Newcastle United 0 - 2 Chelsea - 04/04/09 - Post match reaction from page 14

[Cronky]

Didn't think the performance was all that bad really. Thought Michael and Oba did pretty well when given the opportunity. Seen there's been quite a bit of vitriol toward the two of them, which honestly has surprised me. Neither was one of our main problems and both managed to threaten Chelsea's defence a few times. Thought the midfield 4 put in a good shift against a vastly superior group of players. I think Guthrie really has potential to be a class player if we can keep him around. The defensive performance is typical of the way the defence has performed all season. They were doing a good job, and doing fairly easily as well. Really keeping Chelsea at bay. Then, one error, and it all goes to hell. Something is seriously wrong with Coloccini mentally. He has talent, but his confidence is shattered. You could tell this by how much worse he played AFTER his initial error. That whole Boumsong syndrome seems to affecting him, and that's not something we can afford. Really a shame we couldn't get even a point from the Man U, Arsenal, and Chelsea matches as we've been competitive in all three.

 

I'd agree that the overall performance was better than most people are saying here. The players looked more relaxed and positive and I think that's down to Shearer. I also thought that, after the goals went in, it was notable that the heads didn't drop and we kept going. We lost because they're better than we are.

 

We were getting the ball forward a lot quicker, and cutting out the timid passing that's only designed to keep possession. It didn't always come off, but at least the players looked like they knew what they were supposed to do. It looked like a team effort all round.

 

Colo was at fault in both goals but shouldn't shoulder the entire blame. Duff put him in a bit of trouble for the first, and the second was mainly caused by Beye losing his header and exposing Taylor two on one. In general though, he's not looked strong enough for the Premiership all season. Beye did better than I was expecting at CB and I imagine he'll keep his place there and Colo will be replaced by Bassong or Steven Taylor when either are fit.

 

Having watched the game, I actually feel more positive about avoiding the drop. There will be a lot of negative headlines because of the result, but Shearer has to keep them confident.

[Gallowgate Toon]

Didn't think the performance was all that bad really. Thought Michael and Oba did pretty well when given the opportunity. Seen there's been quite a bit of vitriol toward the two of them, which honestly has surprised me. Neither was one of our main problems and both managed to threaten Chelsea's defence a few times. Thought the midfield 4 put in a good shift against a vastly superior group of players. I think Guthrie really has potential to be a class player if we can keep him around. The defensive performance is typical of the way the defence has performed all season. They were doing a good job, and doing fairly easily as well. Really keeping Chelsea at bay. Then, one error, and it all goes to hell. Something is seriously wrong with Coloccini mentally. He has talent, but his confidence is shattered. You could tell this by how much worse he played AFTER his initial error. That whole Boumsong syndrome seems to affecting him, and that's not something we can afford. Really a shame we couldn't get even a point from the Man U, Arsenal, and Chelsea matches as we've been competitive in all three.

 

I'd agree that the overall performance was better than most people are saying here. The players looked more relaxed and positive and I think that's down to Shearer. I also thought that, after the goals went in, it was notable that the heads didn't drop and we kept going. We lost because they're better than we are.

 

We were getting the ball forward a lot quicker, and cutting out the timid passing that's only designed to keep possession. It didn't always come off, but at least the players looked like they knew what they were supposed to do. It looked like a team effort all round.

 

Colo was at fault in both goals but shouldn't shoulder the entire blame. Duff put him in a bit of trouble for the first, and the second was mainly caused by Beye losing his header and exposing Taylor two on one. In general though, he's not looked strong enough for the Premiership all season. Beye did better than I was expecting at CB and I imagine he'll keep his place there and Colo will be replaced by Bassong or Steven Taylor when either are fit.

 

Having watched the game, I actually feel more positive about avoiding the drop. There will be a lot of negative headlines because of the result, but Shearer has to keep them confident.

Really, i thought we played horribly today. We created nothing and defended ok until the hour mark, which seems to be the story of our season. To me the players bottled it, maybe they felt that all the attention Shearer got was being put onto them and they were being made out by a lot of the media and fans to play like a CL side all of a sudden or maybe they just weren't used to the atmosphere. Speaking of the atmosphere i found it very tense, like an air of expectancy around the place that never quite materialised.

 

We looked so much better when Guthrie came on but i'd rather have seen Nicky Butt taken off.

 

I'm going to take a gamble here and blame Al for the loss today. I haven't seen his interview but i read here on via a previous post that he said he didn't want to play too open so we wouldn't be destroyed. In a way it makes sense because it's his first game etc don't want to get trounced but if he'd been watching close enough this season he'd have seen that we've played well when we've gone at the top 4 opposition bar Liverpool. We can't afford to play it safe anymore it's either cut your losses and go for it or you're screwed tbh.

 

I know we won't probably go down and that Al was the right choice imo but i fear a little bit that if his tactic today was to play it safe, what will he do for the away games like Stoke?

[Gallowgate Toon]

Can we put to bed the myth that Martins is a good Premiership player now? He's a one trick pony, said trick being able to rip the back of the net out every half a dozen games with a thunder bolt. We need more than that from him but his lack of a first touch, a footballing brain or the ability to finish means he's never going to be the 15-20 goal a season striker we need him to be. I know he's the darling of some of our fans because he's a bit quirky and seemingly gives his all but he's not good enough. We should've sold him to Arsenal when we had the chance.

 

I'm sharp running out of patience with Colo too. When he came he looked decent but he makes glaring error after glaring error. Even more irritating is that he was a brilliant little player in Spain but he can replicate his form here. I hope Shearer gets on the pitch and roughs him up a bit because at the minute he couldn't take an elbow off Alison Lapper never mind a Premiership striker. I never thought i'd say this but Saylor is a better option in the middle at this moment in time.

 

Ryan Taylor and Kevin Nolan are f***ing atrocious footballers. Watching those two saunter around the pitch makes me feel throughly ripped off. I'd rather have a huffy N'Zogbia than those two any day of the week.

 

Stoke is crucial. A win would be nice but we need at least a draw and to put in a decent performance otherwise we're going to struggle to stay in touch with the Mackems.

 

I actually agree with that. I love Oba but I'm getting increasingly frustrated with his inconsistency. The lads got a fantastic pair of springs in his legs, blistering pace, two good feet, a thunderbolt of a shot and a good header. So, those said ingredients are a fantastic combination to have a top class striker- but the more I see Martins play, the less I think he is, or will be a top class striker. Like, how many times have we seen Oba use his pace to get in behind defenders and set himself through on goal? Not near enough. Some might argue that we dont give him good enough service but I'd disagree. If he had a real football brain then he'd do this more often and he'd be unstoppable!

Now, he can come up with those moments of glory when your least expecting it and win you the game but those moments are few and far between.

 

I'm not going to go into a big f*** off rant about the lad now, I'll do that some other time, but I do agree with David Icke.

I'm going to disagree with the bit in bold because Oba's record has been near 1 in 2 this season (7 in 17 iirc) that can't be the sign of a poor standard footballer. And when you consider the games of match fitness recovery etc then i think you're being a little harsh. Nobody played well today everybody looked extremely edgy and tense.

[Jaypee]

http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb40/nufcjens/Bilde1.png?t=1238883658 = http://d.yimg.com/eur.yimg.com/ng/sp/empics/5165941

[Kaizero]

Eww.

[Gash]

http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/12_04/capelloDM2312_468x614.jpg

I have a semi.

[Mike]

Jesus Christ Decky.

[merlin]

Too little too late

Kinnear should never have been given the job in the first place, and this is all Ashleys fault.

Other teams in the s*** are winning, we keep losing - and getting the odd draw.

The damage Kinnear and his incompetent staff have done is incalculable.

Even his signings are no better than  what we already had - and what we had is appalling.

Yet Ashley wants to bring him back ?

R.I.P NUFC

Poor Al - expected to make a silk purse out of a sows ear.

 

Perfect post - agree totally.

Anyone with any sense knew that Al was taking on a fatally poisoned chalice...

 

Have posted about Coloccini on the thread about him - no comment necessary here...

Martins is a second-rate forward at best - if I were an opposition manager wanting a striker, I wouldn't pay even 5m for him.

Midfield totally lacking in guile, made to look 3rd Div yesterday as Chelsea passed them off the park..

Still don't rate Jonas as a creative influence, will always promise more than he delivers..

Owen not match-fit, but most dangerous forward, had legit goal ruled out.

Butt gives 100% but legs now gone..

 

A depressing spectacle and whilst result not unexpected, the results of other sides in trouble have now ensured that a gap is opening up, with NUFC, Boro & WBA the favourites to go down.

 

Start planning for life in the Fizzy unless a miracle happens....

[Jayson]

Pointless hate on Martins. He still has it, hes just inconsistant. Better than anything else we have though bar Owen, so pointless to criticize. Goals v aston villa & Wigan show he can still smack it. Had that spectacular one against Arsenal that hit the bar & played well against Man United. Once again he lik eowen hasnt had the service, he needs to drop back more to get the ball. But hes not the player he was a few years ago.

[Ridman]

I'm getting sick of our center midfield. No movement off the ball, no through balls, no runs into the box, no creativity at all. All we do is pass the ball to Jonas and hope he can dribble past 2-3 players and deliver a perfect cross to our 1.70m strikers. Our attacks are so slow and predictable that it's no wonder we aren't scoring, I've been looking at some old footage of the Bobby era and you'd think those games were played at the speed of light in comparison to our games today!

[Tachikoma]

I'm getting sick of our center midfield. No movement off the ball, no through balls, no runs into the box, no creativity at all. All we do is pass the ball to Jonas and hope he can dribble past 2-3 players and deliver a perfect cross to our 1.70m strikers. Our attacks are so slow and predictable that it's no wonder we aren't scoring, I've been looking at some old footage of the Bobby era and you'd think those games were played at the speed of light in comparison to our games today!

 

Ah yes, the good old days. I remember how quick and exciting our counter attacks were when we played Everton, and that was how I fell in love with NUFC 

[Guest Heneage]

Lee Stewart looks like Rocket from Soccer Am.

[Cronky]

Didn't think the performance was all that bad really. Thought Michael and Oba did pretty well when given the opportunity. Seen there's been quite a bit of vitriol toward the two of them, which honestly has surprised me. Neither was one of our main problems and both managed to threaten Chelsea's defence a few times. Thought the midfield 4 put in a good shift against a vastly superior group of players. I think Guthrie really has potential to be a class player if we can keep him around. The defensive performance is typical of the way the defence has performed all season. They were doing a good job, and doing fairly easily as well. Really keeping Chelsea at bay. Then, one error, and it all goes to hell. Something is seriously wrong with Coloccini mentally. He has talent, but his confidence is shattered. You could tell this by how much worse he played AFTER his initial error. That whole Boumsong syndrome seems to affecting him, and that's not something we can afford. Really a shame we couldn't get even a point from the Man U, Arsenal, and Chelsea matches as we've been competitive in all three.

 

I'd agree that the overall performance was better than most people are saying here. The players looked more relaxed and positive and I think that's down to Shearer. I also thought that, after the goals went in, it was notable that the heads didn't drop and we kept going. We lost because they're better than we are.

 

We were getting the ball forward a lot quicker, and cutting out the timid passing that's only designed to keep possession. It didn't always come off, but at least the players looked like they knew what they were supposed to do. It looked like a team effort all round.

 

Colo was at fault in both goals but shouldn't shoulder the entire blame. Duff put him in a bit of trouble for the first, and the second was mainly caused by Beye losing his header and exposing Taylor two on one. In general though, he's not looked strong enough for the Premiership all season. Beye did better than I was expecting at CB and I imagine he'll keep his place there and Colo will be replaced by Bassong or Steven Taylor when either are fit.

 

Having watched the game, I actually feel more positive about avoiding the drop. There will be a lot of negative headlines because of the result, but Shearer has to keep them confident.

Really, i thought we played horribly today. We created nothing and defended ok until the hour mark, which seems to be the story of our season. To me the players bottled it, maybe they felt that all the attention Shearer got was being put onto them and they were being made out by a lot of the media and fans to play like a CL side all of a sudden or maybe they just weren't used to the atmosphere. Speaking of the atmosphere i found it very tense, like an air of expectancy around the place that never quite materialised.

 

We looked so much better when Guthrie came on but i'd rather have seen Nicky Butt taken off.

 

I'm going to take a gamble here and blame Al for the loss today. I haven't seen his interview but i read here on via a previous post that he said he didn't want to play too open so we wouldn't be destroyed. In a way it makes sense because it's his first game etc don't want to get trounced but if he'd been watching close enough this season he'd have seen that we've played well when we've gone at the top 4 opposition bar Liverpool. We can't afford to play it safe anymore it's either cut your losses and go for it or you're screwed tbh.

 

I know we won't probably go down and that Al was the right choice imo but i fear a little bit that if his tactic today was to play it safe, what will he do for the away games like Stoke?

 

Well it wasn't pretty, that's for sure. What struck me though was that the players' focus and organisation looked a lot better, like they believed in what they were trying to do. And we did create one or two chances and were unlucky not to score. We were up against better players and the true test will come against Stoke.

 

I think the chief difficulty for a manager in this situation is getting the players to relax and, in Shearer's own words, enjoy their football. There are still 21 points on offer and we're 3 points behind. The media often tend to write off teams' chances at both ends of the table far too early, when in reality there's plenty of time. Shearer at least seemed to giving the team some composure.

 

There are problems in each area of the team - we're not a great side that just happens to be playing poorly. But if Shearer can get the maximum out of his players that should be enough.

 

 

 

[Guest BooBoo]

I thought it was a lousy performance and that we performed with more attacking zest against Man Utd and Arsenal. We tried for the first quarter, seemed to realise how good Chelsea are and lose heart. Duff, Nolan and Oba were all pretty pathetic.

[mrmojorisin75]

shearer definately needs to learn from that and fast

 

for someone who has been watching our games, apparently, he seemed pretty adept at not identifying where we've been shit for the last 2 seasons and basically doing the same thing

 

he needs to be ruthless and have the balls to make difficult choices, namely:

 

no more duff, ever (smith also)

no more colo for the rest of the season injuries permitting

no more owen up top

either butt OR nolan not both - our midfield can maybe accommodate one bag of shit but two is pushing it

 

 

personally i'd start carroll from now on as he can do damage up top and cause problems, go back to keegan's 4-3-3 with something like

 

------------------harps----------------------

 

r taylor---beye---NOT colo---enrique

 

----------------butt/nolan-------------------

 

--------------jonas-------guthrie-----------

 

---owen---------------------------oba----------

 

---------------------carroll-----------------------

 

injuries are problematic in defence i guess but when either s taylor or bassong come back colo needs dropping for his and our sake

 

 

[Ronaldo]

When has Carroll inflicted damage? He's out of his depth in premiership football, much like Shola

[Guest BooBoo]

I thought Carroll did well against both Sunderland and West Ham. He's far from great but i'd rather see him on than Shola.

[Ronaldo]

I thought Carroll did well against both Sunderland and West Ham. He's far from great but i'd rather see him on than Shola.

 

as would I, doesn't mean I want him anywhere near the team though

[Guest johny2k]

not sure if its been mentioned already but the only positives i took out of yesterday was guthrie being back, and the end of these 3 horrible home fixtures. guthrie coming on really highlighted how off the pace nolan is. he was the only player bar Jonas who wanted the ball, got to start against stoke for me and when barton's back i'd possible put him on the right (Butt's not getting dropped anytime soon), as much as i think he's a waste of space we need Vidula back too, away from home we need someone who can hold the ball up, hopefully now stoke have won an away game, their home form has a dip for saturday!!

[biggs]

Imho we were more creative and played better against arsenal and yesterday i saw zero improvement and those players looked like they were playing for Hughton and not a new manager and that worries me more than anything with the games coming up.

[Thespence]

Imho we were more creative and played better against arsenal and yesterday i saw zero improvement and those players looked like they were playing for Hughton and not a new manager and that worries me more than anything with the games coming up.

 

I said to Gimp when asked iirc if we played like this against until falling away, I said no we battered Arsenal.

[biggs]

not sure if its been mentioned already but the only positives i took out of yesterday was guthrie being back, and the end of these 3 horrible home fixtures. guthrie coming on really highlighted how off the pace nolan is. he was the only player bar Jonas who wanted the ball, got to start against stoke for me and when barton's back i'd possible put him on the right (Butt's not getting dropped anytime soon), as much as i think he's a waste of space we need Vidula back too, away from home we need someone who can hold the ball up, hopefully now stoke have won an away game, their home form has a dip for saturday!!

Agree with your points 100 % need these players back now.

[ikri]

Thought we did well in the 1st half and I don't believe that it was a coincidence that Duff's arrival on the field signalled the team's surrender.

 

Duff was abysmal.

 

He did his usual trick of standing on the byline waiting for the ball, very rarely trying to find some space.  He was woeful tracking back, often leaving Enrique exposed as he slowly trotted back after losing possession.  Duff was that bad during the game that I half wish we'd brought Smith on instead since he'd have actually tried.

 

Taylor was crap, just crap.  His set pieces were a complete waste of time, his passing was poor and his marking was often non-existent.

 

I didn't think that Martins was anywhere nearly as bad as some people have made out, he had a couple of chances but he needs about 5 good chances to score anyway, had the midfield managed to produce more opportunities then I'm sure that he and Owen would have had done better.

 

Owen looked far more interested in the game than he's looked for months but once the supply dried up in the 2nd half he was largely ineffective.

 

I'm not sure what was going on when we should have been counterattacking, but on a number of occasions when Harper picked up the ball we'd have 7 players on the edge of our own box and they'd all be slowly jogging out.  The midfielders should have been charging up the field to try and start an attacking move.

 

Our problems are all largely in the midfield, they don't create enough chances and they don't break up play well enough when required.  It's been the same since Sir Bobby left but no one has really managed to deal with the problems there.

[Gallowgate Toon]

Imho we were more creative and played better against arsenal and yesterday i saw zero improvement and those players looked like they were playing for Hughton and not a new manager and that worries me more than anything with the games coming up.

I honestly think the pressure got to them yesterday though, they were built up to start playing like a CL team, no wonder they flattered to deceive. Stoke will be a much better indication of how the team reacts to Shearer.

[Dave]

not sure if its been mentioned already but the only positives i took out of yesterday was guthrie being back, and the end of these 3 horrible home fixtures. guthrie coming on really highlighted how off the pace nolan is. he was the only player bar Jonas who wanted the ball, got to start against stoke for me and when barton's back i'd possible put him on the right (Butt's not getting dropped anytime soon), as much as i think he's a waste of space we need Vidula back too, away from home we need someone who can hold the ball up, hopefully now stoke have won an away game, their home form has a dip for saturday!!

 

Spot on about Guthrie. At least he wants the ball and is actually willing to move into space in order to find it; the complete polar opposite of Butt and Nolan. Can pass the ball too, which always helps...

 

Got to start the next game.