Newcastle United 0 - 4 Manchester City (19/12/2021)

[Wolfcastle]

1 minute ago, Shearergol said:

Weird how I go into a game expecting a mauling, get exactly that and still come away thoroughly depressed about it all. I know our season won’t be based on this match but it’s so disheartening constantly seeing how terrible we are.

 

Its the referee and having to witness our players that's the downer. If I just seen the score it'd be boringly predictable. *but lets keep it like this eh PL instead of a competitive game.

[Shearergol]

Just now, St1pe said:

I know the December fixtures were ominous but we’ve really shipped a lot of goals without being all that competitive in the fixtures. 
 

I weirdly feel like we’ve improved. I don’t think it will be enough though. 

We have improved, but our two best players look a lot worse. We rely on Wilson and ASM to get us out of danger but neither look capable at the moment.

[andyman]

Glad to see the fans singing "Eddie Howe's black and white army" at full-time. Onwards and upwards.

I hope Eddie goes all in to slate the referees and the VAR staff.

 

Wishing you all a good rest of this Sunday!

[The Bonk]

Just now, ManDoon said:

It does yeah, I think we would have been in a worse position under Bruce. He had an easy run at the start of the season and totally blew it 

 

He clearly didn't give a fuck and it showed with the effort on the pitch. Paying for it now when we're up against talented teams who have better players, systems and fitness. 

I don't envy Howe one bit right now. 

[Chrisjraby]

That defence doesn't deserve the support shown by the fans, fucking pathetic.

Player two wingers at full back is never going to work, but fucking hell, with our centre backs as cover, what chance do they have.

[Kanj]

@ManDoon You can play ugly when your defenders don’t make mistakes like ours do each game. It’s not even coaching them anymore - it’s a pure quality issue. Age, injuries and being shite. 

If every single goal we conceded wasn’t a comedic school boy error id give these a benefit of the doubt. 
 

The squad is Shit. Proving each week there’s maybe 2-3 players max who stay here longer than 3 windows. 

[Awaymag]

Last 2 goal, Ritchie at fault, he is awful. Sell them all

 

[TRon]

1 minute ago, Alan Pardew said:

You would think most of these players would give it their absolute all given the current changes happening at the club. Instead we are seeing absolute tepid performances all across the board. To these players I say: Get the fuck out. 

These games under Eddie so far have been just as infuriating as the last ones under Bruce. Not Howe's fault that these lot can't be arsed to put in a performance.

 

They know the gravy train is over, most of them won't see another season here. That's why they aren't putting in 100% IMO. 

[Klaus]

1 minute ago, ManDoon said:

Possibly not, but sometimes you have to do what rafa did and play ugly. 

 

That's the issue with appointing Howe at this time. He perhaps wasn't the right manager at the time for this squad. We needed somebody who could set up a strong defence and play ugly in the short term to scrape results. 

[Big Geordie]

Another (expected) pasting, coupled with some more shambolic defending.  72 goals conceded this calendar year (A PL record)

 

A real losers mentality has been allowed to take root and fester at this club  - the playing side needs gutting and starting again, regardless of whether we stay up or not. Lascelles and Clark - not even championship standard.

[KaKa]

6 minutes ago, ManDoon said:

Possibly not, but sometimes you have to do what rafa did and play ugly. 

 

We were trying to do that at the start of the season and were losing games anyway. We're just going to have to see how this all plays out now. 

 

I think it's been more important trying to change the way the team play and go out on the pitch and put it into practice against even the better sides, so that we are better prepared to take on and beat more of the lesser teams when we face them.

 

It's also really brought to light how much of a revamp is needed with the back line especially and so that will be much better addressed in January too.

 

Time will tell if the current approach ultimately pays off or not. My gut feeling is that it will in the end.

 

 

Edited December 19, 2021 by KaKa

[Tiresias]

Howe is in a bit of an impossible position but we just make mistakes so many mistakes. We are more proactive in attack but its all work in progress and we don't have time. Well we do, we have a season in the championship to rebuild. 

[sh74]

The quicker the transfer window opens the better.

[sh74]

2 minutes ago, Klaus said:

 

That's the issue with appointing Howe at this time. He perhaps wasn't the right manager at the time for this squad. We needed somebody who could set up a strong defence and play ugly in the short term to scrape results. 

Such as?

[Tiresias]

We werent trying to win ugly under bruce that was front foot football! lolol. Solidifying the defence had to be the number 1 priority and Howe hasn't managed it. I have sympathy and it is Man City. It's just the silly mistakes that get me. 

[Tyne81]

Why the fuck is Jermaine Defoe wearing a girdle?

[The Bonk]

4 minutes ago, ManDoon said:

I get your point but I disagree, I think you can play horrific football and get some points. It’s not nice to watch but it can work. 

 

Doesn't really improve us though, does it? We need the right players to fit into Howe's system, these lot are clearly past their sell date.

We showed glimpses of decent play in this match, have to think he's evaluating who is up for it and who needs to go in order to improve the club beyond January as well as long term.

[Tiresias]

I'm not sure there were really any credible alternatives. The mistake was Bruce should have been sacked immediately and Howe brought in as quickly as possible. I think he's a reasonable choice in an impossible position, but I am worried about what he is doing to address our defense.

[Gallowgate Toon]

Think the 4-3-3/4-5-1 worked nicely in spells, and it was good to see some pressing & attacking play with intent.

 

Ultimately, too many aren't good enough.

[TRon]

1 minute ago, Tiresias said:

I'm not sure there were really any credible alternatives. The mistake was Bruce should have been sacked immediately and Howe brought in as quickly as possible. I think he's a reasonable choice in an impossible position, but I am worried about what he is doing to address our defense.

 

He can't do anything to address it until January. 

[junkhead]

What a bunch of complete losers..

 

Wasn't expecting anything else from today but this squad should be cleared in the championship. These fuckers are completely done

[Awaymag]

Solidify the defence.  How exactly, are two left backs are injured.  Our centre backs have no pace and our right backs awful as well.  So how can you solidify that.  Oh protect them with a midfield.  Our centre midfield is so poor, our best player wont track back, our only striker is injury prone and our right wingers are well, poor.  Solidify the defense, how?????  By replacing all in Jan, if we can

[robbo_11]

When you watch the full match there isn't really anything positive, we've not played well and Man City hardly got out of first gear. When they picked up the pace we were done for and resulted in that final goal. You don't expect to win these games, but the performance is hardly inspiring as we've got too many passengers. Realistically we're hardly missing any players through injury that you would class as a game changer - I'm not blaming Howe as it is still early days, but this month has been painful.

[The Bonk]

4 minutes ago, Big Geordie said:

Another (expected) pasting, coupled with some more shambolic defending.  72 goals conceded this calendar year (A PL record)

 

A real losers mentality has been allowed to take root and fester at this club  - the playing side needs gutting and starting again, regardless of whether we stay up or not. Lascelles and Clark - not even championship standard.

 

Yup, when you have a previous owner who couldn't be bothered, that makes its way to the coaching staff and onto the pitch. We were unbelievably lucky the last 2 seasons under Bruce to the point that it's infected any sort of progress with a manager who knows what he's doing. 

 

 

[The Bonk]

1 minute ago, ManDoon said:

I just think you sometimes have to abandon principles. You can set up and play ugly but it’s still good tactically if you get what I mean. 

 

I get ya. I suppose Howe is stubborn in his desire to play in a certain style/structure. Which I think is probably best for our overall improvement, sad thing is playing actual football is beyond our current squad.