Newcastle United (A) | PL | Post Match Thread

[Stiff Little Wingers]

Well said. I thought we played ok at Newcastle. Just done by a dodgy penalty. We have suffered some injury blows but as long as we are in touch with the top after Christmas I would back us to win five in a row. Some fans are so negative. We are unbeaten in 29 PL games aren’t we?

There have been times during the Pep reign where the team can get lost in a midfield muddle and I think yesterday was one of these. Decent point and still unbeaten. Stand out for me was Grealish and Gvardiol, really good save by Ederson just before HT.
As said by others, Gundo disappointingly poor and I feel Akanji just isn’t the right fit further upfield. Kyle not great either.
But this is a hugely tough season for us as we are fighting on 6 fronts including the 2 off the field cases. Really important (obvs!!) for us to get rid of the 115 charges so can live with dropped points.

 

[youngbob]

Think it's fair enough to look at games 1-19 as the period when Pep works out his best formation and then around January/February we hit on a particularly strong combination that we stick with until May/June time.

Our record after 19 games vs 38 games in each Pep season tells basically the same story over and over. If we're still looking a bit disjointed and toothless around the time the CL comes back we can start to worry but until then...

16/17: 39 points, 39 points (finished on 78)
17/18: 55 points, 45 points (finished on 100)
18/19: 44 points, 54 points (finished on 98)
19/20: 38 points, 43 points (finished on 81)
20/21: 41 points, 45 points (finished on 86)
21/22: 47 points, 46 points (finished on 93)
22/23: 42 points, 47 points (finished on 89)
23/24: 40 points, 51 points (finished on 91)

Out of the eight full seasons Pep has completed at City, five of them have seen us pick up more points in games 19-38 than we do in games 1-19. All five occasions that this has happened have come in the last six years.

Safe to say we've got a big hurdle to overcome this season with Rodri not being available, but by December we won't be looking at games and thinking "If only Rodri was here" because it'll be up to the world class players we have to get the job done.

 

[normskih]

I hoped everyone’s irreplaceable Gundo would be slightly better than this. And must-starter Lewis was invisible - which is a compliment comparing to Gundo. Akanji is a liability when we are under pressure. Doku is predictable with his unpredictable dribble to nowhere every single time. Others are pretty good especially Jack.

Give Gundogan a few games to get up to speed, he’s not had to play a high velocity match for a season. No idea where you have that in your head about Akanji, he’s one of the league’s best defenders. Lewis is young and his position was new to him, I think, plus, he was up against those two tough Brazilians. I’m not going to comment on Doku.

 

[The perfect fumble]

Not a bad goal though....

 

[stonerblue]

At times we need more physical power. Yaya, Rodri obviously, De Jong, Kompany.

Seems pretty clear to me that opposition teams will be more physical against us this season.

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

There have been times during the Pep reign where the team can get lost in a midfield muddle and I think yesterday was one of these. Decent point and still unbeaten. Stand out for me was Grealish and Gvardiol, really good save by Ederson just before HT.
As said by others, Gundo disappointingly poor and I feel Akanji just isn’t the right fit further upfield. Kyle not great either.
But this is a hugely tough season for us as we are fighting on 6 fronts including the 2 off the field cases. Really important (obvs!!) for us to get rid of the 115 charges so can live with dropped points.

The 115 is the most important front for me. I would happily win nothing this season to see us get off that.

 

[manimanc]

The thing is we're not used to being near the top in the early stages, we usually let the tramps or the tarquins build up a lead, let them celebrate winning the league at Christmas and then after new year we reel them in.
Weird looking at the table seeing our position.

 

[brazilians hurt]

Newcastle’s best performance of the season to date, home advantage, contentious equalising penalty & whilst they had Isak out we had Bobb, Ake, KDB & Rodri missing
We are still unbeaten this season is the best way of looking at the result
My concern this season is injuries & the depth of our squad to deal with it. Yes I appreciate Pep likes a small squad so they all play but he may need to rethink that with current demands of 60/70 games a season facing top players.
Fucking FFP/PSR also impacts squad size, whilst our retention of players has been great let’s not think it has not cost us in terms of available budgets to strengthen our squad. Factor in in what is looking like a couple of piss poor acquisitions and the inevitable aging of some of our big players and it is a worrying position,
This won’t be popular but Pep’s contract situation has not helped. If he is calling it a day the board have to ensure a sizeable war chest is in place to bring in the calibre of replacement manager required.
It gives me no pleasure but I believe our biggest win this season could be off the pitch

 

[hammocity]

I call it the Handball Henry pen. He invented and developed the trailing leg to con a ref who didn't have the use of VAR, and it seems to be standard fare now, and VAR, as we saw yesterday, will affirm what the whistling wanker has decided. If a goalkeeper is coming out and dives full length there are a few options for the attacker - go studs in that has ended with Eddie being subbed, make a slight hurdle but ensuring a toe cap catches the goalie and allows a compliant PiGMOL waster to point to the spot, or, what used to happen. leap over the goalie to avoid injuring him. The latter is rarely seen on PL grounds these days.

When Dennis Tueart used to get in those situations, which he quite often did, his prime focus was to go round the keeper and slot the ball into the onion bag. Now most players just look for the penalty and hope the keeper gets sent off, exactly what Gordon did yesterday but thankfully the ref applied a modicum of sense and only yellow carded Eddie.

It pisses me off tbh, you could tell from Gordon's reaction after the penalty had been given that he'd duped the ref.

 

[Protein Junkie]

Sheikh Mansour rolled into town 16 years ago and since then we have been on a football journey way beyond our wildest dreams.
When we don’t win I often post on here that it is impossible to win all 38 games.
We’ve had a tough start with Chelsea and Newcastle away plus Arsenal home. Lost Rodri,KDB, Oscar and Nathan to injury as well as Phil being ill.
To be near the top considering all the above is great in my eyes.
Very good point at Newcastle.
Love this club.