It’s been a solid season in my eyes, and I’m proud of what we’ve achieved – but of course there’s always things we could’ve done better.
I’ve been talking on X (Twitter) about Newcastle, Eddie Howe and his players needing to “learn lessons” from this season. But what exactly do I mean by that?
Dealing with European football and extra fixtures.
It’s an extra stress on the squad, both physically and mentally – and that fatigue adds up over the season unless you’re able to rotate properly. Howe could’ve rotated better at times this season, and it’s something which he’s started to do more frequently later in the campaign when he’s had more bodies back. It’s a lesson for the whole club, and the UCL experience has equipped us to deal with our next European experiences.
Injuries aren’t always a coincidence.
Make no mistake, we’ve had some rotten luck, and some freak injuries. But some of the muscle injuries aren’t coincidental in my opinion, and there needs to be an investigation into the sport science methods behind the scenes. Again, maybe European football and the extra load played into this too. Either way, there has to be some introspection on why there were so many muscle injuries this season.
Big game pedigree comes with time and experience.
We’ve had our fair share of “big games” this season, with mixed results. We’re still not consistent enough in those high-pressure scenarios, but it comes with experience. Once you know how to react in those situations, they become easier to deal with. A side note too, we’re still a confidence side. Barring the West Ham game, we rarely turn games around. We need to learn to control games better even when we aren’t at our best.
Tactical versatility matters.
This one is perhaps less relevant to this season, but it’ll help in the future. We need to keep evolving as a system. Whether that’s changing our build-up to something less direct, tweaking the structure of our midfield if Bruno leaves – whatever it is – we can’t always stay the same. The same goes for every team in the world.
Around november last year there was a physician on muscle fatigue speaking on radio Newcastle talking about how there is more injuries in the modern game then ever before saying how players have to be more fitter and robust there running harder for longer periods explaining how diet and rest are preventions that can help reduce the risk yes the freak injuries we have had hopefully will not happen next season but as far as muscle injuries are concerned we will get them like every other club and thats something fans of all clubs not just ours will have to accept and get on with it fingers crossed from our point of view its only a couple and we can still have around 16 players from our stronest 20 available for the majority of games
Darren Bebb(Quote)