Olympique de Marseille 2-1 Newcastle United (25/11/25) | post-match from pg. 56

[Lotus]

Have to say, our attempts to hold onto the ball for more than 5 passes is comical 

I have to have fun with it. We’re sooooo bad at trying to keep the ball or play out from the back. 

[STM]

1 minute ago, TRon said:

 

 

I said before the game that we should have rotated more though. It's not hindsight. 

I know, thats why I said it.

 

So you would have been happy fielding a weaker side and almost certainly getting beat by more? 

 

Im sure you wouldnt have been in here complaining though. 

 

We dont have the squad, and certainly not squad players in form to do that. 

[Rafalove]

3 minutes ago, Kid Icarus said:

Easy to blame Pope or the capitulation in the second half, but for me it's all about that first half and the same lesson we refuse to learn - sitting on a one goal lead, and playing like the endless chances we continue to waste will keep coming, then coming out of the match with our dick in our hands. I'm absolutely sick of it  

 

The fact we keep doing this and having us taught a lesson seems to do absolutely nothing to budge the mental block we have to make sure it never happens again, time after time, match after match we put ourselves in this position and it's incredibly frustrating. It needs to end, we need to play at 1 nil up like we're 1 nil behind, because if we don't it'll happen anyway.

 

Pope: 3.5

Thiaw: 7

Schär: 6.5 

Burn: 6

Livramento: 6

Tonali: 5

Bruno: 5

Willock: 7.5

Murphy: 5.5 

Gordon: 4.5

Barnes: 7

 

 

 

 

I agree, with what you are saying about sitting back, but we must be doing it for a reason, which is it’s incredibly hard to do that when you are playing as frequently as we are.

[Moose]

I don't know what we are or what we're supposed to be right now.

 

We're not aggressive, nasty shithouses anymore

We have athletic players but we don't hit teams on the counter

We don't have technical players who can play possession football and play through a press

Our squad is a mixy blob salad characterised by a handful of talented players being held back by severely limited players

 

 

[andycap]

Should've made more changes in my opinion from the weekend. 

Ramsdale should be given games like this, botman burn at centreback, 

Willock Ramsey miley, 

Elanga Gordon Barnes. 

Let bruno tonali et Al get a rest for the Everton game. 

[Yorkie]

4 minutes ago, Andy said:

 

The frustration isn't in response to this one game or performance tbf Blimp, the away form in general warrants criticism. We are one of the most Jekyll and Hyde teams I've ever seen. 

 

We were decent tonight in patches but can't keep parking the bus then melting down once we concede a goal on the road. It's the same game over and over again, it's hard not to voice frustrations when you know we can play as well as we did on Saturday. 

 

I do think the initial set up was fine. We were capable of containing this team and finding another on the break; it's just that the passing and composure in the final third was so dire in that first half, we didn't capitalise.

 

Pope will rightly get pelters for that incredibly costly rush of blood, but it doesn't matter if we finish the job in the first half. 

 

We were largely very ineffective at chasing the game, which always seems to be the case and is definitely accountable to Howe. For one thing the first raft of changes killed the momentum we were building.

[Coffee_Johnny]

3 minutes ago, Sima said:

Union SG would be a championship team.

Tell that to Galatasaray. 

[andycap]

Just now, STM said:

I know, thats why I said it.

 

So you would have been happy fielding a weaker side and almost certainly getting beat by more? 

 

Im sure you wouldnt have been in here complaining though. 

 

We dont have the squad, and certainly not squad players in form to do that. 

We fielded a supposedly weaker team against spurs in the cup and actually won. So it's not a formality. 

[STM]

6 minutes ago, nufc4eva said:

But he's also accountable for this and isn't without blame.

 

Yes hes accountable for us being in champions league. The remit isnt to win the Champions League though.... if it is, sack him now.

 

We will get through to the next phase.

[Likelylad]

11 minutes ago, Toon No9 said:

Well, no doubt it was a bad misstake from Pope. But he also made some very good saves today. Except for the misstake he had a very good game I would say.

What you been sniffing?

[SUPERTOON]

Just now, STM said:

 

Yes hes accountable for us being in champions league. The remit isnt to win the Champions League though.... if it is, sack him now.

 

We will get through to the next phase.

As in we finish top 8, or play offs ?

[TRon]

FWIW, despite my reservations about overusing certain players, I don't think we set up badly at all. They were there to be hit on the break, we just didn't have the precision for the final passes so missed out on some great opportunities. That's where a player like Aubemyang is the difference. 

[Kid Icarus]

Just now, Rafalove said:

 

 

I agree, with what you are saying about sitting back, but we must be doing it for a reason, which is it’s incredibly hard to do that when you are playing as frequently as we are.

Not necessarily, it can very easily be a mental thing rather than a conscious decision. I refuse to believe we're actively choosing to sit on one goal leads, we have more than enough evidence to know that it's suicidal. Bring back the mentality we had when us going 1 up meant a second or third would likely very quickly follow.

[High Five o]

6 minutes ago, Shadow Puppets said:

I thought we played well first half. Could have been 2-0 up in 10 mins.

 

Pope’s antics are what cost us the game. Really is as simple as that. We weren’t under any massive pressure at all.

Yes, we where good the first 10, but Marseille was way better for the next 35 and had the better chances.

 

I do not agree that we where under no pressure. In fact I do believe we invited it with our passiv approach and lack of ability to keep the ball in the team.

[LordJake]

That’s all on Pope for me, terrible decision 

[TRon]

2 minutes ago, STM said:

I know, thats why I said it.

 

So you would have been happy fielding a weaker side and almost certainly getting beat by more? 

 

Im sure you wouldnt have been in here complaining though. 

 

We dont have the squad, and certainly not squad players in form to do that. 

 

Then we are wasting our money in these transfer windows. 

[STM]

Just now, SUPERTOON said:

As in we finish top 8, or play offs ?

One or the other.

[jemo96]

6 minutes ago, STM said:

 

Weve no right challenging for cups and titles given our turnover man. 

 

Youve been tricked into thinking we can because our manager keeps performing miracles.

 

Weve lost away to a really decent European outfit, which would have beaten most sides tonight and yet still we could have come away with something.

 

 

Pointless then isn’t it?

[Disco]

Got to give credit to OM like. They’re clearly a good team and they massively exploited our weaknesses, particularly in the second half.
 

Bruno and Tonali largely nullified as they looked a bit lost without the extra man to support and they gave them a kicking when needed before largely killing the game in the last ten. 

[STM]

Just now, TRon said:

 

Then we are wasting our money in these transfer windows. 

Our transfers have been fantastic. Weve made almost every one of them work since Eddie came on board. 

 

Its unrealistic to expect every one to work instantly though. Tonali was poor for quite a while before his ban, for example.

[Toon No9]

1 minute ago, Likelylad said:

What you been sniffing?

What other misstakes did he make today would you say?

[pubteam]

3 minutes ago, Lotus said:

Have to say, our attempts to hold onto the ball for more than 5 passes is comical 

I have to have fun with it. We’re sooooo bad at trying to keep the ball or play out from the back. 

We are shockingly bad at passing, it’s one thing that’s never improved. We can’t continue to carry players who are not comfortable kicking a ball. For our technically gifted players it must be so frustrating.

[Scoot]

1 minute ago, LordJake said:

That’s all on Pope for me, terrible decision 

 

Same here. Dont think we played 2 bad at all but when your keeper is doing that away from home in the champions league, 24 seconds into the 2nd half when you're 1-0 up, you've got no chance.

 

Fucken mental decision to come for that when Thiaw was covering anyway.

[Beren]

I wonder if there's a Newcastle fan out there who only watches home games. Must be having a cracking season.

[TRon]

1 minute ago, STM said:

Our transfers have been fantastic. Weve made almost every one of them work since Eddie came on board. 

 

Its unrealistic to expect every one to work instantly though. Tonali was poor for quite a while before his ban, for example.

 

 

This is where we are going to disagree then. I think we have built a squad this season, we need to start using all of them.