Newcastle United v Aston Villa - Friday 12th March 20.00 Hrs kick off. | Page 33 | Vital Football

Newcastle United v Aston Villa - Friday 12th March 20.00 Hrs kick off.

Fulford said:
He should have planned for this to happen but obviously didn't.

When you are out-played by a Steve Bruce team who were without several of their best players, you know something isn't right.
Click to expand...
We were hardly “out played”, both teams were poor and a draw was probably the fair result (only because it’s not possible for both teams to lose). They had their header at the end when they stuck everyone up front, that happens sometimes, they hit the bar with one other key chance and that was it
 
Is it safe to say anything yet?

Me, I'm totally unmoved by tonight's match. We knew it would be shite; Newcastle under Bruce always is. That's the only way they survive, somehow scrapping enough points to stay above the bottom three. Usually.

Facts of life. These days no team has an even run. Sides run out of steam, struggling sides click. It's the norm. The Covid layoff didn't help; it interuppted the flow and we've struggled to get it back, at what is always a testing time of the season.

We've actually got a decent squad. It's still a work in progress; sides which aim to improve always are. And it's a lot more complex than saying this or that player is bad.

What was DS's thinking tonight? Cash is his best RB by a mile but coming back from a hamstring injury he decided this wasn't the match to risk him, probably rightly. Then there's the question of who's the attacking AM; Ramsey, Barkley or Sanson. None are ideal; Ramsey has potential but maybe not enough guile to test barcodes, Barkley could but is off form (to be polite), Sanson he's being careful with while he gets up to speed. What the hell, might as well give Ramsey a shot. DS knows it's going to be a shite game; with Bruce packing the defence, he'd be happy to get the three points but maybe not too surprised it's just the one. DS is probably taking the long view and thinking about where the squad will be at the end of the season. Why not? We're still 3 points ahead of Arsenal and 6 ahead of Real Leeds, and only 2 behind Liverpool with a game in hand. In the great scheme of things dealing with Newcastle' shite doesn't matter that much.
 
Me, I'm totally unmoved by tonight's match. We knew it would be shite;
What was DS's thinking tonight? .[/QUOTE]

A good anaylsis and justification for Smith's pre match thinking, but no explanation of why when watching another awful performance, Smith only swaps like for like and has no Plan B.
 
Watched the match then had to immediately run out to work. So I haven't read any of the reports or comments etc. Here's my take:
We started well, taking the game to them. They were simply hitting balls into the channel for Joellinton and Gayle. Meat and drink for Konsa, but Mings couldn't deal with anything and was making Joellinton look dangerous. Why oh why he kept trying to use his body/win fouls by slowing down instead of just sprinting and clearing the ball I do not know. It was getting ridiculous how many times he got beat by Joelinton. Stop trying to be "cute" and just defend ffs! Watkins had his worst game I've seen since he arrived. Couldn't hold onto anything played up to him, and most of the time the pressure wasn't even that great. The lack of a second striker was really showing - he is obviously in need of a break, but we have zero options to replace him. After about 20 minutes Newcastle's "tactics" were clearly working and we dropped deeper and deeper. The remaining 70 minutes was more of the same. Barkley actually had a few decent touches, but as usual was a complete liability when we didn't have the ball. After we scored a fortuitous goal our game management was horrific. Their goal was inevitable when I watched McGinn make a half-arsed effort to close down the cross and the bloke had all the time in the world to put it into the danger area.
We got exactly what we deserved from that one, maybe more....
 
david-avfc said:
Not too upset at their late goal because simply we didn’t deserve anything out of that game so a point was better than nothing. It was a sub par performance all round except for Konsa who just gets better every game, but some of that suicidal passing in our own third in stoppage time - El Ghazi and Barkley two notable culprits in that regard, no football brains between them but what I really don’t like is the lack of desire to do the right thing for the team in that situation and doing something unfashionable like hoofing it clear rather than trying to look clever with a silly pass or flick which ultimately is what cost us
Click to expand...
Hoofed it most of the game, poor Watkins. Hoofing at the wrong time. Nice one Mr Slow.
 
gmvillan said:
Watched the match then had to immediately run out to work. So I haven't read any of the reports or comments etc. Here's my take:
We started well, taking the game to them. They were simply hitting balls into the channel for Joellinton and Gayle. Meat and drink for Konsa, but Mings couldn't deal with anything and was making Joellinton look dangerous. Why oh why he kept trying to use his body/win fouls by slowing down instead of just sprinting and clearing the ball I do not know. It was getting ridiculous how many times he got beat by Joelinton. Stop trying to be "cute" and just defend ffs! Watkins had his worst game I've seen since he arrived. Couldn't hold onto anything played up to him, and most of the time the pressure wasn't even that great. The lack of a second striker was really showing - he is obviously in need of a break, but we have zero options to replace him. After about 20 minutes Newcastle's "tactics" were clearly working and we dropped deeper and deeper. The remaining 70 minutes was more of the same. Barkley actually had a few decent touches, but as usual was a complete liability when we didn't have the ball. After we scored a fortuitous goal our game management was horrific. Their goal was inevitable when I watched McGinn make a half-arsed effort to close down the cross and the bloke had all the time in the world to put it into the danger area.
We got exactly what we deserved from that one, maybe more....
Click to expand...
How you can lay into Watkins is beyond me. He is isolated and has to deal with endless hoofballs way over his head with his back to goal. If he wins a header there is no-one anywhere near him. When balls are played to his feet [even with his back to goal] he does the business. This is Smith failing big time.
 
Pangloss said:
It's his fault that he kept giving the ball away. He was stupidly offside on that last break as well. I like Watkins a lot but he was abysmal today and hasn't been that good this year. Like I say, with a viable option on the bench it would be nice to bench him, give him a rest and get a good reaction out of him.
Click to expand...
You got your opinion, I have mine, never the two shall meet. Poles apart.
 
Been over at a friends house watching so not gone through the thread.

I put a bet on a 0-0 draw so wasn't that far off, should have cashed out earlier. Shit game as I expected, kick in the balls to concede with 15 seconds left, but that's life. Another side we've taken 4 points from.

It is what it is this season, we're in a great position to kick on next season, that's all that matters.
 
9 goals from the last 13 games with or without Jack says it all. We have flatlined.
Tonight McGinn didnt even bother to try to cut out that cross. Barclay defends like messi. Mings was terrible. Only consolation was that goalinton didnt knock the winner in.The squad lacks depth and quality and Plan A Smith needs and has to have a clearout. Starting with a taxi for Barkley.
 
Divine_islet said:
Both teams played expected shite football but Newcastle seemed like if we had to choose who deserved to win, it was probably them. That alone and the fact that they had scored only one goal all season out of all the players that started for them today and still we could not beat them shows how useless we are without our talisman Jack !
Click to expand...
Last few games with jack in the team.....attacking plan? Left...left...left...
Without jack since....attacking plan? Try to Fluke one and hang on.......
 
villasince67 said:
How you can lay into Watkins is beyond me. He is isolated and has to deal with endless hoofballs way over his head with his back to goal. If he wins a header there is no-one anywhere near him. When balls are played to his feet [even with his back to goal] he does the business. This is Smith failing big time.
Click to expand...
Firstly I didn't "lay into him" as you put it. I just said it was his worst game so far and even qualified the comment with the thought that he's clearly in need of a break. Balls weren't sailing over his head, most were played into him at a controllable height and his first touch wasn't up to scratch. He had a bad game by his own standards. But if you think a player having a bad game is all Smith's fault then no point in debating really is there.....
 
To be fair, their blonde defender kumpft or whatever his name is... he should have been sent off. Twice, eyes on the man, not the ball and just took out our player. EL GHAZI and another. Dirty git. Cant believe he got away with that.
Konsa is the best CB in the league.
We keep saying we are a 1 man team.
Were not. But we do rely too much on certain players and the rest need to be replaced with quality.
Emi, jack, Konsa and Cash are world class players.
Target is smashing it.
Watkins has great great potential and if given the correct bloody service he would be immense.
So really we are a 6 man team.
SJM is out of form but will come good again.
Luiz is still young.
Ramsey is a bloody kid and doing well.

For me, the last 5 ish games have been woeful. Terrible. But thats just the way football goes.

My big gripes however are:

Barkley is a complete waste of skin. Hate him. Send him back. I will pay for his taxi.
Trez - the effort is there which is great but zero quality.
El Ghazi im sorry, i know he has scored some important goals but he is just woeful. He is not a premier league footballer.

So, we will finish mid table. Which is ok. Upgrade those 3 above in the summer with players who can put in a decent cross and through ball and we will be challenging for Europe. I have no doubt about that.
But the 3 above need moving on. I would rather play the kids over them.

Look at the big picture and think about what next season could be like.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.