Luton Town 1-0 Newcastle United (23/12/23)

[GideonShandy]

Reckon the club as a whole might well still be traumatized over the way we exited European football completely and the last minute disaster that negated everything we'd accomplished in the Carabao cup. Our two best chances of winning something both thrown away within days.

[TRon]

Just now, GideonShandy said:

Reckon the club as a whole might well still be traumatized over the way we exited European football completely and the last minute disaster that negated everything we'd accomplished in the Carabao cup. Our two best chances of winning something both thrown away within days.

 

We looked traumatised in some of the games before that as well though.

[magvicar]

Howe isn't blameless and can be criticised but all players can be.

The key to it all is for fans not to over-react as if Eddie and co suddenly lose the plot and should be ousted, because that's insane.

[Sean]

Every time we lose I get a little more enraged at Tonali 

 

The fucking cheek to move to a new club knowing you're gonna be banned and keep that from them. We could do with that £50 million on the fucking pitch.

[clintdempsey]

If fatigue is the simple answer for our performances. Surely they would be better just by playing some of the kids once in a while. If Miley wasn’t injured today there was no logical reason I can see that leaves Longstaff on the field instead.
 

Gordon couldn’t run from the start and we had Hall warming up for 65 mins before coming on with 5 mins to go when the little threat we had had fizzled out. The decision making away from home (both tactical and player-wise) has been below par.

 

There’s no harm in calling out a bad performance (or half a season of bad-ish performances on the road) on a message board.

 

If we can’t play “our” game due to injuries or fatigue - find another way to play that gets us results. But for the love of god - don’t acknowledge excuses for losing. To me that’s kind of what our away performances are starting to look like. 

[Hanshithispantz]

6 minutes ago, Theregulars said:

Is it fair to ask whether he’s considered having to adapt and play a different way? It looks like we’re trying to but not succeeding. I’m not going over the top in my opinion, that was a poor performance and we’ve not looked competitive in quite a few matches in a row.

I mean in hindsight we maybe could have tried to implement a more passive playstyle but I doubt he's going to do it at Christmas.

 

In spite of having about 15 fit players we've hardly 'disgraced' ourselves outside of a handful of games (Everton, Bournemouth, Tottenham). The Milan performance was mostly great and we were massively unlucky againat Chelsea and PSG despite being dead on our feet 2nd half. Today wasn't even that bad, Luton were good and have been for a little while now, we did enough to earn a point.

 

 

Edited December 23, 2023 by Hanshithispantz

[Doops]

11 minutes ago, Nowhere Man said:

Absolute shite December and you can’t just blame injuries. That team should have beaten Luton easily. 
 

Had enough for now so just going to enjoy Christmas & New Year’s not thinking about Newcastle United. 

 

All the best..

 

No one has beaten Luton easily at their place all season so I'm not sure why our knackered 11 should

[TRon]

8 minutes ago, Jaqen said:

We had to start two wingers who physically can't run anymore There's only so much you can expect really. 

 

The average Newcastle fan is out of breath walking up to their seat in the ground so it's a bit pointless listening to them claim fitness and fatigue has no effect on the performance. 

 

We didn't have to start them tbf. Lewis Hall can play left wide if we wanted to give Gordon a rest, which he's really overdue. I can understand why Howe doesn't want to leave Gordon out but he looks absolutely paggered. When performances are this flat then you have to make some hard decisions.

[Dr Venkman]

Have a normal one, everyone.

[nufcnick]

That was genuinely like watching a Steve Bruce side away from home, we didn’t lay a glove on a team at the bottom of the league and who hadn’t kept a clean sheet all season. Howe deserves any pelters he gets for this one. 

[Hanshithispantz]

5 minutes ago, Theregulars said:

I’m sorry but I consider it unprofessional if a football team persistently can’t pass to each other. We weren’t executing basics - that’s why I said unprofessional. It also did look a bit lazy to me, we didn’t seem to really push for anything. Second to most loose balls.

If the opposition are fitter they can close down space more effectively making passing opportunities harder. We've done it ourselves brilliantly for 2 years.

 

Hence why every team was always 'shite against us' according to their fans.

 

 

Edited December 23, 2023 by Hanshithispantz

[Jordan]

1 minute ago, Sean said:

Every time we lose I get a little more enraged at Tonali 

 

The fucking cheek to move to a new club knowing you're gonna be banned and keep that from them. We could do with that £50 million on the fucking pitch.

The whole summer business looks poor in hindsight apart from Livramento. Tonali ban, Barnes permanently crocked and Howe not rating Hall. 

[Theregulars]

1 minute ago, Hanshithispantz said:

I mean in hindsight we maybe could have tried to implement a more passive playstyle but I doubt he's going to do it at Christmas.

 

In spite of having about 15 fit players we've hardly 'disgraced' ourselves outside of a handful of games (Everton, Bournemouth, Tottenham). The Milan performance was mostly great and we were massively unlucky agai st Chelsea despite being dead on our feet. Today wasn't even that bad, Luton were good and have been for a little while now, we did enough to earn a point.

In my view we disgraced ourselves today. We were not at the required level to win a match, we were outfought and outthought. I consider that to be a disgrace.

[LionOfGosforth]

Just now, TheBrownBottle said:

You’re right, they’re emotive reactions mate - sometimes people just need a release.  I felt numb more than owt else today.

 

It is mainly fatigue, though that doesn’t mean that the management team takes no liability on that - failure to rotate at the start of the season and a failure to change up the playing style have contributed to the injuries and fatigue.

 

The hotheads calling for Howe to be sacked or under pressure are being daft, of course.  But I also don’t think Howe is blameless. 

 

Rational and I appreciate it. I get as frustrated as anyone. Who the fuck enjoys losing to Luton? It's a bit shit at the moment but as the years have gone on, i've learned to rein it in a bit and not let sporting disappointment ruin my day. I was at Blackpool in 1987 and watched us lose to a Tony Cunningham goal when they were 3 divisions below us. I suppose i've learned to not let it get to me and see the wider picture most of the time. 

 

Howe, if i'm going to criticize him at all, could perhaps have rotated better and earlier but nobody has a crystal ball to see what's coming. I love the bloke but doesn't mean he's beyond criticism. I just think today was inevitable and all part of the learning curve we're on as a club.

[Hanshithispantz]

8 minutes ago, Kid Icarus said:

I didn't even think it was anything like the descriptions I'm reading, unsurprisingly.

 

Shit up top, really shit, particularly Wilson who yet again got ragdolled and resorted to panto villian bollocks, but behind our attacking players we dominated the ball and put the ball in areas where you'd expect at least one of Wilson, Almiron, Gordon, or Isak to be. But they never were.

 

I can accept people calling it shite, abject, even pathetic, but I've seen people saying it was lacking effort, lazy, unprofessional, which is just complete bollocks like. At worst, they're playing like they're feeling sorry for themselves a bit, or just playing shite. Some have seemingly taken for granted what actual unprofessionalism looks like.

Yeah they were weren't bad at all imo.

 

 

Edited December 23, 2023 by Hanshithispantz

[nufc123]

6 minutes ago, magvicar said:

It doesn't matter who we play, what matters is us getting up to speed again with players back and a few new signings, whether that's loans or whatever.

All is not lost.

We were always likely to have a second season of come down after achieving what we did last season and what we've been through this season.

 

It's not too late to kick start.

Agree but i dont think January is the month to be positive. Looks brutal.

[Theregulars]

Just now, Hanshithispantz said:

If the opposition are fitter they can close down space more effectively making passing opportunities harder. We've done it ourselves brilliantly for 2 years.

This is fair. I’d have thought our players being more talented might have counted for more today. 

[Laviofies]

Imo, because of injuries and fatigue, our players are not training with the intensity that they did last season, so that also affects the performance in pitch.

[ExiledGeordie]

1 minute ago, LionOfGosforth said:

 

Rational and I appreciate it. I get as frustrated as anyone. Who the fuck enjoys losing to Luton? It's a bit shit at the moment but as the years have gone on, i've learned to rein it in a bit and not let sporting disappointment ruin my day. I was at Blackpool in 1987 and watched us lose to a Tony Cunningham goal when they were 3 divisions below us. I suppose i've learned to not let it get to me and see the wider picture most of the time. 

 

Howe, if i'm going to criticize him at all, could perhaps have rotated better and earlier but nobody has a crystal ball to see what's coming. I love the bloke but doesn't mean he's beyond criticism. I just think today was inevitable and all part of the learning curve we're on as a club.

👏 well said. I wasn’t confident today, yes very disappointed, Howe will no doubt be very critical of himself. We’re still learning as you point out, manager, players and fans.

[Arknor]

Losing to Luton is embarrassing no excuses.



should be able to beat that team with 9 or 10 men

[magvicar]

Just now, nufc123 said:

Agree but i dont think January is the month to be positive. Looks brutal.

You're right, it does look brutal but brutal times can bring out the best in players.

It might not work for us but then again it just might.

I'm keeping my glass half full.

Just one or two new signings and one or two returning injury players up to speed is all you need to kick start the entire squad into action again.

 

Fingers crossed we start a revival on boxing day and run it through January and see what we have by then and see where the possibilities lie for the run in.

[christ]

2 minutes ago, LionOfGosforth said:

 

Rational and I appreciate it. I get as frustrated as anyone. Who the fuck enjoys losing to Luton? It's a bit shit at the moment but as the years have gone on, i've learned to rein it in a bit and not let sporting disappointment ruin my day. I was at Blackpool in 1987 and watched us lose to a Tony Cunningham goal when they were 3 divisions below us. I suppose i've learned to not let it get to me and see the wider picture most of the time. 

 

Howe, if i'm going to criticize him at all, could perhaps have rotated better and earlier but nobody has a crystal ball to see what's coming. I love the bloke but doesn't mean he's beyond criticism. I just think today was inevitable and all part of the learning curve we're on as a club.

In hindsight he probably should’ve just binned off the Everton game and rotated, but if he does that coming off a 1-0 win against Man United he gets pilloried.

[nufcnick]

1 minute ago, Doops said:

No one has beaten Luton easily at their place all season so I'm not sure why our knackered 11 should

If we’re so knackered, we sit deep and make ourselves hard to break down and hit on the break, much like we did when Howe first came in, go back to the shithousery and breaking up play until we can bring in reinforcements. There is no way that Luton or teams like that are good enough to break us down if we were to play like that again. This is the problem with Howe and what will get him replaced, he doesn’t seem able to adapt to the game in front of him like other managers 

[TheBrownBottle]

1 minute ago, LionOfGosforth said:

 

Rational and I appreciate it. I get as frustrated as anyone. Who the fuck enjoys losing to Luton? It's a bit shit at the moment but as the years have gone on, i've learned to rein it in a bit and not let sporting disappointment ruin my day. I was at Blackpool in 1987 and watched us lose to a Tony Cunningham goal when they were 3 divisions below us. I suppose i've learned to not let it get to me and see the wider picture most of the time. 

 

Howe, if i'm going to criticize him at all, could perhaps have rotated better and earlier but nobody has a crystal ball to see what's coming. I love the bloke but doesn't mean he's beyond criticism. I just think today was inevitable and all part of the learning curve we're on as a club.

Aye, it’s why I’m reluctant to be more than constructively critical of what’s happening - I think Howe will have learned the lessons of playing in Europe and we won’t see a repeat - he’s learning still, it’s his first ever European season.  It’s impossible to play a high-intensity game while playing this many games - we did experience this briefly last season during the League Cup run.  If we’re in Europe next year and the same thing occurs, I’m going to be far more critical tbh. 

[ExiledGeordie]

1 minute ago, Laviofies said:

Imo, because of injuries and fatigue, our players are not training with the intensity that they did last season, so that also affects the performance in pitch.

Yes I don’t think we can get away from the fact last season we had full weeks of prep for games. That helps prep time and helps prevent injuries. This season has been night and day in that respect. I’m sure Howe and the board will acknowledge they could do some things better and make note of that.