Newcastle United 1 - 1 Southampton - 14/12/13 - post-match reaction from page 32

[Mattoon]

What's with all the HBA bashing today, he wasn't that bad!?!?

[Skirge]

think i'm gona crease evertime i see sissoko's slap like

I laugh the same amount every time, just cracks me up. Shearer loved it MOTD

[Belfast Mags]

Dat miss

[Guest bimpy474]

@BBCMOTD

Newcastle’s pass completion of 69% was their lowest in a Premier League home game this season and the lowest at home since Jan 2012.

 

More proof stats are bollocks in the grand scheme of things. First half Southampton had twice as much of the ball as us almost (34-66) yet we were the better team. Second-half we had more possession than the first, yet played worse.

 

Means fuck all.

 

We had 27% possession at Southampton, yet they hardly had a shot on target, their two goals came from balls whipped in to the far post and headed back across (so hardly the result of hours of tiki-taki passing), and we won 3-2.

 

 

 

You'll upset HF with that talk.

 

ps Jesus H Christ i'm drunk.

[merlin]

Should have won that comfortably before half time. In the end I was happy to get away with a draw.

 

This - a neutral watching in the second half would have been hard-pressed to say which was the home side.

Southampton fully deserved their point - Remy's awful miss was cancelled out by Davis striking the post with a great effort from 25 yards and Southampton were a far better passing side. They do just what we don't, but used to under KK and SBR which is pass and move. It doesn't matter how you try to dress it up, they had 60% of the ball and that means they were able to prevent us building any momentum in the second half as well as creating danger. It is lucky for us that 3 of our defenders are playing well and that Anita is always there to help them. As well as that, Anita created a great chance in the first half with a great piece of skill in their box and there was nobody there to meet his cut-back.

We have some excellent players but we are not a cohesive team, esp without Cabaye - HBA was his usual mix of brilliance and over-optimism on the ball...one incident, where he beat a defender and had Haidara over-lapping on his left, with a clear run to the by-line, then instead of passing to him, tried to beat 2 defenders and predictably lost the ball, had me tearing my thinning hair out and I can see why Pardew is reluctant to play him for 90 mins ; this is one of the few things I agree with Pardew about although HBA IS a decent sub when the opposition are tired, provided he sticks to the easy things.

Older fans like me have seen plenty of players like this...Alan Suddick and Jimmy Smith come to mind straight away. They could win a game on their own if they felt like it, but they didn't feel like it enough. The club used to think that we fans only wanted a 'crowd-pleaser'...so we did, but we were far more pleased when we were winning matches and you need a good TEAM to do that, which is why Shankly, Revie, Clough and Ferguson built successful sides and we didn't(apart from the fact that the board wouldn't finish the job off). We came close under Gordon Lee, KK and SBR but none of these managers built a team around 1 player.

 

We are never going to challenge for the big prizes under Ashley because we are never going to have strength in depth to do that, but we CAN and should win the majority of home games as well as playing attractive football because we have enough players to do that IF coached properly.

 

A disappointing result but we deserved no better - Southampton seem to have some good young players coming through as well, which is another area we need to address.....

[merlin]

Probably a fair result, I felt they played the better football for most of the match and our best moments including the goal came from their mistakes whereas they were very composed and created their own chances. Obviously Remy should have had at least one and probably two but we got what we deserved for coming out for the second half with no intention whatsoever to score another goal. We perhaps shaded the first half but didn't start playing again until they scored, they even gave us a chance when they hit the post and we didn't need the warning. Too negative once again.

 

And the ref was s***.

 

This - good summary...I failed to comment on the ref but you are right. At least he didn't send Sissoko off..!!

[Tachikoma]

I thought Pardew approached the second half as positively as he possibly could, Cisse was a dud but bringing him and Ben Arfa on clearly indicated that we were going for the win. We weren't defending deep out of choice, our midfield was completely overrun until Ben Arfa gave them something to think about.

[Big Geordie]

Merlin

[Guest palnese]

I thought Pardew approached the second half as positively as he possibly could, Cisse was a dud but bringing him and Ben Arfa on clearly indicated that we were going for the win. We weren't defending deep out of choice, our midfield was completely overrun until Ben Arfa gave them something to think about.

 

By playing Shola up front on his own? Absolute shite.

[Guest DebuchyAndTheBeast]

It would be interesting to know how much of their possession was in our half. Even Chelsea, City and Arsenal struggled to dominate them so I don't know why we're suddenly expected to do better , without Cabaye? Furthermore saying that we didn't create our own chances because they made mistakes is nonsensical we did force them into making mistakes by our nonstop pressing. Sometimes I ask myself if we were watching the same match .

[Cajun]

It would be interesting to know how much of their possession was in our half. Even Chelsea, City and Arsenal struggled to dominate them so I don't know why we're suddenly expected to do better , without Cabaye? Furthermore saying that we didn't create our own chances because they made mistakes is nonsensical we did force them into making mistakes by our nonstop pressing. Sometimes I ask myself if we were watching the same match .

 

[Benwell Lad]

It would be interesting to know how much of their possession was in our half. Even Chelsea, City and Arsenal struggled to dominate them so I don't know why we're suddenly expected to do better , without Cabaye? Furthermore saying that we didn't create our own chances because they made mistakes is nonsensical we did force them into making mistakes by our nonstop pressing. Sometimes I ask myself if we were watching the same match .

 

 

I never had great belief in statistical analysis of football matches, particularly percentage possession, but recently reading that Spurs dominated possession when they got twatted 6-0 by Man City and yet only had 25% possession when they beat Man Utd 3-2 has finished me with taking any notice whatsoever of it.

[Gallowgate Toon]

It would be interesting to know how much of their possession was in our half. Even Chelsea, City and Arsenal struggled to dominate them so I don't know why we're suddenly expected to do better , without Cabaye? Furthermore saying that we didn't create our own chances because they made mistakes is nonsensical we did force them into making mistakes by our nonstop pressing. Sometimes I ask myself if we were watching the same match .

 

Spot on.

 

The focus on possession and the likes of passing completion has gone a little too far. They had more of the ball but we created more, a long range strike really isn't the same as 2 clear cut chances. We had more shots on and off target despite having less of the ball.

 

I don't think this team will ever be that suited to a slower possession game, even with better coaching. We've got good players but we're not the most agile side and I wouldn't say we've got anyone outside HBA and Marveaux who can play in tight spaces. We can mix it up, yeah, but what we did at a more open Man U wouldn't necessarily apply to a really well organised Southampton who came with a deeper approach. We're not very good at breaking teams like that down, our lack of creativity usually means we chuck people forward and are then susceptible to the counter.

 

We've got a pacy squad who should be copying the models of recent Dortmund/Napoli/Atletico sides. Possession isn't the focus, it's about energy, pressing and attacking with explosive speed. I thought we 'copied' those sorts of sides for good periods of the game yesterday, seeing us counterpress effectively was good, we caught them off balance a lot (which is our best chance against teams like these) and we were simply the more dangerous side.

[NG32]

Cant believe the bloke doesn't learn lessons.

 

Such a fraud.

[Dave]

It would be interesting to know how much of their possession was in our half. Even Chelsea, City and Arsenal struggled to dominate them so I don't know why we're suddenly expected to do better , without Cabaye? Furthermore saying that we didn't create our own chances because they made mistakes is nonsensical we did force them into making mistakes by our nonstop pressing. Sometimes I ask myself if we were watching the same match .

 

You don't see the difference between the two goals? Or the Remy chance and the Davis shot against the post?

 

FWIW we did play some good football and create some of our own chances, I never said we didn't. I was talking about the key moments in the match.

[Flip]

It would be interesting to know how much of their possession was in our half. Even Chelsea, City and Arsenal struggled to dominate them so I don't know why we're suddenly expected to do better , without Cabaye? Furthermore saying that we didn't create our own chances because they made mistakes is nonsensical we did force them into making mistakes by our nonstop pressing. Sometimes I ask myself if we were watching the same match .

 

 

I agree a bit with his statement about us expecting maybe to much against Southampton, who are a far better team than most give credit for on here. IMO, the two mistake didn't come from our ''non-stop pressing'' which we don't do. It came from Gouffran at first being opportunistic and the second came from what every single team does which is try and not give the goalkeeper time, it was a horrible mistake from the goalie. I don't agree we press non-stop at all.

 

As for the game I don't think we played particularly good, we weren't horrible either. I think Pardew is to blame for starting Shola, we lacked some sort of creativity all afternoon and with Cabaye out, Ben Arfa has to be on the pitch. I'm not going to blame him for the result though, because with his tactics there's going to be results like this and there's going to be wins like away to Spurs. I don't like his brand of football and what it stands for, but at the end of the day I don't think he could careless about what fans think about the football as long as he's getting results for the club.

[Dave]

Their pressing was far more effective than ours, as evidenced by the amount of possession they were allowed in defence and midfield, whereas we didn't have the nous to do anything but hit it long 8 times out of 10. By the end of the match the crowd in the Gallowgate were giving Krul quite a hard time for not bowling it out to Haidara/Debuchy when they were in space.

 

It's a decent result because they're a good team and a point is better than none, but it still feels like an opportunity missed to me. We were leading and on top at half time at home. In those circumstances I'd hope we could press on and win the match against virtually any opponent, including one currently below us in the league that we're hoping to finish above. Perhaps I'm deluded though.

[Cajun]

Sorry but 'being opportunistic' is a complete copout of a statement. Players like Gouffran will anticipate chances and will more often than not take them, this isn't down to luck and this is one of the reasons he starts.

 

The second Remy chance was because we were pressuring the keeper, we failed to press in the second half against Swansea which I was really fucked off about and mentioned a few times but yesterday we played well against an equal side and were unlucky not to win.

[Foluwashola]

Of course it's a missed opportunity. Still, Southampton are a good side and a draw isn't a terrible result.

 

Played some decent stuff in spells and expect us to win next time out. We're alreet.

[Gallowgate Toon]

I thought some of our pressing was positive and generally good, it was very good in spells in the first half. We pressed them really high and they launched it quite a few times as a result, IIRC. They came with a different approach to us though, they pressed to win the ball and keep it, we pressed to get the ball and go straight for goal. I thought we looked to move quicker than them which is going to result in higher turnover of possession.

 

It should feel like an opportunity missed because we missed two absolute sitters and created some dangerous situations that could have been capitalised on much better. I'm disappointed we didn't get all 3.

[colinmk]

First half was great, second half we sat back and invited them onto us and got punished for it. It has happened many, many times before under Pardew and people have blamed it quite often on the players because they are low on confidence or whatever. They certainly weren't low on confidence yesterday and they should have been instructed to get out there and get at them again second half. Inviting pressure and punting it long is a shit tactic with the quality of players we have and it always will be.

[nufc4eva]

I thought we played quite well, just need to be more ruthless in final 3rd had enough chances to win in.

[Flip]

Sorry but 'being opportunistic' is a complete copout of a statement. Players like Gouffran will anticipate chances and will more often than not take them, this isn't down to luck and this is one of the reasons he starts.

 

The second Remy chance was because we were pressuring the keeper, we failed to press in the second half against Swansea which I was really f***ed off about and mentioned a few times but yesterday we played well against an equal side and were unlucky not to win.

 

Copout?

 

If you remember that Gouffran/Remy chance you'll remember him getting behind the defenders and getting at the goalkeeper as the defenders stood still, that's not an effect of high pressuring, it's an effect of Gouffran being more intelligent than the others. A high pressure team in my eyes is when you put pressure on as a team, you suffocates teams ability to pass the ball around, if we did that yesterday and Southampton still had 60% of the ball possession we were horrible at it. I don't buy for a second we were more direct because only had three really good goal chances all game. One resulted in a goal, where their defender was sleeping and the two others Remy should've put away with ease but were due to mistakes.

 

As for the Remy, every team in this league puts pressure on the goalkeeper because they're bound to make a mistake at any time and also it forces the goalkeeper to hoof it (even if he was pretty successful yesterday in finding his teammates). 99 out 100 times the goalkeeper gets the ball away, so if you don't think it's a mistake go ahead, I'm not going to argue on what you SHOULD believe, just what I saw.

 

I'm obviously not happy with only a draw against Southampton at home, but then again we beat the likes of Chelsea, Man U and Spurs so it evens out at the moment. Pardew does need to get us playing the 1st half stuff in the 2nd half.

[r0cafella]

It all depends on your aspirations I suppose, if you want us to push on for a European place a home draw against a injury hit Southampton side isn't a good result.

 

Personally I feel we should be aspiring to more.

[merlin]

It would be interesting to know how much of their possession was in our half. Even Chelsea, City and Arsenal struggled to dominate them so I don't know why we're suddenly expected to do better , without Cabaye? Furthermore saying that we didn't create our own chances because they made mistakes is nonsensical we did force them into making mistakes by our nonstop pressing. Sometimes I ask myself if we were watching the same match .

 

They had enough possession in our half to cause us many problems in the second half....if Anita had not been in the side, I reckon there is a good possibility that we could have lost this match. Southampton DID cut through us plenty of times, the possession was not just in their half of the field and they looked more threatening. We relied on possession in our half and a laboured build up which allowed them time to get back in defence and restrict our options.

That's how I saw it.