Newcastle (H) Post Match Thread

[Ban-jani]

Agree with you but the only niggle is that last season everyone was on board with Pep. Is Leroy this season? Is Mahrez?
I’m sure we’ll be fine but to get 100 points needs them all firing.

Win the league by 1 point for all I care, let’s just win it.

 

[prestonibbo_mcfc]

Some of the comments in here are hilarious. FOUR games in.

Be honest, that's what drew you in ? You've been suckered by the WUMs ;-)

 

[Tbilisi]

This.
Metro to the game where were you when you were shite.
Short memories that mob.
10000 crowds pre Kev days.

Great post on twitter.

“Where were you when you were shit” A) You didn’t fill your allocation B) Where the fuck were you?

 

[justsaying]

we were not sharp enough, may be break will help. can't see us getting 100 points again, doesn't matter if we win the league again.

 

[kaz7]

we were not sharp enough, may be break will help. can't see us getting 100 points again, doesn't matter if we win the league again.

I don't think anyone will ever get 100pts again,even us,we took everyone by surprise last season but they will have worked us out hence pep mucking about with formations,without kev it's doubly hard,grind out results till he gets back then we can get on with it proper

 

[Dax777]

Not the best,again....but a result none the less.First half we were poor,lacking shape and organisation,but second the change in formation worked well and we looked far more comfortable.We are still a long way off our best though.

MOTM was Stones for me,he was awesome and saved us on a couple of occasions.On a negative,Fernandinho's form is a slight worry.

Only 2 points dropped,we march on!

Interesting observation :)

 

[come-on-barney]

As everyone has said early days and Pep is trying a few things out. Sergio looks like a new signing looks very sharp. We missed Bernardo first half and he’s now becoming so important to us. Stones is becoming some player and Walker always has such enthusiasm and commitment. Personally, if this becomes a Mendy can’t play with Sane in front of him then there is only one winner for me. The game was crying out for Leroy second half. Sane was critical to last years success and he needs to play. Think it will be a lot closer this year and some teams are being more pragmatic hence why there have been some poor games across the league in the first few games. On a down side the M6 is a car park the whole stretch now to the M5 with these un-smart motorways. Then you get on the M5 and junctions 1-2 still not completed. Last season was bad enough but even worse this season. Train it except for night games this season. Onwards and upwards!

 

[jollylescott]

I think Pep is over-thinking things, a bit like he did in his first season.

He’s said we struggled last season to break down parked buses, so he’s trying new things.

But we got 100 points last season, so we didn’t struggle that much!

For me, we should always start 433 and if we’re struggling to break teams down, then experiment.

Experimenting from the start just isn’t working, we’re getting counter attacked far too easily.

I tend to agree with this. Last season was a phenomenal success because we played 433, with Leroy and Sterling as our wide players. We scored 100 goals playing this system. We broke all sorts of other records in the process.

After the international break I'd like to see Delph given a run as left back, and Sane and Sterling as our wingers with Kun up front. I love Mendy, but it's evident from the Newcastle game that teams are working us out very quickly on the left hand side. Mendy was given no room to move, and we can expect more of this as the season goes on. In fact after watching the game two or three times we looked cluttered up front. Players were getting in each other's way, and were pulled all over the place.

I guess I'm a believer in 'if it ain't broke, why fix it'. Let's get back to what made us such a fantastic team last season.

 

[Mancini Manus Domini]

I thought Mendy will have been tasked to do something tactically different. Sterling was hogging the touchline providing the width.

 

[domalino]

I think Pep is over-thinking things, a bit like he did in his first season.

He’s said we struggled last season to break down parked buses, so he’s trying new things.

But we got 100 points last season, so we didn’t struggle that much!

For me, we should always start 433 and if we’re struggling to break teams down, then experiment.

Experimenting from the start just isn’t working, we’re getting counter attacked far too easily.

We did struggle against parked buses last season, but we managed to get some very, very late goals, mostly through Sterling - Everton, Bournemouth, Southampton (h), Southampton (a), Huddersfield. That's 9 points picked up through late winners. We also had the games we did drop points in - Huddersfield, Palace, Burnley.

I think someone like Pep isn't going to say "We got late goals against those teams last year, we'll get them this year". He's likely to try and make changes so that we don't need late goals to get a win or draw, and think to himself that on another day we could have dropped 15 points from those games, not 6.

He's putting time in early doors to make the team more flexible, more capable of changing mid-game which will pay dividends in the christmas grind or March/April/May knock out time. We've got 433 in our back pocket, we know we're great at that, but sometimes it's predictable and we'll need other options, and we'll need to switch mid-game so the players have to get comfortable with it.