When we wrote our match report last night after the 2-1 defeat at Fulham,, who were level on points and hadn’t won in their last eight games, we wrote: “Rodallega was able to head home past Krul, and how come he was unmarked six yards from goal.” “Another goal conceded from a set-play by Newcastle and that will not please the manager.”
Grim looking Alan Pardew and John Carver last night
And sure enough Alan Pardew is not happy with either goal conceded – but didn’t Newcastle know in the summer that we needed the strengthen the defense – especially at center-back in case we got injuries – like we had to Steven Taylor last season?
Steven Taylor is out again out with a lengthy injury and so we have only two recognized center-backs available – Coloccini and Williamson – and the defense is struggling as we let in two soft goals last night.
This is what the Newcastle manager said after the game:
“It’s a really soft second goal, a soft free-kick, soft defending on the free-kick and you can’t do that at this level because we had the game by the scruff of the neck at this point.”
“We played some of our best attacking football of the season but we’ve still come away with nothing. Performances don’t get you points.” In the second half we were terrific other those two or three moments, we’ve got no one to blame but ourselves.”
“I think we’ve conceded poor goals at crucial times and away from home it is costly.” “We are going to have to get more resilience about us and make sure we don’t concede goals like that”.
But this is what happens with poor sides, they keep letting in silly goals, and that’s why they never get any points, and the Newcastle players will need to buck up soon, because we are going to be struggling in the league by early February.
So you always have to start with a strong defense, and those two poor goals cost Newcastle last night, and yes we were much better in the second half, but how come we never seem to turn up in the first 30 minuets of a game, and we could have well been two or three goals down before the break last night.
If this run of 4 points from 7 league games is not alarming people like Derek LLambias and Mike Ashley it should do, because they’ve been against mediocre sides.
That’s one worrying thing.
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23 comments so far
RonVanDam
Dec 11, 2012 at 8:19 AM
Comment #1Btw, we still havent scored from a set play. Very poor from a team that finished 5th last year
SuperShearer
Dec 11, 2012 at 8:22 AM
Comment #2AP’s right, in the second half we played some of our best football of the season but our set pieces, both attacking and defending, are WOEFUL. We always look weak when defending them and never look likely to score when attacking them. It’s got to change, we win enough of them so we should be looking to score from them. We won’t get anything from City and unless AP starts giving some hair dryer treatment I can see us being sucked into a relegation battle.
RonVanDam
Dec 11, 2012 at 8:25 AM
Comment #3We should get another assistant coach to help Carver. One for Defending and other for attacking. Pardew to in-corporate both and layout the tactics and formations.
stuart no9
Dec 11, 2012 at 8:27 AM
Comment #4so lets not beat about the bush – we are going down ! tonight is the first night i have realy come to accept it. the anger has gone now , all i feel is pity, watching them in the first half was very sad. in fact i must admit i was starting to swell up, watching these men looking for something to inspire them, any kind of inspiration would do- then just at that point the camera turns to THE man.- man at C&A – The man would look more at home in the littlewoods catalogue than trying to direct a group of pitiful players looking for inspiration to try and win a football game.This cant be right, it just cant be right, any one who says differently is not a true supporter or geordie. people can say this and that but a true fan would be worried by now and want changes. i love my team, and in that first half i felt like running on that pitch and giving them all a big cuddle, and tell them it will get better,either pards will get sacked or you will be playing for a better club next year. i really hope bennie goes to arsenal. he is a young lad , he dosnt deserve this. krul could go on to be a top keeper at another club, cisse will probably stay coz no one will want him , collo again sublime, but deserves better, willo needs to go on loan to walker social club for 10 seasons, apart from that we have some decent players who will only get worse playing for this shambles of a set-up, this shambolic excuse for a manager . very sad – for some strange reason i thought we would turn it on tonight, then i saw pardew on the telly , and brought me back down to earth with a mighty bang, never mind , think i,ll get my 1996 video out and dream.
RonVanDam
Dec 11, 2012 at 8:32 AM
Comment #5Heres a interesting stat to compare Hughtons time here to Pardews
Pardew
Played 66 Win 28 Draw 19 Lose 19 Win % 42.42
Hughton
Played 64 Win 38 Draw 11 lose 15 Win % 59.38
RonVanDam
Dec 11, 2012 at 8:35 AM
Comment #6Im off guys. Have a nice day
Klam3r
Dec 11, 2012 at 8:38 AM
Comment #7Repost:
Catchy and Beattie25 have some valid points. Pardews history as manager doesn’t exactly shine, and he is on that path here too. His teams seems to fade after a season. If that is lack of man management, motivating skills or tactical knowledge we don’t know(i do prefer 433 over 442 though…), but something is wrong in the manager/coaching department, also. This will be his test, to turn this around and show us that he can still develop as a manager/learn from his mistakes. He did say we lack Obertans pace, and i see that as a good sign of how he wants to play.
Another factor is Ashley. He kind of forces Pards to play the way we do now, though i think he should do a lot better with the players he’s got! Every team needs new players before a new season. New energy is always good for a team, and it keeps the squad alert. Where the he** is our internal competition? Our youngsters aren’t there quite yet.
So i think the problem is bigger than Willo, Simpson, Ba and Jonas. It’s bigger than Pardew and his coaching staff, but we need to start somewhere. For me it’s Ashley splashing cash on 2-3 players in january, and for Pardew to buy the right type of players for his vision. When that happens i’ll judge him.
After a loss i always come out bashing(sorry for that), but that’s football for me. That’s how it is to be a fan with feelings. After a day or two i clear my head and see i’m a muppet sometimes. I kind of love that feeling 😉
Ibizatoon - Back by popular demand
Dec 11, 2012 at 8:40 AM
Comment #8Morning all (omitted the good today),
Well that was disappointing, yet to some degree expected away to Fulham.
Performance – Overall, pretty average. Some good bits, some disastrous bit.
Set Pieces – We did actually try something different and Colo nearly got us an important goal – but almost doesn’t change matches.
Subs – Cannot understand why Ben Arfa went off for Shola. I read on here that Pardew had wanted Benny off, which is understandable if he isn’t at full fitness, but why Shola? 3 Strikers that can’t seem to score? What about Marveaux? Creative for creative? Bad call.
Pardew out? No. I don’t see it happening and still maintain he needs some time, but I don’t know how much time that is. As far as Ashley is concerned, I don’t think he will make a change unless we’re in trouble, not just looking at trouble, but I could be wrong.
What next? Some really tough games, ones that we wouldn’t normally expect much or anything out of, so we have got to be prepared for a tough old month. We may have the odd surprise, but I’m struggling to expect too much. So, that leads us to January.
For me, I don’t see much changing with regards to my opinion until the end of Feb really. The board needs January to put some things right, then Pardew will need some time to get the hopefully new players integrated in the team. That wont leave us a lot of time if we’re in trouble at that point, lots of ifs and buts….and it’s not even transfer season yet.
ramajama
Dec 11, 2012 at 8:43 AM
Comment #9stuart no9
take that depressing nonsense your saying and jog on. We have had a combination of poor performances, no luck and injuries. We all know (including the players) that performances are low but to say wer going down waa waa waa is embarrasing. Man up. supporting a team isnt easy, nows the time to show faith not have a cry.
lloydie780
Dec 11, 2012 at 8:47 AM
Comment #10Have to say i took alot of positives from last night as we played football in parts which we haven’t done for alot of the season. We deserved a draw last night. Two players seriously let us down (normally i would say 3 but Simpson played well minus his crossing) – Gutti and Williamson. I used to stand up for Williamson but there are so many mistakes in his game and as the game has been on tv it highlights them even more, very average played in a competitive league in a team where he should be 4/5th choice. good trier jsut not good enough. Other played is Gute, loved the guy but he cant keep posession and he cant pass. He loses the ball everytime he gets it, always gets deposessed or passes a wayard pass somewhere, he is offering nothing to us and especially in the first half i was paying he didn’t get the ball. I also dont get why we keep pumping the ball into the box aerially if we cant compete in the air (despite us having x3 6ft plus strikers), just a waste of time and ball, better drilling it across. I saw positives last night but these two really are struggling in this team now. I hope we really do buy in this window. Hopefully things will get better
spudzzz
Dec 11, 2012 at 8:48 AM
Comment #11stupid stat…hughton got his win ratio in the championship…at least 31 of those wins is in championship…..lets keep things in perspective please
Ibizatoon - Back by popular demand
Dec 11, 2012 at 8:48 AM
Comment #12Stuart….There’s being disappointed, gutted or even distraught, but come on now. We’re going down? You “hope Arfa goes to Arsenal”?
Surely you hope we can sort it out? That the board will get in some players and give Pardew a chance? That the players sort out their ideas (we know they can play better than this and that isn’t solely down to Pardew)?
There are a lot of problems, not just one.
Ibizatoon - Back by popular demand
Dec 11, 2012 at 8:51 AM
Comment #13Klam….Agree with most of that.
Pardews previous records don’t read great, but at the same time, he hasn’t been given much time to turn things around (from my somewhat limited knowledge). I think the only time he was given time, he actually did turn it around (second season at West Ham….I think?!?).
I agree the board needs to show some more backing of Pardew first before we can fairly judge the man.
spudzzz
Dec 11, 2012 at 8:53 AM
Comment #14llyodie780….agree with most of what you said..Simpson actually surprised me with a new found willingness to actually try and get past players…good on ya Danny….keep trying…he definitely has looked like a player trying to better himself…had a good game yesterday….One thing to add though…People…look carefully and you will see that both goals are actually mistakes by collo…first he tries to tackle hook the ball for himself instead of clearing it and then on 2nd goal, he’s behind his man 2 meters away instead of being all over him…gave him too much room
lloydie780
Dec 11, 2012 at 8:55 AM
Comment #15Spudzz i agree they were Colo’s mistakes though who was marking Sidwell? No-one was marking the runner into the box, which i would have thought should have been Tiote? Plus Colo was defending Duff who was Santons man. The blame should be spread a bit more for the first. 2nd goal was 100% Colos fault.
spudzzz
Dec 11, 2012 at 9:11 AM
Comment #16yep….you’re right tiote should have followed the runner…howeever santon was not there because is actually trying to get forward to help us score…..this is something which has worked quite nicely over the last year with Collo or guti backing him up when gets forward. So i wouldn’t blame santon as we have the “contingency”plan to cover for it…you could argue that santon could’ve got back quicker…when Collo ended up one on one with the fulham player and about to tackle i was not worried at all simply because this was Collo!! voted in the PL best 11 team of the season last year. I actually nearly choked on my beer when i saw him miss that tackle that he normally never misses…..I still think that there are a lot of positives from the last 3 displays even if the scoreline didn’t reflect …we should not have lost any of the last 3 games. Come one…keep ya spirits up, we will be ok
lloydie780
Dec 11, 2012 at 9:18 AM
Comment #17Your right performance wise we have been alot better. Just haven’t got the right score. Only problem is the next few fixtures are very tought games, we will drop serious points and people will gain on us, need to hopefully pick up a couple of draws or a win out of them. Keep the support up, i dont think i could deal with another relegation.
blew
Dec 11, 2012 at 10:05 AM
Comment #18Spudzzz @ 14
I too noticed the change in Simpson last night, he was trying and put in a decent show.
It was his best effort for some time.
I must cynically point out that Simpson is strongly linked to Fulham, hence the additional effort. That is his alleged preference in January.
FrankfurtMag
Dec 11, 2012 at 10:22 AM
Comment #19Ronvandam @ 5
Can’t really compare the 2 managers as 46 games of Hughton were Championship 🙂
I do get what you are trying to say but there is no comparison to be made on games alone.
At the end of the day, Pardew has an 8 year deal and we will have to live with it.
As a final note, Williamson was just awful last night. Anita, however, was lively and looked good on the ball again.
stuart no9
Dec 11, 2012 at 1:56 PM
Comment #20ramajama @ 9 so , have you just started supporting the toon ?
LargeSadMenace
Dec 11, 2012 at 6:46 PM
Comment #21…
LargeSadMenace
Dec 11, 2012 at 6:46 PM
Comment #22Oh dear
ramajama
Dec 11, 2012 at 8:48 PM
Comment #23Stuart
ive been supporting my whole life..and never have sounded as depressing as your last post