Newcastle United 0-0 Leeds United (31/12/2022)

[Gawalls]

Just now, Big Geordie said:

Gonna have to get used to the 'panic' from some after a result hasn't gone our way. As this club progresses, we will attract more glory-boys to go with the bedwetters. Just got to ignore them!

You don’t support Newcastle for the glory

[Dr Jinx]

I don’t think our game plan was to go end to end with a fit Leeds side who press effectively. We got suckered into it from the start pretty much and although we were dominant in the second half, we were naive.

 

We can blame the ref all we want for the stoppage time but of the 4 minutes added, 1 was wasted by Murphy with some spat and then the other 3 because of Wilson shoving their keeper. Dumb.

 

We shouldn’t need the stoppage time though and in this game we could easily have been up if we took chances.

 

Massively frustrating.

[nortoon]

Really pissed off at the ref after this. Adams and Gnonto should have had yellows quite early on and would have been unable to just kick the shit out of Bruno/Trippier for 90 minutes.

 

Have to give the Leeds manager credit. If we had played like this away to a better team I'd be delighted. Think he guessed correctly that we would bring off ASM from the bench, and waited till he came on to sub a fresh right back  on, I was foaming at the mouth to have ASM against Ayling.

 

I love our midfielders but today highlighted that in front of goal against worse opponents we need more quality from the 2 playing in front of Bruno. The positions Longstaff get the ball in during a game really needs to bring some end-product. Especially in good positions at the edge of the box i don't feel confident any of them will do much. If Wood starts we look toothless.

[Holloway]

Thought we were slightly off today but still produced some lovely stuff at times, but our finishing was fucking shite,really. As teams begin to nullify our most potent areas of threat, It's Eddies job to maximise intent on other weaknesses. This is where a higher quality of player is needed,there's areas where some regular starters won't be able to take us any further

[Pata]

3 minutes ago, Lush Vlad said:

I don’t remember thinking we should have scored 3-4 at least in those games. This one felt like we had so many decent openings, along with clear cut chances and we wasted them all. 

 

Think our xG against Palace was ~3 without the perfectly good disallowed goal, we absolutely battered them. Bournemouth was more iffy.

[Infatuation Junkie]

3 minutes ago, Skeletor said:

 

I mean I thought we played really well, but I don't understand your enthusiasm about the result. The result is not a good thing at all.

We can’t go unbeaten forever.

I was pleased with the result due to how well we played and the anger and frustration at the end. Shows we have fire now. 
Man City battered Everton as we did Leeds. Walked away with a point as well. 
 

You got to be happy with that mate, surely.

[TheBrownBottle]

Not sure where the ‘Leeds game plan worked’ craic is coming from - we must have had seven or eight nailed-on goal scoring opportunities.  On another day that finished 5- or 6-0.  Leeds were absolutely cack, especially second half.  They were really struggling to contain us and couldn’t get out of their own half - that wasn’t a superb defensive performance, we were crafting chances with most attacks.  Dead balls were a bit off today though. 

 

No-one should be worried about the league table at this point either - too much is being made of two points dropped vs Leeds.  This side has every chance of putting in a real performance at Arsenal - and if we lose, we lose.  

[Dokko]

2 minutes ago, Andy said:

My biggest criticism of us today btw, isn't the result or the wasteful finishing - those things happen - but the loss of discipline towards the end, which was pretty disappointing and naive. We played right into their hands and should've known better given that we've used similar tactics to waste time this season. 

 

Suspect that's where Eddie will go with it as well as he looked pissed off with it all. 

[Mahoneys Tache]

When was the last time we were on two points per game? 

[Skeletor]

Just now, Infatuation Junkie said:

We can’t go unbeaten forever.

I was pleased with the result due to how well we played and the anger and frustration at the end. Shows we have fire now. 
Man City battered Everton as we did Leeds. Walked away with a point as well. 
 

You got to be happy with that mate, surely.

 

The performance yes. The result, absolutely not. That level of dominance combined with the chances we created should be a multi-goal win.

[Guest reefatoon]

I enjoyed that second half. Just a shame we Harry Kane’d every chance we got. Can’t moan on at teams shithousing when we celebrate us doing it. If we can bring in a couple of players in January that would push people like Wood, Longstaff and Murphy down the pecking order, then we will be laughing. 

[joeyt]

Marsch was insufferable on the touchline 

[Flip]

would’ve taken four points from the last two before the games.

[TK-421]

Whey, disappointed with a point, and feels worse with Man City dropping 2 pts too. But also says a lot about how far we've come in a little over a year.

 

But, we end 2022 with one defeat in all games all season, and we kept another clean sheet.

 

Let's get back to it on Tuesday and start 2023 in the right way, see who we bring in this month, and lets just see where we can finish this season.

[Conjo]

8 minutes ago, Hanshithispantz said:

So aye, about James Maddison…

 

Great addition to the physio room together with Isak, Wilson and ASM.

[LiquidAK]

I think it's fair to be frustrated that we didn't win that given the way the 90 minutes went, but agree that we're still massively overachieving on our expectations at the start of the season. Still, now we HAVE started this well, it will smart a bit if we end up finishing 7th tbh.

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, Andy said:

My biggest criticism of us today btw, isn't the result or the wasteful finishing - those things happen - but the loss of discipline towards the end, which was pretty disappointing and naive. We played right into their hands and should've known better given that we've used similar tactics to waste time this season. 

 

Aye. We should know better because we use the same sort of tactics in those sort of circumstances. All part of the learning curve.

[Theregulars]

I’ve had my fill of Chris Wood for a while. Yes, it’s lovely that he can play his role in team defence but you just can’t waste those opportunities. He never looks like scoring unless it’s a penalty.

[TheBrownBottle]

Just now, LiquidAK said:

I think it's fair to be frustrated that we didn't win that given the way the 90 minutes went, but agree that we're still massively overachieving on our expectations at the start of the season. Still, now we HAVE started this well, it will smart a bit if we end up finishing 7th tbh.

Imagine 7th … and a League Cup win  

[matta]

Not at our best, but millions of miles ahead of the last decade. Its such a joy to follow NUFC now! Happy with a point on a hard evening. Onwards and upwards! Happy new year ?

 

 

Edited December 31, 2022 by matta

[ohmelads]

I basically never fancy Wood to score and if Joelinton is wide left as well, then Almiron is our only pace to break beyond the last line and if they double up on him, no one's getting in behind the defence. I think the only thing Howe is slightly guilty of is being too loyal to the XI who just won a game. Arguably that loyalty has cost him today but I say that without knowing Wilson or ASM's condition. If Wilson wasn't fit to start then fair enough. I think this game was absolutely set up for ASM though, especially in the first half. Easy to say with hindsight, but quite a few mentioned it on here. I hate to question Howe because I have absolute trust in him, but everyone gets things wrong and we say this with the benefit of hindsight. In many cases though, this was foresight too.

 

I'm not sure what happened to added time? They wasted at least as much time as we did at Anfield but we got 4 minutes today? Then almost all of that 4 mins was taken up with handbags and then the ref just blew anyway. No Klopp/Fergie time. But we already knew the whole "it events itself over a season" is bullshit.

 

End of the day, by fair means or foul, we need to "find a way to win" these games, like the teams above us always have. Man U and Liverpool were poor this weekend but got over the line.

[LiquidAK]

Just now, TheBrownBottle said:

Imagine 7th … and a League Cup win  

Snap your hand off

[The Bonk]

14 minutes ago, Tiotes Witch Doctor said:

Jesus H Christ Trippier had a shocker offensively, surely someone else can take over free kicks for the lad when he's having an off game?

 

Of the 1 or 2 free kicks that didn't nestle safely in the keepers arms they hit the first man, player of the season for me but shocker of a game offensively.

Meslier was great at coming off his line today, also made a brilliant stop on a Schar header that was going in. Tripps wasn’t poor in delivery, they were all decent to good balls into the box.
 

Who else takes them? Bruno? Nah, you want him to pick up loose balls and apply more pressure, feed through balls or have a shot himself.

[joeyt]

1 minute ago, The Bonk said:

Meslier was great at coming off his line today, also made a brilliant stop on a Schar header that was going in. Tripps wasn’t poor in delivery, they were all decent to good balls into the box.
 

Who else takes them? Bruno? Nah, you want him to pick up loose balls and apply more pressure, feed through balls or have a shot himself.

Trippier's delivery was honking

[TheBrownBottle]

Just now, Theregulars said:

I’ve had my fill of Chris Wood for a while. Yes, it’s lovely that he can play his role in team defence but you just can’t waste those opportunities. He never looks like scoring unless it’s a penalty.

I’ve tried to defend Wood, but today he really pissed me off.  What annoyed me wasn’t that he missed, but the manner in which he missed.  Those two big chances were half-arsed attempts; put himself on the end of it but without wanting to do more than that - it was a cowardly performance for a centre forward.