Newcastle have lost only two league games this year, and they were at Manchester City (3-1) and at Liverpool (2-0) last Saturday.
But in the other six league games we have won two and drawn four – so in the 8 league games this year we have only 10 points.
It’s the drawn games at home to Swansea and Burnley and away at Crystal Palace and Bournemouth that have cost us points – just a couple of wins in those games and we’d be on 33 points and in 12th place.
But that’s all woulda coulda shoulda – and it didn’t happen.
So we are 5th bottom just 2 points above the drop zone.
Christian Atsu – in action against Manchester City
A crucial game is on Saturday against Southampton who are one place and one point beneath us (they also have one goal fewer than us in their goal difference) the league table, and we must start winning these games rather than drawing them with our close rivals.
Christian came back into the starting lineup on Saturday with Matt Ritchie dropped, and he had this to say as reported in the Chronicle:
“The players don’t need to be told how important this game is for us. We must control what happens after Liverpool and our main focus is to get the three points at all costs.”
“The focus is to stay up. But to do that we have to win our next game so we just need to win that.” “Then we will look to win against Huddersfield too.”
“It was a shame. Every game starts at 0-0 and you try to compete.” “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed, we did not go there to draw or lose.”
“We went there to win the game so we are very disappointed. We’re disappointed because we couldn’t cope with their attack but we must now focus on the next game.”
“Our game against Southampton is the most important game for us because it’s the next one.”
“We fought hard at Liverpool and if we do that we’ll get a win. We will believe we will come out with the fans behind us and get them a victory.”
“It’s true, we aren’t losing a lot of games but we also need to start taking three points.”
“Against Bournemouth, we deserved the three points but couldn’t take them. So we need to now focus on getting three points and not sharing with other teams.”
“We are working really hard.” “At Liverpool we tried to press their defense and make it difficult for them. We didn’t allow them to get through the middle.”
“We made some little mistakes at the end but we’ll take the positives from this game and make sure we learn from those mistakes.”
Newcastle players must be in the right frame of mind, and we must fo got it on Saturday and not be apprehensive or show any anxiety.
The team needs to be mentally strong to get the win we need.
Comments welcome.
205 comments so far
Tinman
Mar 6, 2018 at 8:39 PM
Comment #41£50 on Villa at 2.20 on Bet365. Already paid out as 2-0 up. Easiest £60 I’ve made in a while!
Hail Wor Ashley
Mar 6, 2018 at 8:41 PM
Comment #42Mitro ablaze again. So better than a goal every 90mins for them now. Funny if he did manage to get the 20 goals Rafa sarcastically set him as a target.
As I said, there’s a clear mutual dislike there + a clash of style with system + something specific gone on early last season (like Mitro not being made main man to begin the season and given up the no9 shirt of one of his idols) – then neither gave the other their full effort and attention.
RUNAWAY777
Mar 6, 2018 at 8:41 PM
Comment #43Jib your safe behind your keyboard never move from it or it could be your undoing anyway you keep pasting what your good it
Jail for Ashley
Mar 6, 2018 at 8:42 PM
Comment #44Music to Mike Ashleys ears. A 20M striker in the making, the crowd turning on the manager and a last day decider on the cards. What could possibly be sweeter.
toon kk
Mar 6, 2018 at 8:43 PM
Comment #45Jail
I didn’t realise Gayle was injured if that’s the game you were on about?
But yes your right something must of happened between Mitrovic and Gayle,who knows. That doesn’t help Newcastle though.
Jail for Ashley
Mar 6, 2018 at 8:44 PM
Comment #46Hail Wor Ashley,
He may well have got the number 9 if he’d been available for the first four games.
kimbo
Mar 6, 2018 at 8:49 PM
Comment #47I have been slated for going on about Mitro on this site , Rafa what have you done for not playing and keeping Mitro,time will tell. Who will be here next season Rafa or Mitro?
Nicky the ball tosser
Mar 6, 2018 at 8:50 PM
Comment #48Mitro didn’t do enough for us. Good for him at Fulham, and hopefully he comes back to us next term and stakes a proper claim, but you can’t blame Rafa, faced with our very precarious position in the epl, against epl opposition, for not fancying throwing in his and our lot on him.
Jail for Ashley
Mar 6, 2018 at 8:50 PM
Comment #49toon kk,
Nobody did, but they were quick to say how clueless the manager was for taking him off. Mitro unfortunately should have been gone in the summer and Rafa’s choice brought in, if he’d done the business nobody would have cared about Mitro. As it happens, Joselu was brought in and forced the manager inbetween a rock and a hard place. We were winning 2-0 against W Ham without Mitro and then beat Swansea and Stoke and it looks like the manager had enough of him. You can say swallow pride all you like, none of us know the full story.
JDdubai
Mar 6, 2018 at 8:52 PM
Comment #50If being a hothead was a valid excuse for washing his hand and if Mitro then Shelvey would have been out of here as well.
Shelvey sent off twice this season, still gets welcomed back.
January
Keep Gayle(dubious hamstrings)
Keep Joselu (crap)
Sign Slimani (injured)
Get rid of Mitro (international CF, needs a manager who believes in him clearly and confidence and goals follow)
RUNAWAY777
Mar 6, 2018 at 8:55 PM
Comment #51Mitro rubbing salt in nufc face wounder what rafas thinking now and some on here too and we have Leicester cast off whos been here a month and not even kick a ball reminds me of lsland who barley kick a ball, by the time slimami is match fit the season will over and let’s hope the lads have done enough for our survival.
9
Mar 6, 2018 at 8:56 PM
Comment #52Nicky @48.Just in case you hadn’t noticed, some posters ARE blaming Rafa. Who else is responsible for Mitro being frozen out, do you imagine?
Our Toon
Mar 6, 2018 at 8:57 PM
Comment #53Nicky
I agree the Serb didn’t do enough for us but he did alot more than t ha joselu and Gayle have ever done in top flight football. That’s get 9 goals in a relegated team managed mainly by McClaren. Joselu and Gayle haven’t managed 8 goals in top flight football before
Nicky the ball tosser
Mar 6, 2018 at 8:57 PM
Comment #54Mitro is responsible.
Jail for Ashley
Mar 6, 2018 at 8:58 PM
Comment #55You lot be so careful what you wish for with Mitro back here and Stuart Pearce in charge next season.
RUNAWAY777
Mar 6, 2018 at 8:58 PM
Comment #56Jail I remember you saying mitro should been used as people round you where shouing for him to come think was before Xmas.
Our Toon
Mar 6, 2018 at 8:58 PM
Comment #57Runaway
Rafa clear rates Mitro as a threat that’s why he blocked any moves to premier league teams around us
Our Toon
Mar 6, 2018 at 8:59 PM
Comment #58Jail
Why Stuart Pearce? Why can’t it be rafa or someone else decent?
Jail for Ashley
Mar 6, 2018 at 9:01 PM
Comment #59It has got nothing to do with Mitro’s ability, proven by the fact that Rafa didn’t want him in the PL. Something else has happened. Luckily RUNAWAY777 is the only match going Rafa basher on here and he doesn’t even know what country he is in half the time.
Our Toon
Mar 6, 2018 at 9:03 PM
Comment #60Look we all need to take a step back and realise that rafa had his reasons for not selecting the loose cannon and for not wanting him to go out on loan to other PL teams
RUNAWAY777
Mar 6, 2018 at 9:03 PM
Comment #61Jail no body know what goes on behind the scenes but I could name boat loads of player from other teams but never seen them treat like that off there manger the way mirto got treat that was a disgrace and I will stand by that.
Our Toon
Mar 6, 2018 at 9:04 PM
Comment #62Problem is none of us know what that reason is!! Maybe it was the apparent back injury he had
Jail for Ashley
Mar 6, 2018 at 9:04 PM
Comment #63Our Toon,
We’ve had JfK, CH (who was a terrible caretaker btw) and Mcardew, Rafa, like Shearer was brought in as a last throw of the dice, who do you think might come in.
toon kk
Mar 6, 2018 at 9:05 PM
Comment #64Jail
Rafa was let down ultimately by MA.
Newcastle needs goals though, we’ll be here long after Rafa and the fat man come to that.
On the flip side Mitro wouldn’t be getting the same chances if he were still here anyway, at Fulham they play very attacking football in the championship, Fulham would find they wouldn’t get the same chances if they were in the premier league cutting Mitro’s chances down.
Jail for Ashley
Mar 6, 2018 at 9:06 PM
Comment #65RUNAWAY777,
I was shouting for him to come on.
RUNAWAY777
Mar 6, 2018 at 9:08 PM
Comment #66Jail get off your high house about rafa this and rafa that he is to bleam too like or not he need to take some of the responsibility .
Nicky the ball tosser
Mar 6, 2018 at 9:08 PM
Comment #67Yeah, but we’ve been over this so many times. Mitro needs proper wingers, not inverted wingers, and we’d need to play with a more open style to accommodate him, and so he’d need to finish plenty to make up for the extra goals we’d inevitably concede, and he’d need to be disciplined enough to be regularly available. How many planets would need to align just stay up should we have thrown in our lot with him. Rafa plays a long game and Mitro didn’t make the cut, and the goals he scores now, for Fulham, in the Championship, two and half stuttering years after we bought him, is poor evidence to say that Rafa was wrong.
9
Mar 6, 2018 at 9:08 PM
Comment #68Nicky @ 54: Thanks, you’ve fallen for it hook line and sinker. The only other person possibly responsible is, as you so rightly claim, the lad himself. How do you account for the self-same lad turning into the goal machine he was supposed to when we first signed him? I fully agree it had nothing to do with Rafa why he was so bad before Rafa came, but since then…………….. He’s scored persistently for Serbia, where the manager loves him; he’s on fire at Fulham where the Serbian manager loves him. Where did Rafa go wrong? – for it’s indisputable he clearly got it wrong. I trust you can agree that?
RUNAWAY777
Mar 6, 2018 at 9:08 PM
Comment #69Sorry jail horse
firebug666
Mar 6, 2018 at 9:11 PM
Comment #70Makems 3-0 down now
Jail for Ashley
Mar 6, 2018 at 9:16 PM
Comment #71firebug666
Good!
ShirebrookToon
Mar 6, 2018 at 9:18 PM
Comment #72Mitro banging them in for fun again tonight!!
He’s scored just as many as Joselu now. Hasn’t taken him 29 games though. Yeah some clever cnut will come out with yeah it’s the Champo.
It’s ok though, we’ve loaned and injured striker worth twice as much as Mitro so it’s all good.
Infuriating is putting it lightly.
Rafa shouldn’t have let him go!
firebug666
Mar 6, 2018 at 9:18 PM
Comment #73Jail
I look at it this way marra, When they go down it’s a long way back up, even if they do get bought out for a quid.
Jail for Ashley
Mar 6, 2018 at 9:19 PM
Comment #74One thing is certain though. Mitros recent form will not be lost on th 52K sell out crowd. 49Kof that crowd will be letting Rafa know what we think of him, amplified by the fact that because of social media people are trying to bring him down.
RUNAWAY777
Mar 6, 2018 at 9:19 PM
Comment #75Jail I answered your question early on today when you ask me I rafa was still up for it I give you my answer yes he’s still up for it but needs to change the style of play and attack teams not sit back on one nills it never works you know it as I do.
Jail for Ashley
Mar 6, 2018 at 9:22 PM
Comment #76Shirebrook,
You going to start chanting Mitro on Saturday in protest?
Jail for Ashley
Mar 6, 2018 at 9:23 PM
Comment #77RUNAWAY777,
We equalled our best ever away win last season!
Jib
Mar 6, 2018 at 9:26 PM
Comment #78Mitro is 1 in 3 for Serbia
and 1 in 2 in the Jupiler
and Serbian superliga
Hardly a goal machine
and those leagues are hardly the PL.
ShirebrookToon
Mar 6, 2018 at 9:27 PM
Comment #79Jail
No I’ll be supporting those lads on the pitch!
Jail for Ashley
Mar 6, 2018 at 9:28 PM
Comment #80Shirebrook,
Me too!