AC Milan 0-0 Newcastle United (19/09/23)

[Coffee_Johnny]

5 minutes ago, Mahoneys Tache said:

That’ll be because you are not my dad. 

Well… to be fair all those steamy evenings in Two Ball (six ball?) Lonnen Social Club’s sex dungeon probably blurred into one through the mists of time, Super Goalie. 

[Mahoneys Tache]

2 minutes ago, Coffee_Johnny said:

Well… to be fair all those steamy evenings in Two Ball (six ball?) Lonnen Social Club’s sex dungeon probably blurred into one through the mists of time, Super Goalie. 

The tache is handy to hang on to. 

[SteV]

FSE Survey for those that were out there:

 

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/M6NDCHG?fbclid=PAAaawaA5QtnYQ1RuSvwN9H0d-9eoHqKskhmMTOTVwkdUhSa_oqY6dzZJhQlY_aem_AQuJbOc5FICRzG6oJRQJySDtTBAMX95vo3ozJZlPez6JCFkdGucaIooxN7G6qsmlso4

[Chicken Dancer]

What a fantastic few nights that was. By far the best experience as an NUFC, despite the metro crap after the game (it didn't actually bother me that much as had some drinks to walk with).

 

Class seeing some old faces and lads I hadn't seen for years. Was mixing with the locals loads, eating fine food and drinking lots of shite beer. Belter trip and makes all those crap days worthwhile.

 

Special shoutout to the Curva Sud. Some racket they made.

[Pata]

1 hour ago, TBG said:

Supporting them is a different matter, but we now have a ownership that matches the ambition of the fans, and a manager who given the time has what it takes to get there, yet for some fans 14 years of rubbish was acceptable but not performing in 5 tough games isn't. 

 

Are we really not allowed to say we played poorly anymore? Ashley years happened but I don't see how that 14 years is relevant to the commentary on the performances of the current team. The bar has been raised and will go even higher in future. 

 

And just to be clear, I thought the performance was alright against Man City and Liverpool was just an unlucky freak result. Brighton and Milan away are tough games but it doesn't change the fact that we were really poor in both despite the lucky point at Milan. Important 3 points against Brentford but we really struggled to create much in that game too. And to be even more clear I'm 100% behind Howe and right now hope he's here until he retires due to old age. But we were really poor against Milan.

 

 

Edited September 21, 2023 by Pata

[GEFAFWISP]

12 minutes ago, Pata said:

 

Are we really not allowed to say we played poorly anymore? Ashley years happened but I don't see how that 14 years is relevant to the commentary on the performances of the current team. The bar has been raised and will go even higher in future. 

 

And just to be clear, I thought the performance was alright against Man City and Liverpool was just an unlucky freak result. Brighton and Milan away are tough games but it doesn't change the fact that we were really poor in both despite the lucky point at Milan. Important 3 points against Brentford but we really struggled to create much in that game too. And to be even more clear I'm 100% behind Howe and right now hope he's here until he retires due to old age. But we were really poor against Milan.

 

 

 

I can't speak for TBG but I would imagine the sentiment isn't directed at posters like you Pata but the relentless repeaters who spread themselves across every thread with the same tired comments ad nasuem.

[Nobody]

23 minutes ago, Pata said:

But we were really poor against Milan.

That's very harsh. It wasn't as good as we are used to under Howe, but we weren't really poor at all. Plenty of players had a really good game, we just played against a better team away. 

[Shadow Puppets]

20 minutes ago, Pata said:

 

Are we really not allowed to say we played poorly anymore? Ashley years happened but I don't see how that 14 years is relevant to the commentary on the performances of the current team. The bar has been raised and will go even higher in future. 

 

And just to be clear, I thought the performance was alright against Man City and Liverpool was just an unlucky freak result. Brighton and Milan away are tough games but it doesn't change the fact that we were really poor in both despite the lucky point at Milan. Important 3 points against Brentford but we really struggled to create much in that game too. And to be even more clear I'm 100% behind Howe and right now hope he's here until he retires due to old age. But we were really poor against Milan.

 

 

 

Of course people are allowed to say we played poorly. It's the doomsday... "worrying", "Sunday's a must win else there'll be hell on", "Tonali and Bruno will never work", "Tonali was lazy" style posts that do my nut in.

 

I think so many people on this forum / Twitter forget that there's another team playing sometimes. People expecting us to go to the San Siro and impose our game effectively, not taking into account that Milan are very good (like it or not, much better than us) with tonnes of experience of these types of games, the San Siro is a fucking monstrous atmosphere, the heat etc. These are all factors in why we played the way we did in those 25 minutes in the first half.

 

Other than that, once we got a foothold in the game, we defended brilliantly and everyone put in a shift. The second half I thought was an excellent battling performance in a very difficult place to play football. Not many people go to the San Siro and get anything.

[christ]

It’s whinging without perspective or context. No one is saying that we turned it a stellar performance on Tuesday but it was our first CL game in twenty years, away from home, and against last year’s semifinalists. Those are pretty important qualifiers. Personally I wasn’t expecting Tuesday to be representative of anything. I didn’t have any expectation about what might occur because it was a complete voyage into the unknown. 
 

I said it last season and nothing so far has dissuaded me - the past year and a half are the best it’ll get, not in terms of actual success but the feeling around the club. Expectations have shifted, our ‘level’ has changed. People are no longer going to be satisfied with a perfunctory 1-0 win over a team like Brentford. I’m not saying whether that’s right or wrong, but it is going to lead to some incredibly fucking tedious arguments on here. The price of success.

[Dandy Man]

I'm generally of the sunshine and rainbows/glass half full mentality - I don't really "expect" us to achieve anything and I'm happy to enjoy the ride come what may but something has looked amiss (to me) in our recent performances, I'm not reading anything into as there's a whole shedload of extenuating circumstances but a lot of the things that made us such a hard team to beat last season have not really been there this season (yet), no point obsessing about it but no point pretending it is not the case either

[Smal]

12 minutes ago, Nobody said:

That's very harsh. It wasn't as good as we are used to under Howe, but we weren't really poor at all. Plenty of players had a really good game, we just played against a better team away. 

 

I don't think it's harsh tbh. We created absolutely nothing other than the Longstaff effort at the end and we conceded almost 3xG which is a lot. I don't think Milan are that much better than us man for man on paper. They're not Man City, Arsenal, Bayern tier, are they. 

 

There were some good individual performances but as a team we were really poor and disjointed. I don't think that's an unfair assessment. We all know how well we can play. We saw it 80%+ of the time last season. That was nowhere near.

 

It's forgivable given the context of the game of course, and I don't really care that we were bad because I got to see Jacob Murphy, Sean Longstaff and Dan Burn playing for Newcastle in the CL at the San Siro . In the future we'll have a bunch of mercenaries and it won't mean anywhere near as much as it did to those guys.  

[Pata]

19 minutes ago, Shadow Puppets said:

People expecting us to go to the San Siro and impose our game effectively, not taking into account that Milan are very good (like it or not, much better than us) with tonnes of experience of these types of games, the San Siro is a fucking monstrous atmosphere, the heat etc. These are all factors in why we played the way we did in those 25 minutes in the first half.

 

The experience Milan have of these games is a fair point but the odds pre-match were pretty much even and we had shorter odds than them to go through from this group which implies the money in the world thinks we are better than them. Hope we are not as nervous in the following group stage matches when the players have made their CL debut now.

 

21 minutes ago, christ said:

People are no longer going to be satisfied with a perfunctory 1-0 win over a team like Brentford. I’m not saying whether that’s right or wrong, but it is going to lead to some incredibly fucking tedious arguments on here. The price of success.

 

I just like to look beyond the result and at the actual performance. 3 points against Brentford and an away point at Milan are great results in a vacuum but if we continue to perform like in those matches it will get harder and harder to replicate those results. 

[Pata]

12 minutes ago, Smal said:

 

I don't think it's harsh tbh. We created absolutely nothing other than the Longstaff effort at the end and we conceded almost 3xG which is a lot. I don't think Milan are that much better than us man for man on paper. They're not Man City, Arsenal, Bayern tier, are they. 

 

There were some good individual performances but as a team we were really poor and disjointed. I don't think that's an unfair assessment. We all know how well we can play. We saw it 80%+ of the time last season. That was nowhere near.

 

It's forgivable given the context of the game of course, and I don't really care that we were bad because I got to see Jacob Murphy, Sean Longstaff and Dan Burn playing for Newcastle in the CL at the San Siro . In the future we'll have a bunch of mercenaries and it won't mean anywhere near as much as it did to those guys.  

 

These are exactly my thoughts, great post!

[Sean]

17 minutes ago, Dandy Man said:

I'm generally of the sunshine and rainbows/glass half full mentality - I don't really "expect" us to achieve anything and I'm happy to enjoy the ride come what may but something has looked amiss (to me) in our recent performances, I'm not reading anything into as there's a whole shedload of extenuating circumstances but a lot of the things that made us such a hard team to beat last season have not really been there this season (yet), no point obsessing about it but no point pretending it is not the case either

This is the wrong place for the voice of reason I feel 

[TBG]

1 hour ago, Pata said:

 

Are we really not allowed to say we played poorly anymore?

 

 

Not at all.

 

I agree that, Villa aside, we've been pretty poor as a whole and certainly nowhere near last season, but some of the hyperbole following those games has been nothing but a joke.

 

Folk were happy to shout from the roof how difficult of a start we had/have. How difficult of a Champs League group we have. 

 

Folk will spend the entire week building up the opposition and how difficult of game it will be, only to complain when what they've built up to happen, happens. 

 

There seems to be no in-between for some people when it comes to the team and players.

 

A win and we're winning the league and Murphy is lifting the Ballon d'Or

 

Get beat and we're shit and Murphy should be the first out the door. 

 

 

Edited September 21, 2023 by TBG

[KaKa]

35 minutes ago, christ said:

 

People are no longer going to be satisfied with a perfunctory 1-0 win over a team like Brentford.

 

Someone legit said in the match thread that losing to Brentford at home would be 'unacceptable'.

 

Not Luton mind you, Brentford.

 

The Brentford that beat Man City both home and away last season.

[Pata]

Just now, AyeDubbleYoo said:

'Really poor' is massively over the top like, as much as everyone is entitled to whatever adjectives they want. It also totally ignores the context. 

 

Disagree and I'm not really sure what context I'm missing here.

 

We conceded almost 3 xG and had one shot on target in the 94th minute in a match that was supposed to be a coin-flip beforehand. Milan are a good team but they wouldn't be CL regulars if they played in PL and we just bought their talisman midfielder in the summer. They missed the CL spots in a weakish Serie A for seven seasons in a row between 13/14 and 19/20. They have been improving since but believe many think they are stronger than they really are due to their fabled history.

[christ]

9 minutes ago, Pata said:

 

 

I just like to look beyond the result and at the actual performance. 3 points against Brentford and an away point at Milan are great results in a vacuum but if we continue to perform like in those matches it will get harder and harder to replicate those results. 

Who says we’re going to continue to perform like that though? We know the level this team is capable of playing at. Seems weird to me to get wound up about a hypothetical situation where we might continue to play shit.

[Sean]

Watching the game back reaffirms what I saw the other night.

 

First 10/15 minutes we were really good, excellent even. Gordon/Tonali testing their full backs, we looked composed in possession, Schar spraying cross field balls to the wing.

 

Then Dan Burn inexplicably leaves a pass, leaving Botman having to make a last ditch take or else they are in. Our heads then went for the next 10 minutes or so and they should have scored. We never really recovered our confidence and composure on the ball after that moment.

 

So needlessly self inflicted it is frustrating as hell.

 

Can't wait to see Lewis Hall get some proper gametime.

 

 

Edited September 21, 2023 by Sean

[Pancrate1892]

5 minutes ago, TBG said:

 

Not at all.

 

I agree that, Villa aside, we've been pretty poor as a whole and certainly nowhere near last season, but some of the hyperbole following those games has been nothing but a joke.

 

Folk were happy to shout from the roof how difficult of a start we had/have. How difficult of a Champs League group we have. 

 

Folk will spend the entire week building up the opposition and how difficult of game it will be, only to complain when what they've built up to happen, happens. 

 

There seems to be no in-between for some people when it comes to the team and players.

 

A win and we're winning the league and Murphy is lifting the Ballon d'Or

 

Get beat and we're shit and Murphy should be the first out the door. 

 

 

 

I actually think Murphy did better than Gordon v Milan. He's more direct and will at least have a pop at goal

[Abacus]

12 minutes ago, Pata said:

 

The experience Milan have of these games is a fair point but the odds pre-match were pretty much even and we had shorter odds than them to go through from this group which implies the money in the world thinks we are better than them. Hope we are not as nervous in the following group stage matches when the players have made their CL debut now.

 

A fair point, though obviously the odds aren't always the best guide. I still expect it to be a different game at SJP, and therefore going only by the result, I'd still say we have a slight advantage.

 

We may have lost that on another day, but what I liked was the defensive battling determination in the second half - growing into that game will be a lesson learnt and is a real positive to take.

 

But I'm not denying our attacking side hasn't quite clicked yet. We seem to have a number of players I can't quite see where their natural role is (Tonali, Gordon, Isak, Anderson) - but that worked out pretty well for Joelinton (when fit) in the past.

 

That's a bit of a puzzle for Howe to figure out, though I can't help think that a lot of the pieces are there and when it does we'll be a real danger to most teams.

[Pata]

4 minutes ago, christ said:

Who says we’re going to continue to perform like that though? We know the level this team is capable of playing at. Seems weird to me to get wound up about a hypothetical situation where we might continue to play shit.

 

I really don't follow your logic here to be perfectly honest. Our trend isn't exactly good right now and that worries me a bit. If you play poorly for a few games in a row it's more likely that we keep playing poorly in the future too. Same thing works when we are playing well.

[The College Dropout]

3 minutes ago, Pata said:

 

Disagree and I'm not really sure what context I'm missing here.

 

We conceded almost 3 xG and had one shot on target in the 94th minute in a match that was supposed to be a coin-flip beforehand. Milan are a good team but they wouldn't be CL regulars if they played in PL and we just bought their talisman midfielder in the summer. They missed the CL spots in a weakish Serie A for seven seasons in a row between 13/14 and 19/20. They have been improving since but believe many think they are stronger than they really are due to their fabled history.

Only made CL because Juve got points docked.

 

They are a good CL-quality team, no doubt. But we should have given them a better game, and they will be kicking themselves that they didn't win.

 

18 minutes ago, Pata said:

 

The experience Milan have of these games is a fair point but the odds pre-match were pretty much even and we had shorter odds than them to go through from this group which implies the money in the world thinks we are better than them. Hope we are not as nervous in the following group stage matches when the players have made their CL debut now.

 

 

I just like to look beyond the result and at the actual performance. 3 points against Brentford and an away point at Milan are great results in a vacuum but if we continue to perform like in those matches it will get harder and harder to replicate those results. 

Aye and you have to look at the pattern of performances. Look at the Villa game last season. Most people saw that even though that game exposed some structural issues. We played well before that fixture to get enough points to finish 4th. That performance is a one-off. As a team, we've not performed well since GW1. Not the results but the actual performances. 

 

 

I'm hoping these two positive results will create confidence that will turn into good performances.

[The College Dropout]

Think Milan are suited to play on the counter. They wanted us to come on to them. 

[Gallowgate Toon]

6 minutes ago, Sean said:

Watching the game back reaffirms what I saw the other night.

 

First 10/15 minutes we were really good, excellent even. Gordon/Tonali testing their full backs, we looked composed in possession, Schar spraying cross field balls to the wing.

 

Then Dan Burn inexplicably leaves a pass, leaving Botman having to make a last ditch take or else they are in. Our heads then went for the next 10 minutes or so and they should have scored. We never really recovered our confidence and composure on the ball after that moment.

 

So needlessly self inflicted it is frustrating as hell.

 

Can't wait to see Lewis Hall get some proper gametime.

 

 

 

Quite similar to Brighton in a way. Really sharp start, missed some opportunities and then heads seem to drop a bit once they get their foot on it and controlled the tempo. We do seem to have abandoned the switch in a couple of games after it's worked a few times which is a bit strange as Gordon looks a proper handful when he's 1v1.

 

Although, I'd add that our performance at Brighton this year was honestly quite a bit better than last season. Not good and it felt horrific at the time post-Liverpool but we largely kept them to shots from distance and had 3 good chances ourselves not including the consolation goal. Last season, we were absolutely schooled by them on all fronts - relentless attacks, barely had a shot, less possession etc.