Newcastle United 3 - 3 Brentford (20/11/2021)

[huss9]

4 hours ago, STM said:

I don't know if we will stay up but frankly it's secondary to having a functional club again.

 

I absolute adored Eddie Ball today. We were a Joelinton slip away from a famous 4-3 win. Defence was shite but hey ho.

 

Ratings:

 

Darlow 4 Get in the bin.

 

Schar 6 Good on the ball but leggy towards the end.

Lascelles 5 Scored but marshalled a back line that was shocking

Clark 5 Just not up to this level or this style frankly

 

Murphy 6 Slow decision making but covered loads of ground. Would prefer manquillo

Willock 6 I don't think he is built for passing and moving, was off the pace

Shelvey 8 Was actually class. Grafted hard. Stayed professional and was pulling strings.

Ritchie 7 Much better, helped by being able to get into crossing positions rather than sitting in defence

 

ASM 8 Usual

Wilson 7 Worked hard.

Joelinton 8 Was class, needs new boots.

you know, i've been feeling the same.

if we go down, we go down.

i've got my club back.

 

obviously i'm still desperate to for us to stay up.

[huss9]

will have to put it down to howe not knowing the players properly, but miggy definitely should have come on instead of longstaff.

[Danh1]

Didn’t realise that Al-Rumayyan was there today. Thought it would be a while until we seen him again after the Spurs game. Glad he got to see a much better game than the rolling over that we done for Spurs. 

[Lazarus]

1 hour ago, Dokko said:

 

Felt like a loss at the FT time whistle as we deserved more but all I've done is message and talk about the game since then and it feels like a win. Almost forgot there we dropped 2 pts.

 

Aye totally - if we can keep playing like that the points will come.

 

If we can improve on it and add 3 or 4 players in January, theres no reason we cant be safe, even comfortably safe.

 

I know its 1 game and it wasnt perfect but im looking at the positives after years of shit.

[KaKa]

That chance for Joleinton at the end is so unfortunate man, just needed the ball to be played out in front of him a bit more because of how well the Brentford defender chases back. Could have been an epic ending.

 

Having rewatched the highlights from the game we were really unfortunate with their first and last goals. Their second was quality play though.

 

Shocked at how well Jonjo closed down and won the ball back at times, while Willock seemed to struggle with that task more, and so really not sure he can play in that deeper role now.

 

Darlow man ... wow. Horrible decision making and timing when coming out to claim the ball. just causes unnecessary panic at the back.

 

Darlow and Willock out for the next game and we could see a lot of improvement.

[Pilko]

Really unlucky today. Brentford's first was shocking from a piss poor shit keeper and their third was a huge deflection after two lucky breaks in the buildup.

 

As many shots on target today as you'd see in 3 months worth of Bruce games. Much better and a huge step in the right direction.

[huss9]

ffs, if manu had turned up today we'd still only be 4 points from safety.

[Super Duper Branko Strupar]

45 minutes ago, Pilko said:

Really unlucky today. Brentford's first was shocking from a piss poor shit keeper and their third was a huge deflection after two lucky breaks in the buildup.

 

As many shots on target today as you'd see in 3 months worth of Bruce games. Much better and a huge step in the right direction.

 

This is my feeling too. Yes we were under pressure a fair amount, but those goals should be fairly easily ironed out. Goalkeeping error. Ignorance at the back post. Weak defending leading to a poor own goal. Annoying that on a day where we easily scored 3 and could have had more we allowed that to happen. But we cant have expected everything today. Frustrating that it was a great opportunity being at home to Brentford granted but that team has improved without question and it will again.

[Ikon]

Our midfield wasn't even there when Brentford had the ball. They got through as if they were playing against cones, time and time again. 

 

Defending was shocking too.all over the place. Willock couldn't do one thing right. Murphy and Ritchie offered nothing but weakness. 

 

Joelinton was class. Apart from the miss in the end he was our best player by far. 

 

To be honest, people thought the difference was absolutely massive compared to before. Better, yes, but I don't think it was all that. Good performance but still moving the ball too slowly and too many punts forward with the ball. Hopefully with more time we can get better, and most importantly more solid. Like headless chickens at times. 

 

 

Edited November 21, 2021 by Ikon

[HWTL]

Pleased with the performance but Ritchie and Murphy are just so poor defensively, cb just to weak 1 on 1 and gk was awful. I think if Darlow hadn't let in the first it could have been much different. The difference from that game to last regime was massive but defence just isn't good enough and not much coaching staff can do about that. Get dubs back in and could change slightly. If that was first game of the season and not nearly Xmas and bottom of league I'd be over the moon. Roll on January.

[Ikon]

Replace Ritchie with Almiron if we go 3 at the back. Ritchie when they scored their 2nd was absolutely abysmal. Brentford player didn't even move quickly inside and Ritchie still wasn't able to cut him off/press him to a degree so that the player couldn't cross it to the. Far post. 

 

Sometimes when the opposition has 1-2 players attacking our central penalty are or the 1st post we are like bees on honey and have all our defenders trying to defend that one area, leaving another opposition player free at the back post. Time and time again ffs. Too mcu ball watching. 

[Cronky]

A Brazilian national team manager once said that managing a football team was like being in a bed with a blanket that is too small. If you hitch the blanket up to your shoulders, your feet get cold, and if you cover your feet, your shoulders are exposed.

 

That's the position we're in, and have been in all season. If we pick an attacking line up, the defence gets exposed, if we play defensively, we can't score. To some extent, every team faces some sort of dilemma like that, but in our case it's quite extreme. 

 

Until we strengthen the squad, I think our better bet is to play defensively, but there's not a lot in it.

[HWTL]

1 minute ago, Cronky said:

A Brazilian national team manager once said that managing a football team was like being in a bed with a blanket that is too small. If you hitch the blanket up to your shoulders, your feet get cold, and if you cover your feet, your shoulders are exposed.

 

That's the position we're in, and have been in all season. If we pick an attacking line up, the defence gets exposed, if we play defensively, we can't score. To some extent, every team faces some sort of dilemma like that, but in our case it's quite extreme. 

 

Until we strengthen the squad, I think our better bet is to play defensively, but there's not a lot in it.

Agree with the first bit but not that we should play defensive, the defenders definitely need to improve as there 3 goals could and should have been stopped even in the formation we played as they were all stupid errors. We aren't good enough to just play defensive and expect results and who wants to play like that. Prefer us to go down fighting than revert back to previous shit. Should have won that game and the effort yesterday was brilliant. I think we will improve each game but its definitely going to be a struggle now to stay up but I'll be behind them now. 

[AY]

We just don't have good enough centrebacks. Throwing in 3 to cover their weakness solves nothing. And why Ritchie still keeps his place is beyond me. He just can't defend to save his life, and every team has taken advantage of it.

[Hanshithispantz]

Tbf the 3 centre backs could just as much be to cover our lack of fullbacks.

 

We need a couple of defenders desperately in January.

[AY]

1 minute ago, Hanshithispantz said:

Tbf the 3 centre backs could just as much be to cover our lack of fullbacks.

 

We need a couple of defenders desperately in January.

True, but we are leaking goals from fullback/wingback area anyway. Playing 3 centre backs usually means one steps up to join midfield occasionally when we have the ball. Clark and Lascelles don't have the legs, so tha only leaves Schär, you doesn't seem to stay fit.

 

We also need defensive midfielder.

[christ]

23 minutes ago, Cronky said:

A Brazilian national team manager once said that managing a football team was like being in a bed with a blanket that is too small. If you hitch the blanket up to your shoulders, your feet get cold, and if you cover your feet, your shoulders are exposed.

 

That's the position we're in, and have been in all season. If we pick an attacking line up, the defence gets exposed, if we play defensively, we can't score. To some extent, every team faces some sort of dilemma like that, but in our case it's quite extreme. 

 

Until we strengthen the squad, I think our better bet is to play defensively, but there's not a lot in it.

That wasn’t a Brazilian national team manager. That was Rafa describing us

[Raconteur]

30 minutes ago, Ikon said:

Replace Ritchie with Almiron if we go 3 at the back. Ritchie when they scored their 2nd was absolutely abysmal. Brentford player didn't even move quickly inside and Ritchie still wasn't able to cut him off/press him to a degree so that the player couldn't cross it to the. Far post. 

 

Sometimes when the opposition has 1-2 players attacking our central penalty are or the 1st post we are like bees on honey and have all our defenders trying to defend that one area, leaving another opposition player free at the back post. Time and time again ffs. Too mcu ball watching. 

 

My first response was to wince, but there's some merit to this. When shoehorned into centre midfield, he was always diligent in working up and back. Wingback is such a specialised position - one of the reasons we're vulnerable at the back - but Almiron is disciplined and hardworking, and maybe Howe can convince him to turn into Marcos Alonso or Chilwell?

[Awaymag]

27 minutes ago, Cronky said:

A Brazilian national team manager once said that managing a football team was like being in a bed with a blanket that is too small. If you hitch the blanket up to your shoulders, your feet get cold, and if you cover your feet, your shoulders are exposed.

 

That's the position we're in, and have been in all season. If we pick an attacking line up, the defence gets exposed, if we play defensively, we can't score. To some extent, every team faces some sort of dilemma like that, but in our case it's quite extreme. 

 

Until we strengthen the squad, I think our better bet is to play defensively, but there's not a lot in it.

Aye lets play defensively when out weakest part of the team is defense!     Is that you Bruce?

[AyeDubbleYoo]

30 minutes ago, Cronky said:

A Brazilian national team manager once said that managing a football team was like being in a bed with a blanket that is too small. If you hitch the blanket up to your shoulders, your feet get cold, and if you cover your feet, your shoulders are exposed.

 

That's the position we're in, and have been in all season. If we pick an attacking line up, the defence gets exposed, if we play defensively, we can't score. To some extent, every team faces some sort of dilemma like that, but in our case it's quite extreme. 

 

Until we strengthen the squad, I think our better bet is to play defensively, but there's not a lot in it.

Except when we camped everyone behind the ball under Bruce, we still got smashed. 
 

For me it’s about keeping possession versus conceding it all, and pressing the opponent versus letting them do whatever they want. 
 

I agree we need to find a way to stop so many goals though. A good keeper and player defenders at fullback is probably the short term answer. 

[Dr Venkman]

Others have already covered everything so I’m just going to say that it was brilliant to be at SJP again and be part of a united club.

[gazza ladra]

7 minutes ago, Awaymag said:

Aye lets play defensively when out weakest part of the team is defense!     Is that you Bruce?

  I was going post the same, but then I thought better of it.  Been cranky and confrontational all day.

 

Under Bruce playing defensively is all we did. Literally. Sat back, absorbed pressure and pray that could catch them on abreak.. or score from a set piece, or win a penalty. And we still allowed more goals than anyone else in the league save Norwich.

Edit: ah Isee ayedubbleyoo,went there.

 

 

Edited November 21, 2021 by gazza ladra

[Armchair Pundit]

I loved yesterday's match, it was exciting, it was fun to watch (if a little emotional), but that's what's been missing for so long. We'll add to the defense in January I'm sure, but if we can play like we did yesterday for the rest of the season, albeit with Dubs in goal and I think we'll improve enough to survive. I'm curious to see if our new manager will adapt his tactics on a game to game situation, or whether he's a one-trick-pony and all he can do is attack, I suspect he has somewhat more skill than the previous manager's pre-disposition to a single style - watching us is interesting again!

[Holloway]

Agree about Ritchie, he`s become a liability in his defensive duties, lack of awareness, poor positioning and rash mistimed tackles. What`s Jetro up to these days ?

[Guest HTT II]

We looked fitter, sharper and played with more purpose going forward with some decent football played at times, Shelvey and Joelinton were very good I thought and ASM looked more freed up and scored a very well taken goal. We still look sloppy all over the park though, especially in defence and transitional play where it was too easy for Brentford at times just to play and run through us. Howe has a massive job keeping this side up he really does. Willock needs to up his game massively, he quickly disappears.