Newcastle United v Aston Villa - Friday 12th March 20.00 Hrs kick off. | Page 34 | Vital Football

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

It’s really hard to argue against the one man team mantra after last night and the few games before.
Yes we were poor before but SJ was clearly injured before he actually succumbed and started missing games. So it could be said we were poor because SJ’s performances were dropping off.
It’s not just about his performance its about the psychological lift to the other players by him being there. Last night we looked devoid and lost for ideas . We simply don’t look like that with SJ in the side. And even with a below par SJ we still look a threat.
 
The regression to how we we are playing versus this time a year ago is the biggest worry for fans and I share that concern. In my day job, you have to stay focussed on the rolling recent performance, what happened 6 months is banked but you don’t get any pats on the back if recent performance is crap because the recent performance is the sign for the near future. It’s how football managers are monitored rightly or wrongly.

However, we haven’t had our best player recently whereas last season we were struggling even with Jack. Though we have had a few poor games even with jack, he shouldn’t be relied on to be one man team.

We aren’t losing these games, whereas last season we might not have created as many good chances to have been able to score first yesterday. I know we beat Newcastle home and away last season, but those sorts of games as played out yesterday we struggled.

The squad is relegation fodder when you get to the quality on bench. Yesterday didn’t look too bad because Cash was there, but the dross we have on the bench each week leaves us with limited options.

I do think Smith has a ceiling which might be lower for us than I like to hope, as he regresses into the same decisions far too often. Football managers are stubborn, in some respects I respect that as they look to build a philosophy whilst the fans want to win the here and now, but it not like we even tweak things for our own advantage.

That said, it’s very difficult to tweak and change things with the squad he’s got. Take Trez, he can only play in two positions, and you know what you’ll get from him and where his limitations are. As much as I like Trez’s attitude, there’s a player who just isn’t all round good enough for a club looking to establish itself as a premier league team again. Traore too, isn’t good enough based on my subjective view of the first half of the season - too early to write off, but if quality comes up in summer we need to go for it.

When I see the names on the Sheff Utd odds list for next manager, you realise there is dross out there. If having rich, American owners means we can attract the Ancelotti types then there comes a point we might have to make that decision, but there isn’t better out there without going back to the managers we were hiring from the 2010’s.

Big summer for the club to invest in quality on the pitch, and big responsibility on Smith to then work with that improved squad to be less reliant on one or two players and have more in the way of tactics to win games we should be winning rather than being one dimensional.
 
The regression to how we we are playing versus this time a year ago is the biggest worry for fans and I share that concern. In my day job, you have to stay focussed on the rolling recent performance, what happened 6 months is banked but you don’t get any pats on the back if recent performance is crap because the recent performance is the sign for the near future. It’s how football managers are monitored rightly or wrongly.

Dean looked worried before the match, the team lack belief, individuals are losing confidence, their performances dropping. There is no way he looks at the table like many on here and says to himself that 9th is ok. We are beginning to look like one of those teams that shoot ahead at the start of the season and then collapse alarmingly.
Last night’s team selection was a shock to me because it offered nothing new or inventive. It was last season all over again before Covid came to our rescue. I can’t remember a pass from Trez to Watkins, it’s head down and run at them and with Bert wide on the other side Watkins, our only threat, is easily cut out, and I agree he is now looking very weary. The subs were more or less like for like showing Dean’s inability to change things yet again. Anwar should have started instead of Trez and when Bert went off it was an opportunity to change things around a bit either with Sanson or Barkley or Davis. What’s the point of having four coaches to produce this?
 
Dean looked worried before the match, the team lack belief, individuals are losing confidence, their performances dropping. There is no way he looks at the table like many on here and says to himself that 9th is ok. We are beginning to look like one of those teams that shoot ahead at the start of the season and then collapse alarmingly.
Last night’s team selection was a shock to me because it offered nothing new or inventive. It was last season all over again before Covid came to our rescue. I can’t remember a pass from Trez to Watkins, it’s head down and run at them and with Bert wide on the other side Watkins, our only threat, is easily cut out, and I agree he is now looking very weary. The subs were more or less like for like showing Dean’s inability to change things yet again. Anwar should have started instead of Trez and when Bert went off it was an opportunity to change things around a bit either with Sanson or Barkley or Davis. What’s the point of having four coaches to produce this?

I am not a fan of Dean's but he does not have any good subs to choose from does he?
 
I am not a fan of Dean's but he does not have any good subs to choose from does he?
He can change things around surely? Bring Davis on. Play a ball passer like Sanson or Luiz next to Ollie instead of Trez. Watkins linked up continually with Jack so by replacing him with Trez was disastrous. So on the bench we had Barkley, Cash, El Ghazi, Sanson, Davis. A lot of managers would be happy with that.
 
I think it's fair to say we have improved immeasurably from last season but we have regressed badly since the last 14 games of this season.

Yes, I get we were in the championship 2 years ago and where we were last season but I'm looking at our current form and its bottom end stuff, just as the start of the season was top two stuff. We are somewhere in between and we are going in the wrong direction currently. ie we are not looking like scoring or even creating chances, yes that is down to having the leagues best footballer out, I get that as well, but we should be able to take the game to an understrength Newcastle and we couldn't.
I really thought we had cracked it but there is still much work and players to bring in.
I've said it before a fair few of those last night need to become benchwarmers next season and players like Trez and Elmo need to go
 
Some people are going a bit over the top here. We had a bad day, ultimately we are a mid table side and that means we will be inconsistent, and without our best player we are unfortunately less than mid table.

What the last couple of weeks has shown though is that we need to improve the overall squad to reduce the reliance on Grealish. One of El Ghazi or Trezeguet can be shipped out in the summer (the other kept for emergency back up) and Barkley can also be sent back. We then need to bring a couple of new players in who are either higher quality in the final third or more consistent, or in an ideal world both. Someone who can play in attacking midfield or on the wing to offer some flexibility would also be ideal
 
38 seconds to go, we had possession and managed to fuck it up against an awful team full of injuries. More worrying was the overall inept performance. More worrying again is the 2021 form and toothless attack.
If Ollie Watkins is the answer god help us, the less said about our collection of comedy wingers the better.
I thought Sanson didn't do badly bar another booking , he's a walking yellow card. Barkley some nice touches and some horrendous touches. Mings back to his over elaborate self induced error best. Ramsay now looks overawed by it all. McGinn I thought was slightly better but could do with shedding a few pounds . Luiz hmmmm.
On to Spurs a game bizarreness wise that I think might suit our style assuming jack back of course.
 
I think we must be (and I haven't checked) the only club in the PL who have played the same striker every single minute of every game, the lad looks jaded, has no competition for his place etc and even when we make subs he just gets move to the wing .
We need competition for him, and I don't mean back up I mean competition.
I get how well he's done but I don't think he's the second coming of Peter Withe
 
I think we must be (and I haven't checked) the only club in the PL who have played the same striker every single minute of every game, the lad looks jaded, has no competition for his place etc and even when we make subs he just gets move to the wing .
We need competition for him, and I don't mean back up I mean competition.
I get how well he's done but I don't think he's the second coming of Peter Withe
We do have a guy called Davis who Dean didn’t want to loan out. What was that all about? If we can’t give him a run out now when can we?
 
We do have a guy called Davis who Dean didn’t want to loan out. What was that all about? If we can’t give him a run out now when can we?

Baffles me WM , we have been going nowhere fast these last 10 games and we just stick with the same one up top, no doubt Dean thinks its 3 up top but it really isn't. I get the bit that Davis doesn't score but when Watkins goes 9 games and now another 6 without a goal, it's starting to look like Ollie is like SJM and Jack Undroppable regardless of how they are playing.
Yesterday, for instance, Trez off Davis on and Ollie running the channels like he does but no he leaves trez on who is never a footballer and put Barkley on who is so far off the boil he's an ice cube.
Keinan is a target man, ollie isn't but we use him as one. I've kept quiet while we were doing well but have thought for ages now that Jack Keinan and Ollie would be a genuine front 3 and none of them are wingers. Nobody plays with wingers do they , Is Rashford a winger is Mane a winger no.
Dean will sink or swim by his decisions so its up to him but giving a kid 4-year contract and then not even giving him half-game is baffling
 
He can change things around surely? Bring Davis on. Play a ball passer like Sanson or Luiz next to Ollie instead of Trez. Watkins linked up continually with Jack so by replacing him with Trez was disastrous. So on the bench we had Barkley, Cash, El Ghazi, Sanson, Davis. A lot of managers would be happy with that.

He can but can you honestly say that any of those are genuine game changers you can get excited about?