Newcastle United 1-2 AC Milan (13/12/23)

[Kanj]

3 minutes ago, Amir_9 said:

We were still in it until the final 45 mins of the final game of that beast of a group so I have to go with my more rational side than emotional side on the aftermath of this one.

 

Considering we jumped from beating relegation rather comfortably straight to qualifying for champions league and then literally were such thin margins from second place (without even considering the bullshit and bad luck), again, in that fucker of a group, is top drawer progress no way you look at it.

 

 

 

yep and @Minhosa said it well on the other page. 

[GideonShandy]

1 hour ago, 500bhp said:

Not seen any of the game back, only saw it in real time at the match. But fucking hell we seemed so naive second half. Imagine how it would have played out if Milan were 1-0 up at HT. They would have killed off the whole second half with petty fouls clinical yellows and full on shit housing. 

 

Its been a great adventure and a very steep learning curve for Howe and the players. 

Killing off 10 minutes with shithousery is one thing. Killing off a whole 45 minutes plus all the minutes added on because of that shithousery is another.  With only a single goal lead it just takes one screw up or stroke of bad luck to do you in.

 

If we'd tried to "kill off" the whole second half and it didn't work, we'd have been rightly criticized for negativity and not going for the second goal which would probably have been decisive.

[Karjala]

Fine margins - 2 posts and Wilsons miss at home to Dortmund, the ridiculous VAR at PSG and a draw would have done against Milan... then theres Miggy's miss and Bruno's post. Ultimately we weren't far off, but 1 win out of 6 is disappointing.

 

Felt like we went a bit gung ho and 1-1 last night, when really it was Milan who was desperate for the goal. Think we could have been more sensible and waited for them to leave gaps, instead it was the other way around.

 

Really disappointed we aren't still in europe, only positive i can take is that the fewer games will do us better in order to finish Top 7 and qualify for Europe again. What a difference 10 days has made, from the Chelsea/PSG/Manure high, to the Everton/Spuds/AC low. 

[Dyeyzzon]

Ah man. In this part of the world, I woke up to the scoreline of us 1-0 up and PSG not winning, then I was dreaming. Bath time and the news on the Dortmund opener. Then before I left, I had a quick check on my phone. Milan won, and PSG failed to win. Broke me man. I couldn't leave for around 20 minutes as I just sat and stared at nothing. Never felt anything like it, not even relegation nor the cup final.

 

It was a good run. Always have to remind myself where we were, and how lucky we are to be competing here much earlier than expected. And ultimately, a team I'm proud to support.

 

HWTL.

[Stottie]

Pope was the best shot stopper in this years' group stage. 

Nearly five goals stopped relative to the shots he faced (post-shot xG), not where the shots were taken (standard xG). A goal a game in the matches he played.

 

This suggests that a. we were riding our luck, and b. any other keeper was going to be a big dropoff from Pope.

It looked that way watching them, but Dortmund too rely on their keeper.

[WideopenMag]

Wish we'd had a crack of this with our full squad like,Pope, Botman, Tonali, Willock, Barnes and you've got to fancy us to qualify and be playing a different game all together. Guess that's part of football though, just shite that could be a while till we're back in the CL and we never got a to show it our best.

[St1pe]

Disappointed we didn’t get at least in the Europa last night. At one nil up I thought we were gonna walk away with something. 
 

With this morale crushing last few games plus injuries our season could unravel really quickly. 

[The Butcher]

1 hour ago, St1pe said:

Disappointed we didn’t get at least in the Europa last night. At one nil up I thought we were gonna walk away with something. 
 

With this morale crushing last few games plus injuries our season could unravel really quickly. 

“It’s been an unbelievable season and I think it’s been so, so tight because of the financial rewards at stake this year. I will make sure that we are well prepared for next season, and thank God we are not in the Europa League again.”

[Tsunami]

These stats that are being thrown around are never taken in the context of the match situation.

 

Milan away - a bit of a settler, 1st game back, Milan didn’t really threaten.

PSG - battered them

Dortmund - struggled in the 1st 20 mins,  Wilson missed a sitter, wood work hit twice.

Dortmund - poor performance, Big Jo missed a sitter at 1-0.

PSG - led, PSG didn’t really threaten, had loads of shots, mostly from 25 yards and not on target. Robbed.

Milan - Dubs, 2 soft goals, hit the bar at 1-1. Milan hit the post twice late on as we push on. 

 

The big moments didn’t go our way, and our big moments were earlier in games than they were for the opposition. As an aside I thought the referee was harsh again on us last night. No individual decision led directly to anything but it can have an accumulative effect.

 

The stats don’t tell the full story.

[Cronky]

If Schar had managed to get hold of that ball into the box (and he wasn't far off), then most likely we'd have gone ahead rather than Milan, and then gone through instead of PSG. Fine margins.

 

It would have been a great thrill to have reached the next stage of the CL, but in reality our squad doesn't have the depth or overall quality to cope with such a heavy load of fixtures. The Europa League is a something of a best-of-the-rest competition and does make big demands on a club, so I'm not that sorry about missing out.

[WideopenMag]

19 minutes ago, Tsunami said:

These stats that are being thrown around are never taken in the context of the match situation.

 

Milan away - a bit of a settler, 1st game back, Milan didn’t really threaten.

PSG - battered them

Dortmund - struggled in the 1st 20 mins,  Wilson missed a sitter, wood work hit twice.

Dortmund - poor performance, Big Jo missed a sitter at 1-0.

PSG - led, PSG didn’t really threaten, had loads of shots, mostly from 25 yards and not on target. Robbed.

Milan - Dubs, 2 soft goals, hit the bar at 1-1. Milan hit the post twice late on as we push on. 

 

The big moments didn’t go our way, and our big moments were earlier in games than they were for the opposition. As an aside I thought the referee was harsh again on us last night. No individual decision led directly to anything but it can have an accumulative effect.

 

The stats don’t tell the full story.

They don't but missing sitters is something we need to look at isn't it, we aren't clinical enough as a team and need to be taking these chances. That's on us really.

[Mikky]

I do think a lack of experience played its part - something we can definitely work on - Howe will learn massively, it’s been a great experience for him 

 

Not having to call upon Botman - Willock - Tonali - Murphy - Anderson and Barnes for literally the entire campaign hurt us 

 

Lack of quality in certain areas of the field - the RW is one such area - not having a 10 either really hurts as the flat 3 in midfield can be overrun 

 

Squad depth - we just weren’t ready - it’s taken a massive toll - again we will learn from this 

 

Not all doom and gloom - win our next 3 league matches and we are back up and running - my major concern is fatigue - the players are goosed and with no let up in the schedule it’s going to take a huge effort 

[WideopenMag]

2 minutes ago, Mikky said:

I do think a lack of experience played its part - something we can definitely work on - Howe will learn massively, it’s been a great experience for him 

 

Not having to call upon Botman - Willock - Tonali - Murphy - Anderson and Barnes for literally the entire campaign hurt us 

 

Lack of quality in certain areas of the field - the RW is one such area - not having a 10 either really hurts as the flat 3 in midfield can be overrun 

 

Squad depth - we just weren’t ready - it’s taken a massive toll - again we will learn from this 

 

Not all doom and gloom - win our next 3 league matches and we are back up and running - my major concern is fatigue - the players are goosed and with no let up in the schedule it’s going to take a huge effort 

Creative midfielder and a RW are essential to take us to the next level. 

[r0cafella]

I think having an out and out creative central midfielder means we need to change our entire game plan which I don’t think is feasible given all of our recruitment has been geared towards our current style of play. 
 

What the club does need to do is be ruthless I’m afraid, we can only have 25 players max so anyone who is injured too frequently basically has to be replaced. If the average first team player is going to be 40-50m we can only replace 3 a year due to FFP. 
 

it’s a really tough job and you can see why nobody has consistently bridged the gap between the big teams since FFP came in. 

[Mikky]

18 minutes ago, WideopenMag said:

Creative midfielder and a RW are essential to take us to the next level. 

I don’t think we will sign a 10 in the summer unless we sign a forward that has a similar playing style to Joao Felix 

 

I’ll settle for CB - CM - RW - CF you then add Tonali and Minteh and the squad is already looking healthier 

 

The likes of Miggy - Targett - Dummett - Ritchie - Manquillo all surplus to requirements 

[SUPERTOON]

Got to say, despite the disappointment in the end, I have absolutely loved the whole champions league experience. Thought we gave everything possible in every game and I was fortunate enough to get to the PSG and Milan home games. The PSG game in particular was one of the greatest nights of my life and I wouldn’t change if for anything.

[Gallowgate Toon]

Just now, SUPERTOON said:

Got to say, despite the disappointment in the end, I have absolutely loved the whole champions league experience. Thought we gave everything possible in every game and I was fortunate enough to get to the PSG and Milan home games. The PSG game in particular was one of the greatest nights of my life and I wouldn’t change if for anything.

Aye, it's been absolutely class. The feeling on the day is just immense. 

 

For all last night ended up in disappointment, the collective joy in the Gallowate when we thought we could go through when up and Dortmund went up was brilliant. 

 

CL was always a free hit for me this year once we got that group but I'm still gutted about how last night unfolded because we were so close.

[Guest reefatoon]

9 hours ago, Shearergol said:

Why are we obsessed with finding a player to blame when we lose? How is Dubravka even being mentioned tonight?

It’s fucking lifting isn’t it. Always need someone to rant at and blame. See the usual resident cock wombles are saying it’s Eddie bottling it and he’s been found out again, which always gets an airing when we lose. Thick as fuck.

[Kid Icarus]

8 hours ago, El Prontonise said:

 

He has a FA Cup.

Meh, I guess. I'm thinking of Pep and Klopp basically 

[LiquidAK]

10 hours ago, LiquidAK said:

Delete your account FFS. We need some kind of vetting process for new members, latest crop is a fucking shambles 

Apologies @BullyDogs, this was uncalled for & over the line

[Cronky]

8 hours ago, The Prophet said:

 

 

The quote from Eddie is interesting, because it's quite rare for him to single out a particular mistake as being crucial. Normally, he will generalise along the lines of 'we were not at our best'.  The goal was a crucial turning point, because we had looked well on the way up until then. 

 

Lascelles got caught in two minds. The main thing that has prevented him from being a top-class defender has been indecision. 

[LiquidAK]

Woken up absolutely gutted, but my overriding emotion is one of pride. 5 points out of that group, first CL experience in 2 decades - should've been 7 and EL qualification if not for a horrendous ref decision. Love this team, we'll be back.

[Groundhog63]

12 minutes ago, LiquidAK said:

Apologies @BullyDogs, this was uncalled for & over the line

 

Ffs made me waste 5 minutes of my precious morning going back 8 pages ???

 

I was over it instantly. The match, I mean, not that exchange ?

 

Absolutely gutted we had it in our grasp but this adventure has arrived before we're ready and it'll be a very steep learning curve. 

Besides the Xmas schedule means we HAVE to get straight back on the ride and push on. 

 

If I have any anger towards anyone over our CL demise it's at our £55m fruit machine who sat and watched his boyhood club progress on. 

 

It'll pass tho, now I've typed it ????

[Groundhog63]

Ps it gone ?

[Nucasol]

10 hours ago, ryanegg said:

Was thinking this when Tomori made that block for Miggy.

Allison save from Miggy, Maignan save from Bruno. Similar ‘what ifs’ but we have to take our lumps and bumps and move on.

Unbelievably we still have another 5 games in 2023 to navigate before we get some breathing room and the chance to take stock in January. Three of those are extremely winnable, almost ‘must wins’ based on current form, the other two are largely free hits.