Newcastle United fell to a disappointing defeat at St. James’ Park on Saturday afternoon as Fulham completed the league double over the Mags. Winning 1-0 at half time, a tepid and disjointed second half saw United come away with nothing.
Jacob Murphy gave Newcastle a first half lead before second half goals from Raul Jiménez and Rodrigo Muniz consigned United to a second home defeat in a row.
Here are our six key takeaways from the game:
- Second half passivity
On a cold afternoon in Newcastle, the lads appeared to freeze in the second half as they passively wandered around the pitch not doing much of anything (one Isak shot that hit the bar aside) as Fulham ran out deserved winners in the end.
They bossed the game in every conceivable metric: possession, shots, corner, passes, tackles, and fouls. The lads seemed to be sucked into another game of cat and mouse with the opposition being cuter (in terms of winning fouls and walking the disciplinary tightrope) and knowing how to play the referee better – they even made Tonali look poor, with the Italian giving the ball away in the build up to their equaliser.
I’m glad Eddie came out and basically said we weren’t good enough after the game as there can be no other explanation for the performance. Tonali’s wonder long range effort aside, there was nothing to get excited about. But Saturday was a huge, missed opportunity to put some distance between us and the chasing pack.
- Too much focus on Arsenal?
Two years ago, our form dipped horribly around the cup semi-final and final and for much of Saturday’s game it appeared as if the entire clubs mind (fans included) was on Wednesday night.
Losing back-to-back home games will offer Arsenal something, when we really need to keep them on lockdown, and offer them no encouragement whatsoever. Instead, United have put in two of the worst home performances in a row at such a vital stage of the season.
No one will admit it, but the players and staff are only human, it’s natural to be thinking about such a huge game with so much on the line, but if you drop your levels at all in the Premier League, you get punished, and United got just that on Saturday.
- Eddie needs to make changes sooner
So many players weren’t at the races on Saturday meaning Eddie Howe should’ve made changes much sooner. Tino, Bruno, and Schar were particularly poor and leaving the main attacking changes until the 87th minute seems spurious at best, negligent at worst. If Eddie is looking at the bench and seeing nothing he thinks will make a difference, surely, we need to strengthen somehow.
Joelinton too, was having a stinker and should’ve been substituted much sooner, but Willock was poor too when he came on (and he missed a guilt-edged chance inside the six-yard box late in the second half).
But the subs just aren’t improving things when they come on as of late in what is a worrying development and that has to be a worry, with Howe fielding a striker (Osula) on the right wing, an 18-year-old midfielder (Miley) and a centre-back (Kelly) at left-back in a desperate bid to turn things around yesterday.
It’s clear to me that this team needs reinforcements and the mixed messages coming from the club are starting to grate. Surely missing out on Europe and losing Isak in the summer would be worse than taking a points deduction next season? The squad is so threadbare after the first thirteen or fourteen players, which brings me onto…
- More exits on the way?
Hours after coming on as a late sub, it appears the club have agreed a deal to sell Lloyd Kelly to Juventus on a loan-to-buy deal for £15m. A few hours after that there were rumours abound of Galatasaray being interested in signing Kieran Trippier in this window. Throw in the fact that Miggy has already left for Atlanta United, and the squad is looking thinner than a rizla paper right now.
If United are truly letting all these players go, there must be someone lined up to come in, the squad needs new energy because without strengthening the squad will be so much weaker than when the window opened.
With potentially £26m raised in a few days, part of me wants to say; just go out and buy a centre half and a right-winger/sided forward before the deadline and take the points deduction. It seems to be working pretty well for Forest right now…
- Unacceptable
Everyone at NUFC Blog sends our support to Joe Willock, after some moron sent the midfielder racist abuse following the game. If they do turn out to be a United fan, then it’s safe to say we don’t want you in the fanbase and we hope the authorities track you down and punish you accordingly.
It’s madness that this nonsense still goes on. No matter how frustrating a result is there’s no room for it in the game.
- Wednesday Night
The lads don’t have much time to recover for Wednesday, but Arsenal will thankfully have a day less, so we must take advantage and get the business done on Wednesday night. I’ll be a bundle of nerves on the night, (and I won’t be the only one) but we must bring our a-game atmosphere on Wednesday night as the lads may just need us on the night.
Win and this result is forgotten, lose, well it doesn’t bear thinking about.
Keep the faith. HWTL
To offer “take a points deduction” as a valid tactic is ludicrous. We could get relegated as a result. Forest and Everton nearly did. Furthermore, it would write off next season with no chance of further European qualification after that.
Selling Wilson, Longstaff, Trippier, Targett, Vlachodimos etc at the beginning of January might not have been a bad starting point.
The Panther(Quote)
‘A part of me’ wants to mate. I’m not advocating it at all. But a part of me certainly wants to as so far the net benefits appear to be outweighing the negatives for Forest.
Jonathan Young(Quote)
Isn’t it more than Forest and their manager have finally hit on a regular starting XI as opposed to their previous scatter-gun approach? I wouldn’t say that their current success is due to taking a points deduction hit. Not at all. They all but went down because of it.
The Panther(Quote)