2 things I liked (and 3 I didn’t) from Newcastle’s 2-1 defeat at Marseille

Newcastle United lost 2-1 away to Marseille in the Champions League on Tuesday evening, continuing this season’s terrible away form.

United’s bipolar nature was clearly on display as the lads just seem unable to win a game away from St. James’ Park (USG excepted).

Harvey Barnes gave United an early lead before a Pierre-Emrick Aubameyang brace in the space of five awful second half minutes won the game for the French side.

Here are two things I liked (and three I didn’t) from last night’s game at the Stade Velorome.

Liked: It was a better away performance

It’s low hanging fruit but it was better away performance than West Ham and Brentford on Tuesday evening. The press looked more effective as we either won the ball back in the final third or intercepted balls close to the opposition final third; and you could see there was a plan- in the first 45 minutes at least as United wilted in the second half.

We had 20 shots total for 1.46xG and 31 touches in the opposition penalty area but either our decision making or a sloppy final pass let us down. Perhaps it was more Jekyll and Hyde than an outright improvement, but part of me thinks Eddie feels Everton is the bigger game this week, hence the rotation of Woltemade (our only fit striker), Joelinton, and Hall.

Didn’t Like: Another Pope clanger

Nick Pope has now made FOUR mistakes leading to goals in his last three away games (Brentford, West Ham & Marseille) and we have been leading 1-0 in each when he has made the mistake. Despite him making big saves, they become moot in the face of his consistent goal-costing errors.

He is now also conceding over 1 goal a game (1.10 in the Premier League) and despite the data still being on his side, he is still outperforming his post shot xG (a measure of his shot stopping vs quality of shots faced), surely this a situation where the data is misleading?

The eye test would suggest mistakes are now activity costing the side points and the defence’s confidence in Pope looks lower than ever, as evidenced by Thiaw screaming at Pope to get back when he was rushing out of his goal.

Didn’t Like: Gordon up front

Anthony Gordon is becoming a huge issue that needs to be solved ASAP. He was basically invisible all night, messed up any chance, ball or pass that came his way, and he is a shadow of the player he has been for the past two seasons.

He seems to be pulling a reverse-Samson, in that he’s grown his hair and has lost all his ability! I jest, but the lad in really struggling, with his no goals or assists in the Premier League form bleeding into the Champions League which had been positive up until last nights game.

It’s been said a million times but he’s not a striker. He’s only ever scored one goal when playing the position (the penalty against Man City at SJP last season) and I’m tired of him being shoehorned into that position. I’d rather a 16-year-old from the academy play the position; such is the lack of quality when Gordon plays there.

Liked/Disliked: Joe Willock’s performance

For a player who has been poor for 18 months or so now, it was a much-improved performance from Joe Willock (in the first half especially) when his powerful running from deep stretched the play and got United up the pitch. He had 5 shots, dribbled well, and looked dangerous inside the box, but his finishing still needs improvement. Willock starting ahead of Ramsey raised a few eyebrows but on that first half display you couldn’t fault the decision.

However, the drop off in his performance in the second half was stark and he was hooked after 23 ineffectual second half minutes. But he wasn’t alone in that as the second 45 was frankly dreadful all around. But Willock was the best United central midfielder on the pitch in the first half in a side that included Bruno and Sandro.

And so; things don’t get any easier as we go to an Everton side on Saturday who have just beaten Man Utd away (yes, Man Utd are very poor) despite being down to ten men after just ten minutes (a performance we can only dream of away from home by the way). If we can get a result then we can forget this game, and let’s hope that’s the case.

Keep the faith. HWTL