Our hopes of building momentum after Wednesday night’s win over PSV were dealt a big blow as we fell to a 2-0 loss against Aston Villa on Sunday.
A thunderous strike from Emiliano Buendia and a late header from Ollie Watkins sealed the three points on an afternoon where we never truly looked like scoring outside of the opening minute.
It’s left Eddie Howe with a tough selection headache over who should play in Paris on Wednesday night, as barring some bright moments from Lewis Miley and Sven Botman, it was a poor performance from much of our XI.
Here’s what the gaffer had to say after the game, discussing the result, performance and injury latest:
On the performance
For the most part, neither team truly excelled, but it came down to Villa capitalising on the few opportunities they had and seeing the game out, with Emery’s side limiting us to few chances after taking the lead.
“Our performance was okay, a lot of good bits in there, good individual performances. But we’ve lost the game and it’s one of fine margins.
“Missed opportunities for us. Sandro has that chance at the start and if it goes in it’s a different game.
“I thought we were better in the second half than we were in the first. It’s a difficult one for us because there were chances and moments without our final ball being at the quality it normally is.
“Our crossing was poor today. We had a lot of crossing opportunities and good moments around their box.”
“We are well aware that we had a lot of the ball, a lot of potential moments for us, maybe not the number or sheer weight that you need to turn the game in our favour.
“But we’re being very self-critical, we’re analysing where we need to, and we’re trying to learn from it.”
On Bruno and Joelinton injury woes
The worst thing Newcastle wanted to happen ahead of the PSG game was club captain Bruno Guimaraes to be forced off injured against PSV. Perhaps the second worst thing was Joelinton being similarly forced off with a groin concern against Aston Villa.
Faced with the prospect of two of his three go-to midfielders being out for the biggest game of the season, Howe issued a disappointing update on the Brazilians’ current fitness and whether or not they’ll be able on Wednesday night.
On Bruno and his hopes of playing at PSG, Howe noted:
“I still don’t think it’s a serious injury. He wasn’t quite there today. I know he’ll do everything he can to be fit for Wednesday. Let’s wait and see. He has to be right to play”
On Joelinton, Howe seemed concerned despite not knowing the severity of his groin issue:
“It looks like a groin problem. A big blow for us to lose him at any stage. We hope it’s not too serious.
“With him and Bruno missing, that’s sort of a double blow for us.”
No signings coming?
The same question continues to be asked by fans: when Bruno is absent, where can we expect the creativity to come from?
A toothless performance from Anthony Gordon and Yoane Wissa didn’t help us today, but Howe has shot down the idea of a January arrival to solve this issue, hinting that the summer will be our next opportunity to reshape the squad.
“We have the players we have and we need to find a solution with those players. There’s no point in me thinking we need another type of player at this point because it’s not going to happen.
“The next chance we have to change the squad is the summer so it’s about getting the best out of the players we have.”
Judging by Howe’s words, it’s unlikely we’re going to see any big names, if any names at all, through the doors by the time the transfer window shuts next week.
He has to give Osula a chance up front, for obvious reasons !
Geordy(Quote)
IF we’re not signing anyone he has to give some of the academy lads a go between now and the end of the season.
We have a pretty brutal set of fixtures coming up and could see us out of both cups as we’ll as playing 2 extra games in the CL.
We’ll see were we are after that but I don’t hold out much hope for any of those games the way we’re playing except maybe Liverpool/Spurs who seem as bad as us this season.
Absolutely glorious(Quote)
Honestly, I’m out of patience now. I’ve tried to be patient and balanced, but I would bring in a new manager as soon as possible so he has time to figure out who he wants to keep in the summer. Time for a new manager and a squad rebuild in my opinion. Howe has wasted too much money on players who don’t have enough technical ability, which, if we’re being honest, is a thing English managers often do — prioritise running and physicality too much. This has made Newcastle boring to watch.
Jeremy(Quote)
Right now, there are no top managers available on the market, at least none of the top tier. But in the summer, several will become free, though only after the World Cup (so basically, after the whole preseason).
Right now, the options are either to appoint a caretaker and wait for a top boss in the summer, or to look for a less obvious candidate who’s currently out of a job. Personally, I’d wait until summer, but I’d bring in a caretaker right now. The team needs a shake-up; they’re in a proper crisis.
hmd(Quote)
Managers available right now
Xabi Alonso
Ruben Amorim
Enzo Maresca
Erik ten Hag
Gareth Southgate
Adi Hutter
Zinedine Zidane
Joachim Löw
Thiago Motta
Edin Terzić
Sérgio Conceição
Marco Rose
Rafael Benítez
Ole Gunnar Solskjær
Gary O’Neil
Luciano Spalletti
Walter Mazzarri
Bruno Lage
Graham Potter
Ruud van Nistelrooy
And a bunch of even more dross including fat Sam 😬
Absolutely glorious(Quote)
As far as I remember, Benítez is coaching someone in Greece, O’Neil is in Strasbourg, and Spalletti is at Juventus. Alonso is waiting for Liverpool, Maresca is at City, and Zidane is with the French national team. The rest on this list aren’t very interesting to most people. Personally, I’d try Rose, but it’s a risk.
hmd(Quote)
Would be Hutter for me harshly sacked at Monaco for a poor run but what do they expect when they sell a bunch of his players and replace them with the likes of Eric Dier, Wout Faes and Paul Pogba. Non of those fit the style Hutter likes to play.
He’d be a massive risk so it’ll never happen i just like him as a coach always gives youth a chance, plays a very high intensity high press game like we did.
Aside from speculation i think we should stick with Eddie but the way things are going it’s looking harder that he’ll be here next season.
Just one more thing the problem with hiring anyone after the world cup would be that it would push everything back i.e. transfers, training.
Looking at how our season has panned out due to delays/unrest mainly the whole Isak affair then Wissa injury i don’t think we need another season like this one.
Absolutely glorious(Quote)
Wonder if Emery had come to Newcastle wether the situation would be any different? ,, this season is partly the isak.. and forced change of style of football but also Gordon and others need to move on …the new guys Ramsey and elanga were a waste of money and wissa and Nick are uncertain in play .. Howe can’t seem to figure out low blocks and the team struggles with play and confidence ., if we get to June and it’s the same old and nowhere near top 6 then yup time to react and clear out .. Howe is responsible .. we still have taggert and lascalles on the pay roll.., it’s all going a bit stale
Mike(Quote)
I’ll admit I’m not sure who they should go for right now, but I’d definitely prefer them to do it now. Needs must. It’s got to the point where there are multiple things going wrong at the same time. The squad building has gone wrong. The tactics have gone wrong. The mentality of some of the players has also gone wrong. I don’t like the idea of letting that drift until the summer. It’s already been drifting for a while now, I think. A lot of people keep on using the word “stale” and I agree. If they do wait until the summer, it has to happen right at the beginning. Waiting until the end of the World Cup would be bad. But I personally think it needs to happen now. Have the new manager and Ross Wilson start to make plans now, not later. A lot of work needs to happen in the summer. Buying and selling. Selling needs to happen. This squad is not small. It just lacks a lot of quality.
Jeremy(Quote)