Manchester Utd 3 - 0 Newcastle Utd - 16/08/10 - post match reaction from page 36

[madras]

It's worth mentioning that we conceded 3 to derby last season, 4 to west brom and 2 to blackpool and scunthorpe. Our (arguably) hardest away game has gone and we lost 3-0, just after chelsea lost 3-1. We are an average-poor premier league team and these results are going to come. I'd be more worried if we lost 4-0 at home to blackpool. They should really be the ones worrying about their performance. West Ham and West Brom were also very poor

all true, my mackem friend said they and brum were poor also.

[Doctor Zaius]

Not that worried about that performance too much. Individual mistakes cost us the goals. Jonas lost the ball in a dangerous position for the first goal, leaving us exposed. Routledge failed to track the run of Evra for the 2nd, when you play man utd you've got to go with their fullbacks when they get forward, a lapse in concentration. Their 3rd was again a player wanting too much time on the ball, Enrique fannying on, mind Man United worked it fantastically well when they won it back.

 

Not saying  3-0 flattered them, but it was individual mistakes that cost us. We looked like we lacked ideas and creativity forward and as Hughton said we failed to keep the ball. We must keep the ball better than that unless we'll be punished as was much of the problem in 07/08.

 

Honourable mentions to Nolan and Perch who both looked inadequate. The former especially.  Villa at home will be a real test to see how far we've come, confidence wont be shattered which was important after this.

 

Oh and Paul Scholes. Absolutely ran the show tonight, his passing, my word. Talk about pinpoint. It's not often I'm in awe at an opposition player during the match but i was tonight.

[johnnypd]

What is a real pisser is that I don't think we're all that far away from being a pretty decent side, we just desperately lack any sort of quality up front.

 

Carroll is the only striker we have that you can make any real case for as a genuine Premiership quality player. Shola has had plenty of chances, it's obvious at this point he'll never be a consistent player in this or probably any league. He's a passable back-up to Carroll, not much more. Lovenkrands is easy to like and he's handy to have in the squad because he'll give you a bit of movement up top, but he hasn't got much in the way of quality. Best I don't think is good enough, Xisco does have ability but I'll be utterly shocked if he ever achieves anything for us. Ranger isn't ready.

 

One striker, and even then Carroll is hardly proven at this level. Have a feeling he'll do alright though, gave Man United a few problems today even though he was essentially playing up front on his own.

 

Having such poor players up front doesn't just make it hard to score goals, it makes everything else much tougher as well. Man U played the entire game in our half of the field, there was just no threat of anything from us on a counter attack whatsoever so why wouldn't they? Even when we did get the ball back we didn't have much chance of keeping the thing, there was just nowhere for us to play. Their first goal was terrible from Jonas, but we'd been pinned so far back by Man U that when Jonas gets the ball not far outside his own box he's actually our furthest player forward. There's nowhere to go, and you lose the ball. Keep giving Man United the ball in the final third and they'll score eventually.

 

The rest of the side is actually not that bad at all. Harper's alright in goal, does more or less everything in a slightly above average fashion. Enrique is a good young full-back who should keep getting better. Perch looked very nervous out there but I think there's hope for him. Between him Simpson and Taylor we should find someone who can at least be passable back there. Colo and Williamson looked alright tonight, and we've Campbell and Taylor to hopefully come back to add competition.

 

We've an OK gang of CM's. Barton was poor tonight but if he stays clear of injury and himself he'll do OK this year. I like Guthrie, hope he's back for the Villa game, given a run of games together I think he and Barton would do well. Smith is alright for depth, hopefully Gosling can show something and push him down to pecking order though. Ideally we want more quality in CM long term, but it's not our biggest concern right now.

 

We also seem well organised and the players do play for each other, but there's just no quality in the final third. Jonas and Routledge are useful players, but neither will strike fear into teams. Routledge is a bit flakey, while Jonas has more or less no end product at all.

 

Hopefully we sign Ben Arfa, sounds like he'd a big addition. He could fill in on either wing as well as potentially playing just off the striker, in the role that Nolan parodied tonight.

 

Really think we need another striker on top of that though, someone with a bit of pace and mobility who can threaten teams over the top. It'd be really fucking frustrating to see a player like Bellamy go on loan somewhere else when he'd do wonders for our team.

 

We don't get players like that and we could very easily go back down again though. It's no real harm losing to Man United, but if we send that same group of players back out there against Villa next week and I'd be pretty sure we'll lose again, to be honest. I just don't see where our threat is going to come from with the current squad, we need quality recruits or it's going to be a very long, horrible season.

 

top post. Bellamy would be just about perfect foil for Carroll and give us the kind of movement and threat we need to stay competitive at this level. should make him our number one target. If not him, then someone like him.

[Geordie Ahmed]

I thought Williamson did well - won a lot in the air and was good on the ground bar the odd moment, very impressed with him.

 

Enrique was solid as expected. Carroll did as well as could be expected, playing up front on your own isnt easy. Routledge will destroy weaker teams no doubt

 

The big worry for me was the central midfield and right back

 

Central Midfield = It was full of triers BUT no creativity whatsoever. We need Guthrie in the middle, thats vital as the 3 that played today dont offer a great deal going forward

 

Right Back = Perch was shocking, its only one game and it cant have been easy facing Nani BUT it was a worry. The back up options are not much better really. Simpson is a Championship right back at best, he wont be much better than Perch. Raylor was crap in the Premiership last time round, was average in the Championship as well so would not expect him to do anything. Our best right back is actually Steven Taylor BUT he is injured

 

If we dont buy a better right back then perhaps it is worth playing Williamson there, with Colo and Campbell in the middle - I think Williamson played a couple of times there last season and did well BUT it would only be a short term solution really

[polpolpol]

Something needs to be done about the left side of the pitch, it's like a naughty boys club out there: Colo, Enrique and Jonas encouraging each other to arse around at the back. As I have said somewhere else:

 

On the right, Perch was guilty of making several bad passes, yet his failed passes are at least going substantially forward, allowing some regrouping before the inevitable return of the ball under Manchester’s auspice. Of more concern is the situation on the left hand side of the pitch, where the triumvirate Enrique – Coloccini – Jonas operate. The latter two have habitually been guilty of overplaying the ball out of defence. A game like this is an interesting litmus test of their ability to accurately calculate the odds on such behaviours. While in the Championship, this strategy certainly was useful in maintaining possession and building more stable attacks. Whether it should be replicated against one of the stronger Premier League teams at their home ground is debatable (at best!). A map of Enrique’s passing shows him losing the ball in positions which are far too deep. The one against the touch line was the responsible for the genesis of their third goal.

 

Other errors are equally apparent: Berbatov’s first goal was gained by robbing Jonas in the middle of his half as he ran out from the left side of defence. After 53 minutes Coloccini followed a mistake by charging up the pitch – ostensibly to rectify it, in fact exacerbating it – leaving his position exposed and allowing a dangerous phase of Manchester United possession. Some attention should be paid to the frequency of these errors, replicating them every game could be disastrous.

[Ronaldo]

Aye, the naughty boys club that consists of 3 players who haven't caused an ounce of trouble since they joined. And 2 of whom were our best players by far last season.

[polpolpol]

Aye, the naughty boys club that consists of 3 players who haven't caused an ounce of trouble since they joined. And 2 of whom were our best players by far last season.

 

So you only rectify mistakes made by the worst players? A little Pareto efficiency never hurt anyone.

[Ronaldo]

Those 3 have very limited options on the ball, in fairness. The likes of Smith and Nolan are either too deep or don't want the ball in tight areas and hide behind the opposition.

[Tachikoma]

Is Vuckic available for selection? Would like to see how he does in Nolan's spot.

[merlin]

This game was about as predictable as football ever gets.

 

The team passed the ball around quite well in the early part of the match without ever threatening Man U from open play. Carroll, who did well in my opinion, was the only player who gave them any trouble and they had him well marked. He should have scored from the corner, no doubt, but unless he gets some decent support up front I fear that he will be burnt out by Christmas. Not only is he trying to play as a lone striker but also he has to cover for a poor midfield and defence.

 

Coloccini showed the tendency to make errors when under pressure that he displayed last time in the PL .

 

If people are happy to come away from a game with a 3-0 defeat, then it seems to me that Ashley is laughing all the way to the bank ; he can get away with not improving the side as long as other teams get tanked by a bigger margin. Personally, I was neither impressed nor depressed by this game because it showed exactly where the club are now and are likely to remain for the foreseeable future.

 

Hughton's substitution of Jonas baffled me - OK, he had made a bad error which led to one of the goals, but to bring another forward on when the midfield were being overrun at that stage in the match was pointless because we lost Jonas' work rate and covering which may have prevented Giggs' goal.

 

Ameobi - as someone has said, the QM2 turns faster. He turns casual play into an art form...

Routledge always LOOKED decent when he had the ball but he also tends to run into blind alleys which is probably the reason he has not carved out a career at one of the big clubs he has been with before.

 

What a player Paul Scholes is - his display last night showed exactly why it would have been worth a cheeky bid from us as soon as we got promotion and before Man U tied him to another contract.

I suggested this back in May but even if the lad had said no, there was never a chance of the current board doing that because of his age and wages. He was without doubt the best player on the field and ran the midfield like a puppet master. Scholes is just the sort of player we could have done with for 2 seasons until we got properly established in the PL... a bit like Beardsley back in 1993. For a 35 year old, he put younger players to shame by his commitment over 90 mins.

 

Overall, the only plus is that we avoided a heavier defeat. Otherwise, the game confirmed all we know about the team and its weaknesses.

 

We can only hope that the likes of Man U can do us a favour by stuffing teams like Blackpool by an even greater margin because that would help to reduce Blackpool's goal diff with us which is currently +7..!

 

Although I never ever expected this side to break the duck, it remains a total disgrace that a club of the size of NUFC have failed to beat Man U at OT since 1972...almost 40 years - and its hard to see that changing any time soon.

[mrmojorisin75]

result was never in doubt, the amount of goals was the only variable here lets be honest

 

move on now and focus on winnable games

[Guest sittingontheball]

I only saw the first half, but not too bad on the whole considering that it was against eleven better players. Outplayed as expected, but we had to open the door for their goals with typical midfield insufficiencies. I thought the defence did well considering how little we had the ball. To stay up, defending reasonably well will be vital. At the other end, shitty scrappy goals a la Stoke etc. will do. It doesn't have to be pretty.

 

ManUre looked a bit toothless for all their first half possession, and there was at least a point to be had from this game had we kept things tighter and Carroll taken that chance. Keeping it to 3-0 should not be seen as any kind of victory. More work on the pitch and off to strengthen the squad are required.

[cubaricho]

Glad we got this one out of the way first.

[Guest Loven11]

I thought Williamson did well - won a lot in the air and was good on the ground bar the odd moment, very impressed with him.

 

Enrique was solid as expected. Carroll did as well as could be expected, playing up front on your own isnt easy. Routledge will destroy weaker teams no doubt

 

The big worry for me was the central midfield and right back

 

Central Midfield = It was full of triers BUT no creativity whatsoever. We need Guthrie in the middle, thats vital as the 3 that played today dont offer a great deal going forward

 

Right Back = Perch was shocking, its only one game and it cant have been easy facing Nani BUT it was a worry. The back up options are not much better really. Simpson is a Championship right back at best, he wont be much better than Perch. Raylor was crap in the Premiership last time round, was average in the Championship as well so would not expect him to do anything. Our best right back is actually Steven Taylor BUT he is injured

 

If we dont buy a better right back then perhaps it is worth playing Williamson there, with Colo and Campbell in the middle - I think Williamson played a couple of times there last season and did well BUT it would only be a short term solution really

 

Play Coloccini at right back? Rather have Williamson in the middle.

 

 

[Cronky]

Overall, there are reasons to be cheerful. Despite the fact that we were outclassed, we did look better than last season, and the season before. We also carried a goal threat against a top team, and if Carroll had been a bit more relaxed, he would have scored at least one of the three good heading chances that came his way. He is extremely good in the air at both ends of the pitch, and should be a great asset.

 

The question of a striking partner for Carroll is now wide open. It's not conventional to play two big lads, but I thought Shola did much better than Nolan. He isn't any more mobile but at least he can hold defenders at bay and that way he can win us a few free kicks, and create things around the box. I don't think Lovenkrands has anything to trouble defenders at this level so although it's not ideal, in the absence of any other other signings I'd give Shola and Carroll another chance.

 

 

[cp40]

just seen we are 17th. so our season is bang on target.

[David28]

Hughton post match:

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/n/newcastle_united/8920062.stm

[NG32]

What happens when he is asked about afra, the stream froze and i was left with Hughton looking like he was sucking a lemon and then it started up again minus the Afra answer

[David28]

What happens when he is asked about afra, the stream froze and i was left with Hughton looking like he was sucking a lemon and then it started up again minus the Afra answer

 

Yeah, same happend for me. The whole interview was just repeated then, without the pictures from the match and without the Ben Arfa question. 

[Guest Milburnthedog]

Said what everyone expected him to say. I'd have preferred him to say how important it is to strenghten the squad immediately and give Ashley a nudge.

[NG32]

What happens when he is asked about afra, the stream froze and i was left with Hughton looking like he was sucking a lemon and then it started up again minus the Afra answer

 

Yeah, same happend for me. The whole interview was just repeated then, without the pictures from the match and without the Ben Arfa question.  

 

Conspiracy !  Hughton knows Ben Afra blew the twin towers up!

[mrmojorisin75]

Said what everyone expected him to say. I'd have preferred him to say how important it is to strenghten the squad immediately and give Ashley a nudge.

yes men don't do that shit, they tow the line

 

[Guest dover]

No shame in losing away from home to this seasons probable premiership winners, worrying though was the lack of fitness and composure throughout the team. Lumping the ball forward to no-one instead of running with the ball or holding it up. I know its the first game of the season but very few of the players looked match fit, Carrol but a good shift in but was never going to threaten without midfield support, with Lovenkrands upfront alongside him maybe we have a chance of causing problems.

 

The bench looked pretty desperate aswell. No options to make an impact, if we dont strengthen were in the mire. Jonas needs a haircut pronto, jogging along tying his hair back whilst Man Utd are in possession instead of trying to win the ball back just fucks me off, its the first game of the premiership not a friendly ffs.

 

Thats it really lets see how we fare against Villa then we`ll know...

[Belfast Boy]

I thought Williamson did well - won a lot in the air and was good on the ground bar the odd moment, very impressed with him.

 

Enrique was solid as expected. Carroll did as well as could be expected, playing up front on your own isnt easy. Routledge will destroy weaker teams no doubt

 

The big worry for me was the central midfield and right back

 

Central Midfield = It was full of triers BUT no creativity whatsoever. We need Guthrie in the middle, thats vital as the 3 that played today dont offer a great deal going forward

 

Right Back = Perch was shocking, its only one game and it cant have been easy facing Nani BUT it was a worry. The back up options are not much better really. Simpson is a Championship right back at best, he wont be much better than Perch. Raylor was crap in the Premiership last time round, was average in the Championship as well so would not expect him to do anything. Our best right back is actually Steven Taylor BUT he is injured

 

If we dont buy a better right back then perhaps it is worth playing Williamson there, with Colo and Campbell in the middle - I think Williamson played a couple of times there last season and did well BUT it would only be a short term solution really

 

Play Coloccini at right back? Rather have Williamson in the middle.

 

 

 

Once Campbell has fitness then that may be the way to. Coloccini will offer more defensive qualities at RB and it also keeps him away from Enrique. The two of them seem incapable of just clearing the ball if they have the slightest oppurtunity to fanny around with it.

[Guest neesy111]

My biggest gripes we're the basic errors we made when defending, and the amount of times we give away possession easily.

 

Can't do that at this level.