Newcastle got a deserved draw. From minute one they played like the team with something to prove, & we just continued at our comfortable early season pace.
It was evident very early that Newcastle were targeting Rodri by closing him down & giving him zero time on the ball. They were also targeting the space Walker leaves in behind when he plays centrally.
With St Maximin driving into that space, Joelinton kept bombing down the right to give St Maximin the choice of playing the ball back out to the wing, or driving inside, & we just never dealt with this tactic & it kept causing us a whole heap of problems.
They eventually scored by closing down a dawdling Rodri & playing the ball into our vacated right back space, & this is how their first two goals originated.
In my opinion Rodri was to blame for their first two goals, as he keeps having lapses of thinking he's got all the time in the world when on the ball.
TWICE he waited for passes to come to him instead of advancing to meet the ball & twice a Newcastle player nipped in & took the ball off his toes which put us under heavy pressure.
At times we looked in disarray defensively, & just like Chelsea with Leeds earlier, we struggled to pick up the pace & match the opposition's intensity.
You could see this match meant everything to the Geordies, but we approached it like a standard PL game & it wasn't until after Trippier's free kick midway through the second half that we started to match their intensity & it was only then our extra quality told.
We scored the two goals to equalise & it became evident Newcastle were gonna be happy with a draw & were playing us on the counter & taking few defensive risks, unlike in the first.
When Rodri FINALLY upped his intensity, we began to tick & then it clicked & Newcastle were firmly of the mind of what we have, we hold.
I've no issues with the straight red being rescinded, as I was surprised when the card was shown. A yellow was the correct call.
I had a feeling of foreboding about this match, ESPECIALLY as the media kept playing up the "Almiron" comment from Grealish at the end of the season. I'd suggest that was the reason he wasn't in the squad & not because of a knock he received last weekend.
I reckon the Grealish comment & Newcastle wanting to test where they really are as a football team were the primary reasons why they played like this was a title or relegation decider.
Haaland played his best game for us today, by dropping deeper to add to our midfield numbers which created spaces where their central defence didn't know whether to advance to track him, or to drop off & leave the defensive midfielders to drop deep to cover him. Either way, he kept creating spaces for us to play in & was more involved in the game.
Overall it was our failure to raise our tempo to match Newcastle's until it was too late & Rodri's fuckin dawdling on the ball which ultimately cost us today. On reflection we got what we deserved, but at least we didn't drop all three points which was a distinct possibility based on our first half display.
Hopefully this is the wakeup call we needed to know we have to fight fire with fire for the whole game, or in the PL there's a good chance it will cost us. Gutted to lose two valuable points, but relieved to get one. :-|
Roll on Wednesday...
