Newcastle United 1-0 Southampton (17/08/24)

[Gallowgate Toon]

The sample size from Saturday was so small, like. It's very rare that a team dominates proceedings for 90 minutes - even last year's awful promoted sides gave Arsenal/City some tough matches. An awkward pressing shape (which we'd have adjusted to not long after the sending off imo) and some rust seemed to be the main issue - between 5 & 15 minutes, we lost the ball a fair bit through taking extra touches - Schar, Burn, Hall, Bruno, and Gordon all being offenders in that period. Schar and Hall being in that mix wasn't good for us as they're our main distributors directly from defence.

 

I thought the strategy once we went down was spot on. We knew we were carrying some ringrust and they didn't have much to really hurt us with so we sat narrow and waited for counters which is something we're very suited to, while still mixing in some pressing. It felt like we controlled the space very well bar one or two moments.

[r0cafella]

1 minute ago, Shadow Puppets said:

One of my biggest takeaways from Saturday, by the way, is just how much we miss Trippier when we have the ball. He dictates the tempo down that side of the pitch. Love Tino, but he doesn’t quite have that control of the game.

I think your right from that standpoint, although when we went down to 10 i much rather have Tino who was excellent defensively imo. 

[Fak]

What an utterly ridiculous article. Our bubble has burst apparently. 

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-13755429/Newcastle-1-0-Southampton-Magpies-look-flat-host-Saints-Joelinton-cracker-Fabian-Schar-red-spark-season-opener-St-James-Park-life.html

[80]

4 hours ago, Pancrate1892 said:

I don't know if it's been discussed, but I wonder if this injury prevention expert has had some influence on the level of intensity of our training sessions? Let's be honest, apart from heroic defending we were a non existent entity compared to our usual selves. Even before the sending off we struggled to even complete two passes. 

 

 

 

It's a decent question, though I don't think so, for a couple of reasons. One, I don't think Eddie would stand for dramatic changes in training, and seemingly he feels more secure in his position now, rather than less.

 

Secondly, I don't think we were all that different to how we were in the second half of last season... Pre-red card I mean, obviously.

[TK-421]

39 minutes ago, Fak said:

What an utterly ridiculous article. Our bubble has burst apparently. 

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-13755429/Newcastle-1-0-Southampton-Magpies-look-flat-host-Saints-Joelinton-cracker-Fabian-Schar-red-spark-season-opener-St-James-Park-life.html

By Craig No Hope, more like 

[mondonewc]

2 hours ago, Shadow Puppets said:

One of my biggest takeaways from Saturday, by the way, is just how much we miss Trippier when we have the ball. He dictates the tempo down that side of the pitch. Love Tino, but he doesn’t quite have that control of the game.

Maybe a bit harsh to judge Tino regards that when we had 10 men for over 2/3rds of the game and Murphy gone off after 30 minutes so nobody for Tino too link up with. 

[Nucasol]

4 minutes ago, TK-421 said:

By Craig No Hope, more like 

What a miserable prick of a man. Less glass half empty than devoid of any liquid at all.

[LFEE]

I know i get stick on here for defending Luke Edward’s but surely by now you all can see the real shit stirrer is Hope. The fact he’s from the NE just makes him a bigger prick IMO. Simon Bird not far behind in a quite a long list of locals.

[Yorkie]

4 minutes ago, LFEE said:

I know i get stick on here for defending Luke Edward’s but surely by now you all can see the real shit stirrer is Hope. The fact he’s from the NE just makes him a bigger prick IMO. Simon Bird not far behind in a quite a long list of locals.

 

They're cut from the same cloth; Douglas and Downie are less incendiary but chuck em in the mix n'all. You need to take every one of them with a pinch of salt. 

 

Their modus operandi is to drive engagement so it's not possible to take them completely seriously, ever. 

[80]

3 hours ago, Shadow Puppets said:

One of my biggest takeaways from Saturday, by the way, is just how much we miss Trippier when we have the ball. He dictates the tempo down that side of the pitch. Love Tino, but he doesn’t quite have that control of the game.

It's going to be very very hard to replace him. There aren't many like him at his best. Hopefully Hall can do it one day, but we're a way off from that yet.

[Big River]

6 minutes ago, LFEE said:

I know i get stick on here for defending Luke Edward’s but surely by now you all can see the real shit stirrer is Hope. The fact he’s from the NE just makes him a bigger prick IMO. Simon Bird not far behind in a quite a long list of locals.

 

they're all whoppers

[Guest]

26 minutes ago, TK-421 said:

By Craig No Hope, more like 

 

Are there actually fans who are wondering that?

[TRC]

11 minutes ago, LFEE said:

I know i get stick on here for defending Luke Edward’s but surely by now you all can see the real shit stirrer is Hope. The fact he’s from the NE just makes him a bigger prick IMO. Simon Bird not far behind in a quite a long list of locals.

Edwards is the goat tbh

[JonBez comesock]

To be fair that link / match report is not far off the mark.

 

I thought the game was very flat in the first 20 minutes , atmosphere was very subdued, we were chasing shadows on the pitch.

 

Everyone was sitting expecting a win.

 

We weren’t pressing / couldn’t press.

 

Once the sending off occurred , the noise went up 10 fold and suddenly it was like watching a proper game again (in the first half) 

 

Second half was more of the same , chasing shadows and getting everyone behind the ball.

 

They passed the ball around well without really hurting us too much (albeit it took a good save from pope and a goal line clearance from hall) to keep it at 1-0

 

Atmosphere turned up again in the last 5 minutes.

 

Overall it was an excellent 3 points but I still left the game unimpressed and it all felt a bit flat.

 

I am sure we will improve and we need some more minutes in the legs to get going. 
 

Alongside Tonalis return, a couple of new signings and a much stronger bench I am still very excited for this season ahead. 
 

It did however feel a bit strange on Saturday and not what I thought the opening day would feel like.

 

As normal it’s the performance on the pitch that dictates the atmosphere, I just wish we had support at home (as we do when playing away) in which it doesn’t seem to matter what happens on the pitch and the support is constant throughout.

 

 

 

 

Edited August 19 by JonBez comesock

[Pilko]

Playing 10 vs 11 for over an hour is difficult even if you're a significantly better team than the opposition. The fact we're talking about one good save and one kicked off the line in about 70 mins of football shows how well we defended, even if Southampton's forwards weren't great.

 

I do think some people's expectations of the day has skewed the viewpoints a bit. New season, last year's bad luck behind us, fresh legs back in the team, at home, newly promoted cannon fodder side visiting, we'll win 4 or 5 nowt, fancy so-and-so for a hattrick etc.

 

We turned a potentially difficult afternoon into three points and a clean sheet to go with it. Don't see how you can be anything other than pleased about that. Also, something that disappointed me last year was the lack of streetwise shithousery, running down the clock, winning free kicks late on etc. and it looked to be back which will serve us well.

 

The performances will evolve when we get the likes of Gordon, Bruno etc back up to full speed and introduce Willock, Tonali, Kelly and any other new additions to the side and I think we'll look back at this game in May as a very useful building block to kick our season off.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

My memory is terrible but I really don't expect a fluent performance and convincing win on the first day of the season. Especially when some players have played so little in preseason. 

 

I'm confident that we would've won about 2-0 or better without the red card. 

[Terrymac1966]

1 hour ago, JonBez comesock said:

To be fair that link / match report is not far off the mark.

 

I thought the game was very flat in the first 20 minutes , atmosphere was very subdued, we were chasing shadows on the pitch.

 

Everyone was sitting expecting a win.

 

We weren’t pressing / couldn’t press.

 

Once the sending off occurred , the noise went up 10 fold and suddenly it was like watching a proper game again (in the first half) 

 

Second half was more of the same , chasing shadows and getting everyone behind the ball.

 

They passed the ball around well without really hurting us too much (albeit it took a good save from pope and a goal line clearance from hall) to keep it at 1-0

 

Atmosphere turned up again in the last 5 minutes.

 

Overall it was an excellent 3 points but I still left the game unimpressed and it all felt a bit flat.

 

I am sure we will improve and we need some more minutes in the legs to get going. 
 

Alongside Tonalis return, a couple of new signings and a much stronger bench I am still very excited for this season ahead. 
 

It did however feel a bit strange on Saturday and not what I thought the opening day would feel like.

 

As normal it’s the performance on the pitch that dictates the atmosphere, I just wish we had support at home (as we do when playing away) in which it doesn’t seem to matter what happens on the pitch and the support is constant throughout.

 

 

 

 

 

A very measured post indeed well written and accurate

[TK-421]

Stephen Warnock saying what we're all thinking..
 

 

[LFEE]

1 hour ago, Yorkie said:

 

They're cut from the same cloth; Douglas and Downie are less incendiary but chuck em in the mix n'all. You need to take every one of them with a pinch of salt. 

 

Their modus operandi is to drive engagement so it's not possible to take them completely seriously, ever. 

You’re right in the grander scheme of things but i always feel the two I named revel in it when if they had club interests at heart they’d decide against the odd hand grenade and go with a different approach. He’s quite clearly made that fan quote up for example for his own use. 

[RobsonsWonderland]

Hope had his moment of fame leaking the unrest story about Bruce... I think that's made him realise nobody listens to him when he is positive so the more negative the better.

 

Gets the clicks...

[The Bonk]

Just now, RobsonsWonderland said:

Hope had his moment of fame leaking the unrest story about Bruce... I think that's made him realise nobody listens to him when he is positive so the more negative the better.

 

Gets the clicks...

 

Yeah, he's pretty boring and not as much of storyteller as Caulkin. If he doesn't filter in some controversial opinion, there's not much to his writing than Lee Ryder couldn't fumble his way through. 

[Mike]

18 hours ago, BonesJones said:

 

 

Really hammers home how fucking everywhere Joe was.

[JP]

Craig Hope reporting on Schar's 60th minute red card in there btw.

Ffs how hard can it be to get the major details correct.

He was tweeting really negatively about us during the game too.

 

[PauloGeordio]

🎯

[Kanji]

It's absolutely shocking, as said before, the more and more you watch it the more it shows the rules / referring and VAR rewarding a professional footballer cheating and going down claiming someone hurt him. Moments later he is laughing and smiling. It's embarrassing.