I heard a lot of things during the tenure of Mike Ashley and Steve Bruce that were exhausting.
One pervasive point that came from fellow supporters, pundits and even Bruce himself was that our team simply wasn’t good enough.
Hang on a second.
The very similar team that has some of those footballers playing out of their skin right now?
There’s absolutely no doubt that we’ve been operating with a threadbare squad for a long time now. Ashley never cared about bolstering our backup. He barely cared about making sure we had a solid first team.
But the idea that our entire squad was rubbish, or Championship level, has always been nonsense.
I’d hear it from fellow supporters a lot. It became a defence of Bruce. He can only work with what he’s got. How can he achieve anything more than survival with the players he has at his disposal?
Very easily, as Howe has shown.
Obviously, the biggest revelation has been Joelinton. We saw tiny glimpses of the player he could be when he was played sporadically in midfield under Bruce, but he still didn’t look anything near his price tag. Now that he’s in a team that plays to his strengths, he’s a different player. He’s always held the ball up well, but now we’re seeing just how strong he really is. When played as a striker, he was almost scared of getting into the box, but now he’s key in driving play forward. What a difference a competent manager makes.
Willock was a star performer when he came in on loan, and we now know that his poor start to the season was down to both carrying an injury and his struggle to settle into long-term life in the North East. The way Eddie Howe has put his arm around him and not only made him feel better on a personal level but get back to the player we knew and loved last season is nothing short of phenomenal.
The entire defence under Bruce was leaky and incompetent. But those same players (minus Lejeune, who was struck down with injury for most of his time here anyway) were drilled and watertight under Rafa. They’ve once again improved dramatically under Howe. Obviously, Dan Burn, Matty Targett and Trippier have been outstanding additions to the defence and all deserve their positions in the starting XI, but we saw improvements before they were bedded in. Fabian Schar, who looked a little bit lost under Bruce, is back to his absolute best. Lascelles took a little longer to improve, but he looked his best against Everton at home and put in a solid shift at Stamford Bridge.
Even Emil Krafth, who’s never been our best performer, has looked fantastic in some games. He is, of course, a huge step down from Trippier and was easily our worst player against West Ham, but he was outstanding at Brentford and against Brighton at home. I don’t see him surviving the summer here, but there’s no doubt Howe has dramatically improved him.
Ryan Fraser looked like he’d never, ever reach a level of fitness that would allow him to complete 90 minutes prior to Howe’s arrival. A game that stands out for me is Crystal Palace away this season. It was under Jones, and it was Fraser’s first start in some time. Within 15 minutes, he looked exhausted. Now, look at him. It’s no wonder he’s known as our Duracell bunny. It’s clear that Howe has not only taken the time to work on his fitness but also his gameplay.
Playing to our strengths with some fast forwards has also been a revelation. Miggy looked lost and frustrated in Bruce sides, often the only one alongside Saint-Maximin making runs. To his credit, he got stuck into defending a lot and considering his stature, he’s good at it. But it’s frustrating to see a player like him constantly on the back foot instead of peeling up the pitch like we know he can. As a side note, he’s been excellent in the last two games and didn’t deserve to be substituted so early in either match.
Wilson somehow managed to bag a decent amount of goals pre-Howe, but he spent 80% of matches stranded upfront alone, again looking frustrated. Like Miggy, he deserves some credit for getting stuck in elsewhere in the pitch – we’d often see him out wide picking the ball up and driving it forward, but realistically we needed another Callum Wilson in the box to ping it to. He made the best of a bad hand when his entire team had been instructed to camp out in their own half. I’m really excited to see him come back.
Brucey golden boy Shelvey has also massively improved. I’ve never been a fan of Shelvey, largely because his supposedly amazing talent only came out once every 10 games or so. He radiated arrogance and sauntered around the pitch like he didn’t need to bother running. It was clear Bruce put him on a pedestal and let him get away with it and he pretty much confirmed this in an interview last year. I’m pleased to see Howe has not only got him performing more consistently but that he’s also got his attitude in check and got him working as part of the team. I was concerned that he’d resist having to put more effort in after coasting for so long, but I’ve been very pleasantly surprised at his progress.
It was hugely frustrating to hear people say that our entire team of players just wasn’t good enough when a lack of investment in squad depth and an incompetent manager were the issues.
Of course, we do still have players that were bought to achieve survival in the Championship. And those that were brought in simply because they were free (hello, Jeff Hendrick). But they’re fringe players at best and we’re likely to finally see a lot of them shipped out this summer.
The spine of our team has been solid for some time. All we needed was the ability to build on the likes of Dubravka, Schar, Almiron, Wilson, Saint-Maximin and Willock. And now we’re finally doing it, we’re able to bring out the best in our existing players.
A class manager who plays to their strengths helps, too.
Bit of a selective memory there Natasha.
It’s all very well slagging off Bruce for saying our players weren’t good enough but let’s not forget it was Rafa who went with 5 at the back saying our defence was not good enough to play attacking football, and it was Rafa who said “it will be miracle” if he could keep Newcastle in the Prem.
As for Howe’s miraculous rejuvenation of our previously average players, not so much down to Howe being a genius, as being due to those players playing with the better quality new players.
This huge improvement didn’t occur in October when Howe took over. It happened in January when the new boys came in. Quality breeds quality and in this case it was down to the quality on the pitch, not in the dugout.
BykerBill(Quote)
All the writers on the blog have a selective memory the root problem of the club was Ashley but on the pitch our problems started with Benitez, his football was awful, he constantly moaned about them being championship standard and delivered no better than Bruce he was equally as bad, but was ridiculed at all times unlike Rafa who was given some sort of Messiah pedestal for delivering us **** football.
I’m glad both are gone and we are gradually trying to play a more expansive game but it’s going to take a few more transfer windows until we are back in the days of the entertainers or even at the level that Pardew had us playing at (btw a manager who was also treated disgracefully by our supporters and slagged by this blog as well cos he was seen as a southern cronie of Ashley)
Anyway let’s hope for better times over the next few seasons
Anyway rant over
David(Quote)
Sorry, but it’s nonsense to suggest players have only improved because we brought in some quality in January.
The standout signings were Trippier and Bruno, yet they barely played in our nine-game unbeaten run.
Shelvey, Schar, Willock, Joelinton, Fraser are playing better than they ever have at NUFC by some distance – and they began improving well before January. Look at Joelinton for example, he was transformed in early December and putting in outstanding displays against Norwich, Man City, Man Utd.
A big part of our unbeaten run consisted of the usual squad, plus players signed from Brighton, Burnley and Aston Villa. As solid as the likes of Burn and Targett have been, it’s crazy to suggest they are more responsible for existing squad players improving than Eddie Howe!
Olly Hawkins(Quote)