Five takeaways from Fulham 3-1 Newcastle - Balance, Bruno, big week & worrying stats
Newcastle United suffered defeat for the first time this season as they lost 3-1 at Craven Cottage. Another poor performance to add to this season’s disappointing catalogue as a second best United came away from London with nothing.
Fulham dominated the first 45 and were 2-0 up at the breakthrough Raul Jiménez and Emile Smith-Rowe, both goals were terrible to concede from a defensive point of view with Schar slack in marking Jiménez for the first and Pope flapping at the second. United scored early in the second half through Barnes but an awful Bruno pass allowed Nelson to grab a third in stoppage time to wrap up the win for Fulham.
Here are our five key takeaways from the game:
- Midfield Balance
When the teams were announced a midfield three of Willock, Bruno, and Joelinton seemed like a positive move from Eddie Howe to inject some direct running and technical ability into the middle of the park.
Two hours later and that change was thoroughly dumped as Fulham twice bypassed the midfield in transition to go 2-0 in front. In a worrying trend, it kept happening too with further chances for Smith-Rowe, Traoré and Jiménez. In a truly perturbing trend, it has happened in every away game so far this season too.
Howe tried to fix the problem by shifting to a 4-2-3-1 at half time and it initially looked a positive change with a quick Barnes strike in the second half, but midfield balance is starting to become a real concern. Add in last season’s woes, when the midfield three was often bypassed with one pass to opposition players drifting between the lines, and midfield balance is becoming a huge headache Howe needs to solve ASAP.
If only we had a technical, hard running, intelligent central midfielder available to us…
- Terrible First Half’s Continue
So far this season Newcastle have been slow starters in the league and have had to come back from first half deficits to pick up points in two games and recover from any early red card in another. Southampton, Bournemouth and Fulham have been quicker out of the blocks than Newcastle in first 45’s, even when we have played well in spells or controlled possession. Bournemouth, Wolves and Fulham have taken leads into the break against us this season too.
Throw in Pope and Schar howler’s and you have all the ingredients that add up to our first defeat of the season at Craven Cottage. In October 2022, United went on a run of five wins and draw which set the tone for that season, in all five of those wins we were winning at half time. They need to find a way back to starting games positively and quickly, as eventually you will come a cropper if you must keep fighting back from behind in games.
- Underlying Stats Are Concerning
Nick Pope has already faced 100+ shots so far this season. Pass completion has hovered between 62-86%. Highest xG is only 1.8 against Spurs. On average the lads only win 40% of their Aerial duels. By almost every statistical metric the numbers are abysmal, and a defeat was certainly coming if they continued to trend that way.
More importantly, for most fans, though is Newcastle have failed the ‘eye test’ in every performance so far this season. The team has looked lethargic on and off the ball, passing moves have gone astray, and body language has been poor too. Gordon has been an enigma this season looking more like the player he was at Everton, with his frustration clear for all to see.
However, we are only five games into the league season and the main stat that counts are ten points from five games (Two points a game). Extrapolate that over the season and it’s 76 points, more than enough to finish in the top four. But to get there performances will have to improve markedly.
- Does the Captaincy Suit Bruno?
The Brazilian’s form has deserted him so far this season. He looks slow to move the ball on his teammates, he’s taking too many touches, and he has been exposed for a lack of pace is an unbalanced midfield. He does have one assist, but it was from a five-yard sideways pass 20 yards out to Schar who just happened to bang the ball into the back of the net against Wolves.
Additionally, his goal threat has gone missing too. He has a 0.1 xG, only takes 1.2 shots per 90, and his passing accuracy is a frankly shocking 82.8%. Despite trying to be progressive with his passing it just isn’t clicking for our star man so far in 2024/25.
Questions could be asked about the captaincy and whether it suits Bruno, he spoke in an interview earlier this season about losing sleep trying to come up with speeches to give to his teammates – it may’ve been tongue in cheek, but the underlying message is clear. He’s also an emotional player, and he doesn’t appear to talk the lads through a game when we are struggling.
Rumours have swirled that giving him the captaincy was a ploy to keep him happy at the club, a move I support in general, but performances despite the results have raised a spectre of trepidation that the captaincy doesn’t suit him.
- Big Week Ahead with the Cup
After a poor performance and heavy defeat managers, players and pundits often say teams what a quick game to put things right on the calendar, and United have just that away to AFC Wimbledon in the League Cup on Tuesday.
Eddie Howe will undoubtedly rotate his starting eleven, but he must be mindful not to over rotate, especially considering today’s result. Progression in the cup is vital but giant killing’s do happen and the pressure would really ramp up on Eddie if we were to crash out of the competition to League Two opposition.
With the hardest home league fixture to come next weekend, it might be the only opportunity for positivity this week too.
Ultimately, it far too early to panic and you would rather have the points on the board as we do, but the longer these poor performances continue, the more you would start to worry for the manager. Clearly, the press is keen to push an agenda at the club and it’s up to the manager and the players to nip that in the bud.
They can start by comfortably beating Wimbledon on Tuesday, and putting in a big performance against Man City, whatever the result, in what is a big week for United.
Howay the Lads.
