Five takeaways from Bournemouth 1-1 Newcastle: VAR law, technical issues and Joelinton
Newcastle United drew 1-1 at the Vitality Stadium as they picked up a point on the road despite an abject performance on the South Coast.
Bournemouth opened the scoring in the 37th minute through Marcus Tavernier, after Joelinton was caught in possession deep in United’s half. Newcastle generally struggled but equalised in the 76th minute through Anthony Gordon’s tap in at the back post following a lovely Harvey Barnes cross.
Here are our five key takeaways from the game:
- Late VAR drama saves Newcastle
VAR has been contentious since it was first introduced to the Premier League in 2018. An often-heard refrain is that it isn’t the technology that’s the problem, it’s how it’s applied in England.
Well, VAR rode to Newcastle’s rescue yesterday afternoon by disallowing Outtara’s goal in the 93rdminute for handball. However, I would argue that it isn’t VAR’s issue. It’s a law’s of the game issue.
IFAB’s Law 12: Fouls and Misconduct states ‘for the purposes of determining handball offences, the upper boundary of the arm is in line with the bottom of the armpit.’ (See below image) So, by the letter of the law the goal had to be disallowed when it hit the Bournemouth players bicep. Harsh and not in the spirit of the game – sure, a goal according to the laws – no.
- Hall unlucky, Kelly not at the races
When the team was announced 75 minutes before kick-off (yep don’t get it either) I was surprised to see Lloyd Kelly starting at left back.
Firstly, it was harsh on Hall, who didn’t deserve to be rotated considering Kelly hadn’t played a minute at left back throughout preseason.
I’d listened to a few opinions throughout the week about how Kelly was so good you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference whether he played as a centre back or a full back.
Well yesterday he killed our left-hand side from an attacking perspective. Kelly barely moved beyond the halfway line in his 69 minutes on the pitch, hardly creating anything and Semenyo tore him apart on multiple occasions.
Lewis Hall helped change the game when he came on, he was quicker, hardier and passed the ball better. He provided a clear attacking outlet, often getting ahead of his winger on the left and linking up with Barnes to good effect in the 15-minute spell in the second half that allowed us to equalise.
Attacking full backs are such an important part of modern football and Hall is an attacking threat despite his defensive frailties. Kelly should be used at centre back especially considering how short we are in that position at the minute.
- Technical deficiencies
Burn and Krafth started as the centre back pairing yesterday and Newcastle struggled to play out from the back with poor close control often seeing possession surrendered to the Cherries.
Our technical deficiencies were exposed over and over by Bournemouth and led to the continuous loss of duels and stymied our ability to play out from the back.
The return of Schar and Botman instantly raise that ceiling, and hopefully a further centre back incoming will help in that respect too.
- Away Form = Vital
It was poor away form that cost United last season with 11 defeats on the road, a stark contrast from 2022/23, seeing us slip from a fourth-place finish to a seventh-place finish.
Another often-heard football maxim is ‘good teams pick up points despite playing badly’, and there’s no excuse for how poor Newcastle were on the South Coast, yet we remain unbeaten going into a big game next weekend.
Resilience can be huge factor in football and after playing 60 minutes with ten men on the opening weekend and winning, and picking up a point away to Bournemouth despite being generally awful will hopefully stand us in good stead for a good season.
Everyone wants to see Newcastle play good football, and they will have to improve against better teams, but as the gaffer himself says ‘if you can’t win the game, don’t lose it.’
- Joelinton in the Sinbin
From Man of the Match to an absolute stinker. Big Joe put in one of his worst displays in Black and White since he reinvented himself as a destructive midfielder.
Often caught in possession or letting the ball run under his foot, he was strangely out of sorts and seemed to be weak too, losing the ball in challenges against smaller players on the day.
To cap a truly terrible performance he then rugby tackled Neto in the Bournemouth goal to prevent a counterattack. He would’ve spent ten minutes in the sinbin in Rugby and the ref, David Coutt, thought the challenge was worthy of a yellow card.
For me it was the definition of a professional foul and don’t subscribe to the calls for a red card. It reminded me of Nolan on Szczesny in the 4-4 against Arsenal all those years ago. Reckless sure, but not a red.
https://twitter.com/htomufc/status/1827722331441209366
