While it’s been another depressing start to the season coming after the disasters of last season, which was one of the worst in Newcastle’s Premier league history – we still have hope that things can pick up this season.
But when you consider we are 6 points from safety (taking into account our goal difference) after only eight games played – it’s not a good start so far this season.
Lee Charnley – he will be under pressure
That’s a strange smile
We have had a tough start in terms of the games we have played but what’s not good is that in the two games when we played teams that didn’t finish in the top eight last season – at West Ham and at home to newly promoted Watford – we were second best and didn’t seem to bother turning up for those games.
Those are some of the really worrying things about our season so far.
The other is that we fielded a strong side against what was almost a reserve Sheffield Wednesday side at home in the League Cup and still managed to lose that game.
So it may be a case that the glass is either half full or half empty and we are hoping the glass is half full and that better things are to come.
We should know how things really stand after we have played the next two games – at home to newly promoted Norwich City and at Sunderland.
If we can get two wins or even four points out of those two games that would be good and things should start to pick up from there.
But if we play like we did against West Ham and Watford and cannot get many points out of those games and heaven forbid we lose our sixth straight game against Sunderland, things will not be good.
That’s an understatement.
And the powers that be at Newcastle will need to huddle and identify what we need to do to somehow stay in the Premier League this season.
It was like a living nightmare after John Carver took over the side in that second half of last season.
And the start to this season under new head coach Steve McClaren hasn’t been much better although there have been some positive signs.
We hope things improve but if they don’t there’s only one goal for Newcastle this season and that’s to stay in the Premier League.
We should then be doing all we can to bring in players (like defenders) in the January transfer window.
As we said, we hope it doesn’t come down to that but we need to start winning some games very soon.
Comments welcome.
11 comments so far
mindshaft
Oct 6, 2015 at 9:53 AM
Comment #1We go for Pardew, Carver, McClaren – Liverpool go for Klopp, Ancelotti – therein lies the problem
Klam3r
Oct 6, 2015 at 9:55 AM
Comment #2Colo out!
Come end of november and we will pretty much know if we will be relegated or not this season. A string of winnable matches.
If we have played like we should and picked up enough points we can recruit fairly easy in january. If we’re still bottom three it will be extremely difficult to recruit the right kind of players to keep us up though.
Ron Knee
Oct 6, 2015 at 9:55 AM
Comment #3mindshaft
Therein lies one of the problems.
martoon
Oct 6, 2015 at 10:01 AM
Comment #4The makems will probably have there new manager in place for the derby and it will be his first home match – and we all know what happens next 🙁
stan anderson
Oct 6, 2015 at 10:03 AM
Comment #5This club barring fans,do not deserve to stay up.
Utter shambolic way to run a once great institution,that was NUFC.
Ashley and his stooges OOT.
lochinvar
Oct 6, 2015 at 10:05 AM
Comment #6Mindshaft@1
So spot on.
The problem is clearly a bit deeper than we realise.
Maybe there’s a psychologist out there who can describe the syndrome that Ashely must have – he surrounds himself with yes men who are weaker than he perceives himself and this boosts how ego.
No wonder more imposing, dynamic , younger, better educated characters such as Klopp aren’t allowed over the front door at SJP as they would show up Ashley as ( you can fill in your own thoughts here ) he really is . They say money can’t buy happiness and there are 52,000 who agree with that. Maybe if Ashley spent the money more wisely on Managers and players and he learned to live better with his own ego then everyone would be a winner.
giimps
Oct 6, 2015 at 10:36 AM
Comment #7klopp would want more than 50p and a packet of swizzels every week
DavyCraig
Oct 6, 2015 at 10:59 AM
Comment #8I don’t like to criticise individuals, but I think that not bringing in another centre half was a major mistake and we need at least one in January, or we’ll be in big trouble.
I’m trying to be positive and, as mentioned in the article, am looking at the fact that after 8 games we’ve already played Man U (a), Man City (a), Arsenal (h) and Chelsea (h), playing OK against Chelsea, Man U and for half of the game against Man City, whilst not being embarrassed by Arsenal, with only ten men. We also played well against Southampton and should have won, but were destroyed by Swansea, with Janmaat having a brain freeze; and outplayed by West Ham and Watford (not forgetting Sheff Wednesday)!
I watched the match, live, on Saturday and have re-run the MOTD highlights again and again. I’ve done the same with, almost all other games in the past couple of seasons and (taking, a very poor, Gouffran, out of the equation, goodness knows how bad things are when he gets in at all, nevermind in a position, almost, totally alien to him) one thing happens again and again, leading to most of the goals scored against us: Collocini gets a rush of blood, or loses concentration and either rushes out of his defensive line, which is quite often half decent in position, to try and intercept, or make a tackle 10/20 yards into the midfield, or out to the sideline, on the left. He, immediately, leaves the defence esposed, with huge amounts of space, in behind him. Others try to adjust to cover, leaving the play they should be marking in space they, a split second earlier, didn’t have, then, BANG! We are suddenly weak at the back and punished by strikers, who suddenly think it’s their birthday1
Now, I, actually like Collocini, think he’s a very cultured footballer, but he started out as a deep lying midfielder, when he was learning his craft at Milan, before, at some point, converting to a centre half. I think he would have been, could still be, better off in that position. He has a control button i his head that seems to switch to “defensive midfielder” and, despite often having superb games as a centre half, he very soon comes in for criticism, as a defender.
Maybe it’s too late to deploy him in midfield, as a deep lying sweeper (not in the Baresi sense, behind the defence), in front of the back four, where he could pick out a decent pass, rather than just knock it 4/5 yards to the side, or back, in the Anita/Tiote and Colback, to some extent, mould.
If we tried to do that, who would replace him at the back? Williamson? Taylor? Lascelles? Good? Satka? erm….I hope not! Maybe Dummett, from what we currently have, not taking injuries into account, but we need another two proven defenders. I’ve named 5 centre halves from our squad, not counting Mbemba, Dummett or Collocini, himself, who are on our roster and none are good enough for the Premiership. On paper, the chairman and owner would say that we have more than enough central defenders, but we simply don’t have the quality. A massive cull is needed and I’m not even mentioning other positions!
One other way of deploying Collocini, to get the best out of him and/or reduce the huge cost of his mistakes, could be to play three across the back with the full backs being pushed up into midfield, allowing more space for the three defenders to play the ball out of defence, being able to revert to 4, or 5 at the back, quickly, when not in possession of the ball, which would pack the midfield in an attacking 3-5-2 formation. Formations are no longer static, due to the fitness and pace of many players, so a lot of fluiditidy is available, but, despite saying all of this, we simply don’t have the players in the squad to deploy any worthwhile formations, at the moment.
If Ashley is not going to go, he needs to sit with MacLaren, Carr and Charnley and organise a massive cull of players, then ditch the under 25 rule for recruitment, buy some established players, to create a solid spine and then supplement them with a quality playmaker, to finally replace Cabaye; another striker; a winger who can actually beat players and cross the ball and, as mentioned, get some decent, proven defenders.
We’re not going to challenge for Champions League, for a long time, now and we are looking at relegation if we don’t make huge changes. If they don’t do that in December, someone has to get hold of Collocini, show him what he’s, continually doing wrong, start playing to his strengths and stay in position, whilst leading from example, whilst becoming more verbal on the pitch, as well.
I’m off to read Aristophanes’ “The Birds”.
southafricantoon
Oct 6, 2015 at 11:43 AM
Comment #9We go for Pardew, Carver, McClaren – Liverpool go for Klopp, Ancelotti – therein lies the problem…… Someone posted this. I agtee
southafricantoon
Oct 6, 2015 at 11:44 AM
Comment #10Agree
DavyCraig
Oct 6, 2015 at 12:13 PM
Comment #11Would Klopp or Ancelotti do much better with the players we have? I doubt it!