped away.
Used to love Des O’Connor tonight .
kimtoon(Quote)
As it’s now come out Boris asked him to leave or in other words sacked him. Personally I think it makes what happened in the summer complete waste of time now. All the **** they go is for nothing.
I think government will miss someone as dynamic and eccentric as Cummins. He was always going to struggle as the establishment really don’t like change. But if he was behind the briefings recently and the derogatory comments about Carrie then Boris probably had no other choice.
Stuart79(Quote)
Stu – from what I’ve read it all centres around Lee Cain who was Boris director of Comms.
It’s a position I believe Carrie once held herself. She & Cain fell out when she mastermind her & Boris love photo after their domestic incident.
Cain also mastermind Cummings rose garden media scrum after his Durham trip when Carrie thought Cummings should have been sacked.
You seem to like Cummings more than me – I thought what he done was SO damaging to what they were trying to achieve that he had to go. I also think the lasting damage of keeping him out strips what he offered. But that’s just opinion.
The fact is that there seems to be too much tail wagging the dog in Downing Street. I get they need their advisors – but they are the VAR to refs at the moment.
Boris is the front man, and should be in charge – but he’s going to end up being the fall guy if he doesn’t get his act together.
He seems like a loyal bloke & too many people are hiding behind that – knowing they can f@ck up as much as they like coz Boris will stick up for them. Maybe Carrie has been watching it happen and has stepped in to try & save him a bit – who knows – but it’s a real cluster f@ck when what the Country really needs is a well oiled machine to get us through the pandemic & Brexit.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Come on then, I’ll humour you. What do taxes get spent on if not public services? And who pays for the public services we enjoy if not ourselves?
Stuart79(Quote)
Fck me up the **** with a spelk ridden truncheon! You think you have it bad over there!!!! At least you dont have Trump who is hanging on for 2 weeks after the election and driving around DC in taxpayer paid limos (yes BrisV the Taxpayers pay for airforce 1 and the security forces, and limos) to egg on his delusional, non-mask wearing supporters. Draped in flags. Like the democrats arent patriotic either!
Meanwhile, the Covid infection rate has gone from 40,000 a day to 180,000 a day in a month as Donald ducks every issue and lets Rudy Giuliani take control. What a nightrmare.
I wish all that we had was Cummings and his arseholery. THIS IS ON A DEFFERENT LEVEL.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Go for it Stewie. I have no idea what BrisV is on about either but I didnt want to get into another argument with him.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I’m also against Labour trying to pass ‘anti-vax’ laws to ban negative content regards vaccines.
People are entitled to have doubts & concerns, especially at such an early stage with so little testing having been done – something like 45k in 6 Countries – 7500 per Country. To put that into context – that’s the population of Carlisle or South Shields – I’m not sure that even makes it promising yet to be honest.
Nobody really knows the medium to long term side effects, so people are right to be a little dubious.
That aside, I’m against any restriction on freedom of speech.
Labour have done themselves no favours with this stupidity.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Kim – my childhood is being smashed this year!!. James Bond, Bobby Ball & now Sir Des – devastating ☹️
Sharpy17(Quote)
I might be able to question BrisV’s ideas with some credibility. I got an A at A Level Economics. Studied for 1 year at Leceister University in Economocs but didnt like how much maths there was on the course so swithched to business. I have stockbroker’s license for 20 years and am a Certified Finlancial Planner – sort of like an accountant for your investments and insurance, without being as boring as an accountant. Or just a tad less boring!
I think I know a bit about finance.
And I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT BRISV IS ON ABOUT.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Should I put my CV up BrisV 🙂
Eric Sykes(Quote)
OK: what are you saying BrisV?
Taxes dont pay for services, benefits and the NHS, they only let big companies pay less taxes?
Over to you Stewie. BrisV and his pal (twin?) AMF have always confused the hell out of me.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Don’t know what to expect, Eric. Wouldn’t surprise me if Bris thinks all taxes are collected and then handed over to business’ to allow them to keep their foot on the throats of every one else. Of maybe the Rothschild conspiracy… ?
Stuart79(Quote)
Sharpy, re the anti vax thing and Labours proposals for new laws .I think they just want the social media platforms to stop the CT groups spreading misleading information or downright lies. It’s that sort of stuff that stopped so many giving their kids the MMR jab. Thankfully that has now finally been debunked and MMR vaccination is well up and surprise surprise, autism isn’t running riot, who knew.
I was watching Marr this morning and the labour lass was saying that they have no problem with people expressing unease at taking it and didn’t wish to silence individuals just shut down groups pushing agendas that have no basis in truth which should frankly be happening anyway.
This new vaccine doesn’t contain any covid what so ever, just the dna copy of the protein spike it uses to attach to our cells. It is modified to trick our immune system to think it’s an invader and there by be ready and waiting should the real thing get into our system.
Scientist have recently also had good results with Ebola vaccines too, i believe two were granted emergency approval for use in the Congo after out breaks with good efficacy reported.
It has been developed very quick and only natural people are a bit reticent to have it given it normally takes around 10 years to develop a vaccine. On the other hand given the massive damage covid has caused it’s focused the best scientific minds world wide to all work together non stop to get one up and running. They have known it’s DNA since it broke more or less as china gave it to us .
I’m actually well impressed if it does work at 90% efficacy or that they have even produced one given it’s a coronavirus. After all we’ve never cured the common cold which is also a coronavirus.
We will soon know if it’s dodgy given they are rolling it out to medical staff/the elderly and vulnerable first. I cannot see Doctors and GP’s taking something that could harm them tbh.
There is no way it will get approval if it’s the least bit dodgy as it would surely open world governments up to law suits.
If these jabs actually rid the world of this thing then those who produced them are owed a massive debt along with all the really brave volunteers who took part in trials.
kimtoon(Quote)
tmlhttps://uk.yahoo.com/news/coronavirus-circulating-italy-since-september-164025727.h
This doesn’t surprise me one bit. I reckon we had it in UK from december 2019.
Lew was in hospital with something awful last december which he passed to me and his carers and their families.He was put in isolation room so say for our privacy yet they all wore PPE when entering. The cough was horrendous and i had it for around 8 weeks as did others i knew. It has also left me with ongoing breathlessness . Also 2 service users that go to his day center passed away with breathing issues late last year, was it covid ? entirely possible i’d say. They just didn’t know anything about it yet, they just said it was viral .
kimtoon(Quote)
Kim, I know someone who was incredibly ill in October from flu. Worst flu they’ve even had they say.
As for the anti vaxers. Fine – no problem. But if they don’t take it then they shouldn’t be allowed on planes, trains, sports events etc or in pubs and restaurants
Stuart79(Quote)
Agree mate
kimtoon(Quote)
Taxes aren’t used to pay for anything. Taxes are used as a hedge against inflation and to drive the value of the currency. They can be used for much more, though – like changing behaviour, targeting bubbles in the economy, probably a few more things. But they don’t pay for government spending.
Maybe I can illustrate this with a little story
A king goes to a foreign land and sees a local product called sugar. I thinks, ‘I’d like that’ so he tells the locals to go harvest it. They refuse. He tells them he’ll pay them 10 sovereigns. They refuse; they have no need of sovereigns. The king says ‘ok, I’ll tax you 5 sovereigns. If you don’t pay the tax I’ll burn your hut down.’ The people now want to work. They want to work to get their 10 sovereigns so they can pay their 5 sovereigns tax.
That is to say … they get paid before they get taxed. Spending happens before Taxation.
By the way, this is exactly how the British government did things in Africa when colonising it. And yes, ok, its a simple analogy. If you want the full 5-page essay just ask – I wrote it for the course in macroeconomics that I finished about 6 weeks ago.
The government can, because the pound is a fiat currency, spend as much as it likes up to the point where employing the real resources of the nation – the people, the land, the factories, the offices, etc, starts to compete with private enterprise – you’d then get inflation.
That spending is not contingent on the taxes it receives.
That it doesn’t do so is a policy decision. That it perpetuates the Maggie Thatcher myth (and Obama more recently) that government has no money of its own is a scandal. Although it is doing it less often now that they can magically find a few billion to bail out private companies and pay people to stay home, and they managed to discover many billions to support the banks during the GFC.
Both right and left wing governments use this narrative. It has its base in an outmoded accounting system – the gold standard (and the pegging of currencies to the USD). Nixon took us all off the gold standard in 1971 but traditional economics models have continued to do things as if we were still on it.
The GFC and Covid-19 have both opened our eyes to that folly.
I can give you some reading to do if you were really interested.
Brisvegas(Quote)
I like it, Bris. Let’s have tax rates of 0% in the UK. Let’s go for it!
Stuart79(Quote)
Southampton, they played really well. This is a worthy result.
candy crush saga(Quote)
https://uk.yahoo.com/news/tegnells-predecessor-blames-wishful-thinking-124542136.html
kimtoon(Quote)
NEW THREAD
https://www.nufcblog.co.uk/2020/11/15/a-message-to-the-misinformed-pundits-i-hope-savage-sutton-read-this-respond/
Olly Hawkins(Quote)