2 things I liked (and 2 I didn’t) from Bournemouth 0-0 Newcastle

Newcastle United drew a third consecutive away game 0-0 against Bournemouth down on the south coast on Sunday afternoon. Less than 72 hours after the Barcelona game, United were back in action in what is a very unhappy hunting ground for the team and the gaffer.

In a match of little quality and little to talk about, it’s a game/result that will only look better depending on the result of the match next Sunday against Arsenal at St James’ Park.

Here are 2 things I liked (and 2 I didn’t) from the game:

Liked: Rotation

It was a common refrain among post-match tweets and I’m going to repeat it here; it was important/good to see that Eddie Howe had the confidence to rotate his side. You can’t spend two years whinging about not being able to do it (fans not Eddie) and then when the opportunity arises whinge that the side has been rotated.

It may be anathema to most United fans as we’ve a) not had the squad to do so and b) not been in enough competitions to require it, but rotation is the name of the game in modern football and fans will have to get used to it, and try not to call out every changed formation or rotated player as ineffectual or not as good as his counterpart on the bench.

I’m pleased Howe had confidence in his squad and there were important minutes for Lewis Hall, Lewis Miley, Malick Thiaw, Sven Botman, Joe Willock, and Nick Woltemade, who for a multitude of reasons, have been lacking them for extended periods now/need to get up to speed with new teammates.

As soon as I saw the line-up I believed it was a side picked with not just Barcelona but Arsenal in mind too. I have no doubt Eddie will line the side up in a 4-3-3 with all the players rested against Bournemouth for the Arsenal game.

Didn’t Like: Lack of attacking threat / Five at the back

An xG of 0.14 sums up United’s lack of attacking threat, but that statistic is only half the story. United look uncomfortable in the 3-4-3/3-5-2 formation in an attacking sense, with players either not quite reading each other’s intentions or the lack of time to train in the formation. It’s now five games in a row where Howe has used the formation with United not scoring a goal.

There are clearly teething problems with Woltemade and the players around him getting used to his game, as it is fundamentally different to Isak’s and will require work on the training ground (which is, unfortunately, very light on the ground at the moment). That said, the return of Anthony Gordon and Yoane Wissa should help in that regard; and settling on a regular pair of wingers either side (rotation allowing) will help the front three begin to link up with each other.

With how solid United have been at the back, it would only take a small uptick in attacking output to turn these draws into wins, but the calendar is relentless this year, so there very well may be more of the same before it gets better.

Didn’t Like: Rob Jones and the lack of VAR intervention

Frankly, the standard of refereeing we are experiencing at the start of this new season (unless you’re a side wearing red, three minutes of second-half stoppage time in a derby…), is woeful, and Rob Jones and VAR had a horrible game on Sunday.

Let’s start with the big one, and that’s the tug on Woltemade’s shirt: it’s a penalty. Yes, Woltemade goes down easily, but fans are forever being told players have to do these sorts of falls or the ref won’t give it, yet when they do, it’s deemed insufficient contact. But on that decision, I have sympathy for the ref; he can’t see it from his position, so it's incumbent on the lineman or VAR to step in. They didn’t, and United have been robbed of a golden chance to score a goal and go on to win the game.

Rob Jones himself threatened to lose control of the game at various points, especially during the second half, and Bournemouth fans are probably just as frustrated with his decision-making not to send off Malick Thiaw for a clumsy last-man challenge when he’s already on a booking.

It appeared on TV that United players were not allowed to jump to contest balls either, with the ref consistently blowing up when Burn or Woltemade jumped for any ball in the air. But when, Woltemade especially, attempted to control the ball with multiple players around him and drew the foul, it often went overlooked as the ref waved play on. It was incompetence of the highest level, and Jones should probably get his backside back to ref school rather than spending all his time down the gym.

Liked: United are slowly building?

With such a damp squib of a match, it’s easy to look at Sunday's game, in isolation, as a poor one. Throw in the previous nil-nils away from home this season, and it’s clear United are still finding their feet away from home this season. But that’s now four points from the last six in the league, and Newcastle could be starting to slowly build into the season after a difficult summer.

The team looks solid at the back, and if Howe can eke out a little more from the limited training time together in terms of changing our attacking style, patterns, and play, then we will likely see the team go on a decent run of form as they have done in every season Howe has been head coach.

With another big fortnight ahead featuring four huge games for different reasons (Bradford, Arsenal, Union, and Forest), it’s going to take a monumental effort from the lads to build on the slow upturn in form. Thankfully, three of those games are at SJP, and we all know what a difference that will make.

Keep the faith. HWTL