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.
Bruno looks out of shape. He looks soft and slower than last season. Perhaps it’s not the captaincy, but the classic occasion when a big money player forgets what was necessary to earn the big contract.
Benny(Quote)
It’s happening to Gordon and he hasn’t got the contract yet.
It also appears to have happened with Joelinton.
Once players are stuck on these big contracts (not big compared to some other clubs) they don’t really need to do anything then you have a real job getting rid of them.
Joseph(Quote)
Shearer asking the question daily mirror regards big name performances.
Howe response “there are no star players in the squad”
So why have some been given increased contracts and proposed ones?
Agents ruining the game and yes Shearer also benefited from a big contract but he never hid and always put a shift in even when he wasn’t playing at his best.
Joseph(Quote)
Obviously, something is massively wrong. Every single performance this season, 6/6, has been pants. Only yesterday did the result reflect this. By the end of yesterday’s match we had used up and just about had on the pitch at the same time, every attacking player on the books (bar sicknote) and Fulham didn’t have a worry. The midfield has disintegrated into nothingness. What the **** is going on? The obvious answer is the behind the scenes ructions – it’s clear that whoever holds the real power wants Eddie out, ridiculously, and this has shattered our mojo. It would be fair to suggest a truly dire season ahead, despite the lovely early 10 points. Oo-er.
davewallace(Quote)
@davewallace
I don’t think it would get that far to be fair.
If someone in the hierarchy wants their own man, which has generally been the rule for incoming execs, then Eddie will be sacked.
I’m not saying it’s the right thing to do, but performances have been bad for a while, something needs to change, and as I say in the piece, it’s always the manager who pays the price.
Jonathan Young(Quote)
Hi Jonathan,
Thank you for your reply, I respect this. I’m just a little worried that what you think you wrote in the piece isn’t actually what you did write: I’m referring to your comment “as I say in the piece, it’s always the manager who pays the price”
I didn’t spot this when I read your piece, so I re-read it, and i don’t see it at all: you did not say “it’s always the manager who pays the price”.
Could you kindly clarify for me, please?
(Very worried fan)
davewallace(Quote)
No worries Dave,
Not word for word at all and I could’ve clarified, I’m referring to this:
‘but the longer these poor performances continue, the more you would start to worry for the manager.’
You would worry that if we continue to play poorly, especially after a window when the manager hasn’t been backed, the board would sack Eddie and replace him with their man.
I’m not advocating for this but it is what will happen, if the rumours are true and Howe and Mitchell don’t get on, this stand off only ends one way.
Jonathan Young(Quote)
Maybe Mitchell saw our away form last year when we were nearly outplayed by every team in the league and our results are shocking and our first 5 games of the season, 6 if you count the cup have looked very similar.
Our league position is flattering we have 10 points on performances it could easily have been 0 and if we’re honest we couldn’t complain too much if that were the case.
Maybe Mitchell doesn’t have the goodwill for Howe that us supporters after his first two seasons but I’ve got to admit my patience is wearing thin as he doesn’t seem to be able to set up a team to control games and relies on pieces of brilliance to win games it’s like watching Bruce and tbf Benitez when we allowed teams to dominate and hoped for
something on the break, Howe is luckier cos he is blessed with a few better players than either the other two had.
David(Quote)
Ah, thanks very much, Jonathan: it now appears plain to me we both think alike: I wonder if you have any insight/clues/guesses as to who really is calling the shots, and why they should be aiming to undermine the stupendous work Eddie has done? I know Darren Eales is clearly in the firing line, but how much influence does Yasir al-Rumayyan have? I’m led to believe he’s a golf buff, so now much does he know/care about NUFC? And who took the decision to appoint Eales in the first place? My feeling is when we know who actually makes the decisions, we’ll be on the way to knowing why they want rid of Eddie. Any thoughts you may have would be most welcome,
ps I was at Craven Cottage yesterday, and half way through the first half I turned to my mate and said “Shambles”. I later was greeted, an hour after the finish, by a supporter I’d never met before, and with a happy smile on his face as he greeted me on his way out of the Eight Feathers, he said “****ng Sh***”, which is the best two-word summary of all.
We’re in big trouble, Jonathan
davewallace(Quote)
Some good comments here my take is Howe has got to stop being overly loyal to certain players and quickly plus the worry is he’s doing nothing to address the gaps in midfield which were there last season also get the impression Howe likes to be in total control of everything that’s changed in modern football thou he should have the final say of who comes in signings wise off the field always had a bad feeling about Eales something seems not quite right about him would take Staveley and Ghoudoussi back in a heartbeat but time will tell on that one
Darren Bebb(Quote)
Agreed Darren, some excellent comments on here tonight.
Howe’s loyalty to players is admirable, however the margins are so fine at the top of the Premier League, you can’t afford to be seems my trying to win games by not picking your best side! It’s madness.
Dave: you would have to assume that the ones calling the shots day to day are the Executive team, Eales, Mitchell, Silverstone and maybe Bunce. Howe should also be on that list but it seems fractious atm.
I also wish I had an insight into the inner workings at the club from an internal source but alas I don’t.
But what makes that worse, for me, is that you don’t need a source to see that something isn’t right. Howe’s language and message not being the same as Mitchell’s, every time the cameras cut to the execs they have faces like smacked arses, players playing poorly, sometimes they look like they’re not following instructions, stripping the captaincy away from Trippier (I honestly believe Howe thought he was going to be sold) and not buying anyone in the summer.
Unfortunately it all seems odd and off.
Jonathan Young(Quote)
I just couldn’t agree more
Will(Quote)