Newcastle United vs Tottenham Hotspur. Sat 13th April. 12:30pm KO

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GDG said:
Few thoughts from me on the game.

Overall, utter poo. To have nearly 3/4 of the possession, do so little with it and yet Newcastle look threatening every time they go forward really was a concern.
  1. First goal, calamity of errors all round. I actually felt sorry for VDV on this one as anyone can slip, but Son and Maddison losing the ball on the edge of their box, Udogie getting muscled by Gordon and most importantly, Romero stepping to Gordon when he really didn’t need to as VDV was right in front of him - the whole thing was a shambles.
  2. Watching it back, I’m not even sure Romero knew Isak was there. Very poor.
  3. The other 2 goals, obvs poor from Porro on the first but VDV has done poorly for both. Nightmare game for him but I won’t single him out as he’s been so good for us all season.
  4. Newcastle’s tactics could have been created by a spurs fan who knows how we struggle; press high and if we do break the press set 2 banks on the edge of your area because we can’t break that down.
  5. Biss is a problem. 5 games into the season I had an argument with a gooner saying he would be better than Rice, I feel like an idiot now. Apart from his lack of overall energy /presence, the most alarming thing for me is how he isn’t helping the back 4 transition from defence to attack in the slightest. Not even a little. The Biss of the start of the season was demanding the ball under pressure and retaining it, helping us to transition into attacking patterns. He doesn’t want it now. He’s allowing himself to be marked so easily and isn’t creating space to pick the ball u off the back 4. Big big issue, I’ve been no fan of PEH but he should have started yesterday. Biss isn’t there right now. The biggest criticism of Hojbjerg is how poor he is under pressure with his back to goal, but at least he wants the ball. Bissouma is hiding right now
  6. Alongside Biss we need to talk about Son. Sonny has good stats this season but his overall play outside of that initial run has been utterly shocking. It has for 2 seasons now. He CANNOT RETAIN THE BALL UNDER ANY PRESSURE. What I don’t understand is why he is coming deep so often, stick on the shoulder and spread the pitch. No defender wants Son running in behind them. Not sure why he’s trying to play like Kane.
  7. The overall quality of our attacking trio is more like top 6-10 level rather than top 4. Long way to go there. I’ve written for months about the inability of our wide players to really beat their man with any guile and what a problem that is, won’t go into that again.
  8. Ok, our inability to beat a “set” defence. It’s a worry. We play in and around the edge of the area for prolonged periods without any real plan as to how we create a chance or penetrate the back line. My biggest concern is how few men we have making the box. Werner gets it on the left, he generally has Udogie underlapping, and 3 CMs (including our number 10 Maddison) queueing on the edge of the box to receive a square ball, and no one making the box with runs from deep. If Maddison is going to demand the ball square, Son and Johnson need to be in the box and Bentancur and Porro need to be making late runs to joint them. Runs from deep are so hard to mark, it’s how Fat Frank scored a billion goals - we don’t have any of that. It’s all too predictable, too low-risk and too slow.
  9. Set pieces. At what point do we wave the white flag on this zonal tactic? Every corner was nerve inducing and any scouting report on us would say it’s an area of concern. It absolutely has to be sorted.
  10. MF generally. There was a time around December where I thought outside of City we had the best MF in the PL. We are miles off that right now. It’s time to mix it up. If PEH, Sarr and GLC would have played against us yesterday they’d have ran the show, I really believe that. Hojbjerg should have started and I really think we could get more out of Lo Celso.
  11. Porro has not been the same player for a month or so now. Doesn’t seem to have had that aggression. Carrying an injury perhaps?


Overall it’s been a really good season and no matter what happens from here until the end of the season I’m Ange all in. The future is very bright!



The only concern is how prevalent some of these issues have been for a while and how we seem to be hoping they’ll go away as opposed to strategising around them. Work to be done.



COYS
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Nice cool and collected response instead of the we've been found out, he's a fraud bollox.

All of the problems that arose yesterday will be looked at , as well all the issues that's cropped up in his first season .
For one a couple of better forwards and a proper number 6 would've solved a lot of issues yesterday .
More training, and drilling on patters of play In both halves will help deal with teams like Newcastle.
Yeah We have one way of playing, but so do most top teams. Liverpool got battered mid week for similar reasons really, players just aren't there for the system despite having all the ball
*Edit and so too with Woolwich who got dismantled by villa in the exact same way we got done by Newcastle.

Unfortunately for those freaking out, these things take at least 2 or 3 seasons unless you spend ridiculous, not 8 months.
Ange in.

Joe Biden Politics GIF by The Democrats
 
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I
mrunderwear said:
Werner can continue missing such chances s, he could have cushion it down.. I've always mention soloman way better. He's a shadow of the player that scored against us in Ucl.

We play as if we want to walk into goal sometimes..

I read about bisoummaans I have to agree that he is no longer the guy I thought he is, 1st 3 game he played like he knows about whoscored rating. Now he doesnt dribble or take on player..
he's so talented what's going on

Hopefully some rebuild goes on where we can review the top earning players like Son, Kulu
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honestly think we’ll struggle to find a buyer for players like kulu mate.
 
Wellsey said:
There's got to be something wrong with our tactics when our attack always have 7 or 8 defenders to beat but our opponents regularly have one on one or two defenders at most to beat?
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That is what City have to deal with every week. They just have forwards with better movement who can pull defenders out of position and create gaps and much better at pressing when losing the ball.
 
sudoku said:
First 2 goals came from VDV slipping over.
A minute before the first goal he had been booked for a non bookable offence after our captain and vice captain put the ref on the spot begging for a booking for a Newcastle defender.
So Spursy.
The ref was bent IMO.
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Don’t forget Porro’s assist for the second one

What was he thinking of?
 
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Richard Arlison said:
The ONLY positive thought that crossed my mind from that game was that at least it was against the barcodes that we crumbled against a press. It was the first game in ages that anyone actually pressed us and we were shook.

That shit with Vicario kicking long because we are scared to be play the press can’t run against the goon cunts.
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Whether we played long or played out didn’t matter yesterday. It broke down at Werner and Johnson in both situations. Any long ball to them and their full backs overpowered them by winnning headers and when we did play out and we got it our wide men they just got tight and aggressive to them and we either gave it away or we passed it back.
 
Two Left Feet said:
Teams have now figured that a block with a break can easily kill us off, because we have not figured out how to attack a block.
We do it wrong and don’t seem to be able to see it. We build up slowly from the back and give the opposition full chance to build up the defence in front of us. Then we try and break the defence with lots of short little ground passes which are never going to get the job done.
Clearly what we need to do is ultilse the speed of Sonny, Timo and Brennan and get out quickly with long passes whilst the defence are still open.
I don’t see why our team can’t figure that out, but what do I know?
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But those three want to come to the ball more than go in behind which defies logic. I watch Liverpool and they are happy to stick it in behind teams and ask different questions oof the opposition defenders. We don’t,we stick to pass pass pass to try get wide and get a 1v1 with our wide players and their full backs. When that doesn’t work we have absolutely nothing about us.
 
GDG said:
Few thoughts from me on the game.

Overall, utter poo. To have nearly 3/4 of the possession, do so little with it and yet Newcastle look threatening every time they go forward really was a concern.
  1. First goal, calamity of errors all round. I actually felt sorry for VDV on this one as anyone can slip, but Son and Maddison losing the ball on the edge of their box, Udogie getting muscled by Gordon and most importantly, Romero stepping to Gordon when he really didn’t need to as VDV was right in front of him - the whole thing was a shambles.
  2. Watching it back, I’m not even sure Romero knew Isak was there. Very poor.
  3. The other 2 goals, obvs poor from Porro on the first but VDV has done poorly for both. Nightmare game for him but I won’t single him out as he’s been so good for us all season.
  4. Newcastle’s tactics could have been created by a spurs fan who knows how we struggle; press high and if we do break the press set 2 banks on the edge of your area because we can’t break that down.
  5. Biss is a problem. 5 games into the season I had an argument with a gooner saying he would be better than Rice, I feel like an idiot now. Apart from his lack of overall energy /presence, the most alarming thing for me is how he isn’t helping the back 4 transition from defence to attack in the slightest. Not even a little. The Biss of the start of the season was demanding the ball under pressure and retaining it, helping us to transition into attacking patterns. He doesn’t want it now. He’s allowing himself to be marked so easily and isn’t creating space to pick the ball u off the back 4. Big big issue, I’ve been no fan of PEH but he should have started yesterday. Biss isn’t there right now. The biggest criticism of Hojbjerg is how poor he is under pressure with his back to goal, but at least he wants the ball. Bissouma is hiding right now
  6. Alongside Biss we need to talk about Son. Sonny has good stats this season but his overall play outside of that initial run has been utterly shocking. It has for 2 seasons now. He CANNOT RETAIN THE BALL UNDER ANY PRESSURE. What I don’t understand is why he is coming deep so often, stick on the shoulder and spread the pitch. No defender wants Son running in behind them. Not sure why he’s trying to play like Kane.
  7. The overall quality of our attacking trio is more like top 6-10 level rather than top 4. Long way to go there. I’ve written for months about the inability of our wide players to really beat their man with any guile and what a problem that is, won’t go into that again.
  8. Ok, our inability to beat a “set” defence. It’s a worry. We play in and around the edge of the area for prolonged periods without any real plan as to how we create a chance or penetrate the back line. My biggest concern is how few men we have making the box. Werner gets it on the left, he generally has Udogie underlapping, and 3 CMs (including our number 10 Maddison) queueing on the edge of the box to receive a square ball, and no one making the box with runs from deep. If Maddison is going to demand the ball square, Son and Johnson need to be in the box and Bentancur and Porro need to be making late runs to joint them. Runs from deep are so hard to mark, it’s how Fat Frank scored a billion goals - we don’t have any of that. It’s all too predictable, too low-risk and too slow.
  9. Set pieces. At what point do we wave the white flag on this zonal tactic? Every corner was nerve inducing and any scouting report on us would say it’s an area of concern. It absolutely has to be sorted.
  10. MF generally. There was a time around December where I thought outside of City we had the best MF in the PL. We are miles off that right now. It’s time to mix it up. If PEH, Sarr and GLC would have played against us yesterday they’d have ran the show, I really believe that. Hojbjerg should have started and I really think we could get more out of Lo Celso.
  11. Porro has not been the same player for a month or so now. Doesn’t seem to have had that aggression. Carrying an injury perhaps?


Overall it’s been a really good season and no matter what happens from here until the end of the season I’m Ange all in. The future is very bright!



The only concern is how prevalent some of these issues have been for a while and how we seem to be hoping they’ll go away as opposed to strategising around them. Work to be done.



COYS
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Wonderful post my friend 👏
 
nicoclaesen said:
Whether we played long or played out didn’t matter yesterday. It broke down at Werner and Johnson in both situations. Any long ball to them and their full backs overpowered them by winnning headers and when we did play out and we got it our wide men they just got tight and aggressive to them and we either gave it away or we passed it back.
Click to expand...

And that is a tweak we can make. Also useful for Kulusevski haters to hear. When he plays we have an out ball because he can soak up pressure and carry us forward
 
StripiestPilot said:
The tactics aren’t to move the ball slowly and sideways. The players have to own their failure to do what they’re told, Maddison said after the game that they didn’t play with courage and played safety first football. Hard to believe this is the same team that went for the jugular when down to 9 men against Chelsea.

Same old shit, the pressure of the run in arrives and they crap themselves.
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Sick of hearing players talking after the fact; knowing that they didn't do what the manager wanted and yet not rectifying it to see that isn't a recurring factor.

It's just lip service and it's rife (with other teams as well as our own).


Only just watched the whole game (but having it on the radio was already enough to put me in a shit mood that isn't lifting!)........

Some of these players are in fucking rancid form and Howe played a blinder.

Why is Sarr no longer starting games?

I fucking hate losing to this lot.

FUCK.
 
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Also......

Why was the head-kick on Bentancur not given?

Why was it not subjected to 100 replays like the one in the City/Dippers game? (It was like the total lack of scrutiny of our 'ghost' goal a week or two ago.)


Comms said "can't have been clear and obvious", but WDF does that even mean in that context???? ....I thought they were now being fed the ACTUAL verdicts from Stockley Park now. They shouldn't need to be guessing anymore.
 
Airfixx said:
Also......

Why was the head-kick on Bentancur not given?

Why was it not subjected to 100 replays like the one in the City/Dippers game? (It was like the total lack of scrutiny of our 'ghost' goal a week or two ago.)


Comms said "can't have been clear and obvious", but WDF does that even mean in that context???? ....I thought they were now being fed the ACTUAL verdicts from Stockley Park now. They shouldn't need to be guessing anymore.
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The Bentancur incident just sums up a lot of what we’ve seen this season. I’m not for conspiracies but we’ve had virtually fuck all from officials this season. The Liverpool goal that went in our favour is the one that we did get but we didn’t hear the end of it for fucking weeks.
I get players coming out after games saying they didn’t perform but just do more. Yesterday was the first time I thought we looked timid this season. Even Fulham and Brighton away when we lost badly we still competed but yesterday we never. After Werner missed you could see what was coming.

I’m still in a cunt of a mood because I watched it back this morning. Being at the game was bad enough but vodka helps with mood but today is not a good day.

Also going to have to watch Woolwich v Villa and will hate any result 🤣
 
nicoclaesen said:
The Bentancur incident just sums up a lot of what we’ve seen this season. I’m not for conspiracies but we’ve had virtually fuck all from officials this season.
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No sure I really care if it's perpetual incompetence or a conspiracy(*); the feeling of being powerless to combat it is one and the same ....Utter brain-grinding frustration.

(*In a strange way; the latter may actually be preferable cos I'd just fuck the whole thing off if we 100% knew it to be the case.)


The selective lack of replays for certain incidents is dodgy as fuck though.
 
Airfixx said:
No sure I really care if it's perpetual incompetence or a conspiracy(*); the feeling of being powerless to combat it is one and the same ....Utter brain-grinding frustration.

(*In a strange way; the latter may actually be preferable cos I'd just fuck the whole thing off if we 100% knew it to be the case.)


The selective lack of replays for certain incidents is dodgy as fuck though.
Click to expand...

Burnie Burns Conspiracy GIF by Rooster Teeth
 
Richard Arlison said:
So, if we don't pin it all on Ange we can't pin it all on them.

But We haven't really clicked in the attacking third all season and the coaches really need to take a long look at why it's not working. That much is for sure.
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Yep,it's a collective problem.
We get the ball in attacking positions but the final ball, final shot ,final header are not there at a consistent level.
I wonder if the young Argentinian fella ( Name escaped me)would have been better used with us rather than on loan because Sonny is having a torrid time up top, he'd be better off playing in his favoured left side... but what do I know, I'm not on 4 million quid a year.
 
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