Newcastle United 0-2 Arsenal (07/05/2023)

[nufcnick]

3 minutes ago, Alberto2005 said:

If Longstaff is out for the season we've got no midfielders to allow him to play wide left.

I though the scans showed it was just heavy bruising and nothing was broken 

[SUPERTOON]

Just now, nufcnick said:

I though the scans showed it was just heavy bruising and nothing was broken 

Going to see a specialist about it according to Howe 

[STM]

1 minute ago, Yorkie said:

 

Sorry, I'm not trying to be deliberately obtuse here, but handballs are supposed to meet the clear an obvious test. How can the requirement of twenty replays and several minutes of deliberation constitute a clear and obvious error having happened?

 

It might've been the right call today and obviously I'm annoyed cos I'm a Newcastle fan and we've been on the unprofitable end of the system; but my gripe is primarily with what I believe to be an utter clusterfuck and an imposition on the game; not so much this one incident. (See me whinging about a decision that went our way in a previous game for proof of this claim ).

 

You are right in that they should have realised that it hit his thigh within a couple of replays.

[Alberto2005]

Just now, nufcnick said:

I though the scans showed it was just heavy bruising and nothing was broken 

They're not so sure now having another scan Tuesday.

[Dr.Spaceman]

https://youtu.be/ZpUYjpKg9KY

[MrRaspberryJam]

Missed Longstaff. 

[Pata]

Just now, STM said:

 

You are right in that they should have realised that it hit his thigh within a couple of replays.

 

@Yorkie This is my opinion too and I don't mind if they take their time to get it right if the time just get added on properly.

[Shak]

3 minutes ago, duo said:

 let Arsenal waste time from the get go.  They just did what they wanted.  And don't get me started on the Pen.

 

I'm not sure what a ref is supposed to do about players going down and faking injury to slow games down tbh. Would love to see some legislation brought in to stop it but until it is they don't have the option to not stop play and allow treatment, even when they know a player is pretending.

[Yorkie]

2 minutes ago, Pata said:

4 minutes ago, STM said:

 

You are right in that they should have realised that it hit his thigh within a couple of replays.

 

@Yorkie This is my opinion too and I don't mind if they take their time to get it right if the time just get added on properly

 

 fair enough. VAR shagger.

 

Forgot the safety

[OCK]

One of those games where the 'fine margins' fucked off

[duo]

Just now, Shak said:

 

I'm not sure what a ref is supposed to do about players going down and faking injury to slow games down tbh. Would love to see some legislation brought in to stop it but until it is they don't have the option to not stop play and allow treatment, even when they know a player is pretending.

Book the time wasting.  Ramsdale was doing from the 1st minute. 

[Matt1892]

5 minutes ago, Alberto2005 said:

If Longstaff is out for the season we've got no midfielders to allow him to play wide left.

I would be tempted to play Anderson in the middle, he had a decent cameo today and his link up play will be needed to break Leeds down.

 

This midfield trio doesn’t work, I can’t put my finger on why but it was the same in the first half against Southampton. 

[duo]

VAR turned the game - took wayyyyy too long to spot something that was supposed to be used to clear and obvious error.  Tempo was lost after that and it opened the door to Arsenal to sneak a goal.  Referring in this league is shocking. 

[Sempiternal]

5 minutes ago, Matt1892 said:

I would be tempted to play Anderson in the middle, he had a decent cameo today and his link up play will be needed to break Leeds down.

 

This midfield trio doesn’t work, I can’t put my finger on why but it was the same in the first half against Southampton. 

He was atrocious there against sheff wed.

[Pata]

3 minutes ago, duo said:

Book the time wasting.  Ramsdale was doing from the 1st minute. 

 

You can't really tell which is a legit injury and which is not. I still haven't seen a single good counter point why having a 60 minute clock that stops when the ball isn't in play wouldn't be a good idea. You would still occasionally get fake injuries to stop momentum but it wouldn't be nowhere near as bad as it's right now. Xhaka's 'injury' on added time took over three minutes and ref added 90 seconds, it's absolute bullshit right now and way too effective.

[TK-421]

1 minute ago, Matt1892 said:

I would be tempted to play Anderson in the middle, he had a decent cameo today and his link up play will be needed to break Leeds down.

 

This midfield trio doesn’t work, I can’t put my finger on why but it was the same in the first half against Southampton. 

I think the bigger issue is Longstaff, as he sits in and allows Bruno to get forward a bit more. I dont think Bruno really enjoys being the holding midfielder (especially with his dodgy ankle too), and without Longstaff, we don't have anyone else to really sit in alongside and do what he does.

Anderson isn't that type of player, so Bruno will end up sat in again. Its ironic, but Shelvey would probably be exactly what we need for these games with Longstaff out.

And people will say we should have bought a DM in january, but up to then, Bruno and Longstaff hadn't missed a game, and looked unlikely to, so they probably thought it money to be spent elsewhere, as they did (Gordon). Then we let Shelvey go, Bruno got sent off (leading up to the LCF), and now Longstaff is out for an unknown period.

Its just the way the cookie has crumbled, unfortunately.

[Super Duper Branko Strupar]

Think we played both well and poorly, myself. Fair play to Arteta for putting Jorginho in, he was immense. With his understanding, Xhaka's shithousery and Odegaard's brilliance, they controlled the centre of the pitch. Balanced, structured and quality on the ball,while we were too often too frantic. I imagine the big chance totals were quite even, haven't seen the stats though. I thought throughout that their chances were more likely to get a goal than ours. The back end of that first half was terrifying.

 

Think we needed to be smart today, over being all guns blazing. Bruno was further forward than Joe far too often today and I think we suffered for that. As much of a great ball winner Joe is, I dont think he has the timing to be doing it front on with people coming towards him. Would have loved to have seen Bruno as the quarterback, would have given us a lot more balance and security. I can see why we didnt though, with the intention to be attacking from the off being at home. 

Don't want to diss Burn, but we've got to understand that if he loses it higher up, that space in behind and Saka etc is going to kill us. Think Burn, Botman and Schar were not good today, not awful but far off the mark of where we need to be against those players. 

 

Agree that starting Wilson and Isak is not the best idea. Yeah it'll work when we're on top and against poorer performing sides, but we are sacrificing other qualities when they play the positions they played today and I feel for games like today it'd have been better to have the option to change to that later on. Dont feel we have much of a change in attitude when we move from it rather than to it, if that makes sense.

 

Bruno was disappointing, its like he was playing as a 10 a lot of the time. And also trying to be our defensive ball winner in midfield, and he ended up being poor at both. He's desperate the be involved in goal creation and scoring, you can just sense it in him.  

[Minhosa]

That fucking keeper of theirs is a proper shithouse. Pickford levels of annoying.

[Shadow Puppets]

I thought we played very well in spells today, but came up against a very very good side. They took their chances, we didn’t. Hit the post twice, had a penalty ruled out, and missed two glorious other chances. Nothing about the performance was particularly worrying to me, other than Bruno’s performance… I thought he was a mile off the pace. Everything else can be largely put down to Arsenal being very very good and us not finishing our chances when we got them.

[Teslact]

35 minutes ago, Shak said:

 

I'm not sure what a ref is supposed to do about players going down and faking injury to slow games down tbh. Would love to see some legislation brought in to stop it but until it is they don't have the option to not stop play and allow treatment, even when they know a player is pretending.

 

The ref could always force the physio to come on and therefore the player has to go off? Every single time they would be poleaxed for half a minute and then wave him off. As I said in the other thread, we need to add that to the repertoire if we're going to continue.

[McDog]

 

 

Well, just finished watching the recording. Mags came out flying and could have scored three (counting the disallowed pen). I thought Newcastle's marking was poor at times and were simply beaten by a better team. Good to see Maxi back, I like Isak and Wilson starting.

 

 

[Gallowgate Toon]

Didn't think we deserved to lose but we definitely didn't deserve to win and they edged it on balance. The post that says we played well and poorly in different phases is bang on.

 

Thought we made a few really key errors.

 

1. Getting too sucked into gamesmanship and committing niggly fouls which continued to slow the game down.

2. Midfield gaps - felt like we didn't learn from Liverpool and Villa at all. All were poor but the off the ball tracking was abysmal. We left acres at a few points from not very complicated movements and then our high line and slow defence were exposed.

3. Isolating Isak. He was class when on the ball but we were so slow in progressing play at times. Their closing off of passing lanes was immense and we were very reluctant to go direct, weirdly.

4. Dawdling at the back. Generally, we seemed to make decisions today at snail's pace all over the park, maybe as they were so quick to press on mistakes and we started panicking. They triggered press well and attacked quickly after turnovers.

 

 

[Displayname]

44 minutes ago, Yorkie said:

 

Sorry, I'm not trying to be deliberately obtuse here, but handballs are supposed to meet the clear an obvious test. How can the requirement of twenty replays and several minutes of deliberation constitute a clear and obvious error having happened?

 

It might've been the right call today and obviously I'm annoyed cos I'm a Newcastle fan and we've been on the unprofitable end of something; but my gripe is primarily with what I believe to be an utter clusterfuck of a system being an unwarranted imposition on the game; not so much this one incident. (See me whinging about a decision that went our way in a previous game for proof of this claim ).

For me clear and obvious means that its not up for interpretation, not that its difficult to see on the first replay.

[TRon]

Felt to me like we were taking a few too many touches today, which allowed them to steal the ball too much. A bit hesitant playing the ball out from the back as well, but Howe was probably right, it was fine margins.

[joeyt]

I thought Jesus was unbelievable with his pressing from the front.