Newcastle United 0-2 West Ham United (25/11/24)

[Sempiternal]

We don’t have a player who can put his foot on the ball and pick a pass. It’s a big problem

[leffe186]

Proper curate’s egg of a game. Failing to beat West Ham at home with Fabianski in goal and no Kudus feels like a big missed opportunity. Kudus is so good and Fabianski is an old man, although he did OK. 
 

West Ham were what they have been for ages now - loads of good clever players going forward and right horrors in defence. They just rely on numbers at the back and 10 behind the ball for the most part to keep teams at bay, but they’re not good enough to do so for long. Your press was really good for most of the first half and it felt like just a matter of time before they caved, but then you basically gave them a goal.

 

Hall was terrific all game except for a couple of early moments where he showed his inexperience and one ultimately led to the goal. Under no pressure he flubbed a simple pass to Gordon and West Ham broke. Then from the corner Kelly - another player who did well for the bulk of the game - just completely lost his way and was punished.

 

After the goal you lost it for a bit. Joelinton was yet another who I thought looked great for the most part but oof, he was lucky the ref was trying to have one of those cardless games. You still pressed well and West Ham (Todibo in particular) are never more than a few minutes away from a big defensive rick. You just couldn’t exploit it. Then in the second half when they scored you lost it again and never consistently got it back. There’s not really a plan B, but there doesn’t necessarily have to be if you can replace like with like - you could see the midfielders lose steam midway through the second half and ideally would like to see one of the guys like Joelinton, Guimaraes or even Longstaff coming on at that point rather than coming off having run themselves into the ground. Tonali feels like the perfect guy to come on when you’re closing out a game rather than chasing one, although I can see the logic.

 

Bowen was incredible. There are games where I think he flatters to deceive at the top level but he was absolutely everywhere and barely put a foot wrong. I credit him with much of their second goal, and he could have been involved in two or three more. I thought Kelly dealt with Antonio about as well as anyone could hope for. You just needed a bit of class and/or the ball to fall your way a couple of times and to capitalize. It happened more rarely than I expected, and you never did.

 

I think with the benefit of hindsight you could have started Tonali. You were getting into a few good positions in the first half but created fewer key opportunities than I think you might have with a little more guile. I also wonder what the plan was down the left in that second half. It’s bizarre to me that with Barnes and Hall on that side, someone as defensive as Wan-Bissaka could spend so much time attacking.

[Kanj]

Really can’t be too mad, tbh. We had the chances to level it, didn’t. West Ham gamesmanship was on from minute 1 and it never was going to drop for us. Thought the subs were shite, Kelly had some moments to forget too but this is football and the story of our season. Inconsistent. 

[leffe186]

12 minutes ago, Kanj said:

Really can’t be too mad, tbh. We had the chances to level it, didn’t. West Ham gamesmanship was on from minute 1 and it never was going to drop for us. Thought the subs were shite, Kelly had some moments to forget too but this is football and the story of our season. Inconsistent. 

It was a bit rich watching you boo Fabianski for taking his sweet time

[Danh1]

9 minutes ago, leffe186 said:

It was a bit rich watching you boo Fabianski for taking his sweet time

Out gamesmanship is well in the past pretty much. We are a soft touch nowadays. Howe got criticised in the press, clearly didn’t like it and we ditched it. 
 

Conceded a load of late goals too. Klopp and co’s comments worked a treat. 

[midds]

7 minutes ago, leffe186 said:

It was a bit rich watching you boo Fabianski for taking his sweet time

Exactly, all teams do it and it's all fine too. You can't complain about it if we're one of the worst around for doing it. Tams kill the game now, we used to be really good at it but we've lost that edge but West Ham pulled it off and fair play to them, no complaints, even the ref was ok (barring the pen we should have had). 

 

We got what we deserved tbh. Fuck all

[Kid Icarus]

13 minutes ago, leffe186 said:

It was a bit rich watching you boo Fabianski for taking his sweet time

Pfff, we wish.

 

Our shithousery began and ended about 2 years ago.

[Kanj]

Everyone does it and everyone boos it. Christ it’s not that serious. It’s a natural agro home fan reaction.  

[r0cafella]

Well that was disappointing. We are such an inconsistent confidence team at the minute. 

[Disco]

Not enough  faces in the world for that.

 

West Ham clearly absolutely shite but we fucked it to an unreal degree. Second half especially we were shit and got worse with every change to the point they were taking the piss, absolutely awful.

 

Wan Bisaka joining Lazaridis and Rowland in the utter dross stakes against us.

[Menace]

Talking about West Ham spending more dosh than us when they have been effectively shite all season is quite something.

 

Frustrated with whats been served up mostly this season, I don't think Howe is any closer to finding something that works. 13 goals scored going into December is really poor like.