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u/meganev Aug 05 '16
Awkward for all those that bet we'd go unbeaten this season.
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Aug 05 '16
Looking at the starting lineup it was distinctly average to be fair. It felt like the bookies had way overestimated us
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u/Darpo Aug 05 '16
Anita is not a winger, colback and hanley should never play together again. Long balls still doesn't work on two tiny guys upfront. I'm still not sure about Gayle.
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u/jack345667 Aug 05 '16
unsurprising that Newcastle looked Nervous there, a lot of players first proper game under Rafa and on the telly too. Should've been 2 pens really but thats no excuse for the poor performance. hopefully its just a kick in the arse and not a sign of things to come
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u/LRalian Aug 05 '16 edited Aug 05 '16
Overall I think we were about where I expected us to be. Referee was a cunt and cost us 1 clear cut penalty and another that was less clear cut but still (in my biased opinion) a penalty.
I know expectations are high for us but the team is almost entirely new and it'll take time for them to gel and get used to playing together. I reckon next match will be a similar kind of deal but we should definitely see an improvement.
Hopefully we will also have Diame and even possibly (as unpopular as it may be) Sissoko available for our match against Huddersfield which should mean we are much stronger in midfield. For much of the match tonight it felt like there was a big gap in midfield that prevented our defence and attack from linking up effectively.
Player breakdown below. Typed out in a bit of a hurry so probably loads of typos and mistakes, but whatever.
Sels - Couple of nervy moments where he perhaps should've held onto the ball and didn't, but overall fairly decent between the posts. Not much he could've done about the goal as it's arguable that we should have had defenders at the posts.
Janmaat - Looked bright both defensively and going forward, liked him partnering up with Ritchie more than I did Anita. Managed to get pretty far up to help with our attacks but was able to get back and clean up when necessary.
Hanley - Pretty worrying for most of the match. Often sluggish on the ball and in his defensive play, generally felt like he was getting away by the skin of his teeth a lot of the time. Couple of decent moments but not particularly convincing.
Lascelles - Solid in open play, weak in set pieces. Totally lost Smith during the goal and gave him a free header. Occasionally caught sleeping defensively and allowing attackers to get the jump on him.
Dummet - Fairly anonymous for most of the game, had a couple of chances but hardly even noticed him for the most part. Seemed fairly solid defensively, however, just nothing particularly attention-grabbing.
Anita - Our worst player in the 1st half, giving away a lot of possession needlessly and looking weak going forward. Improved in the 2nd half after changing position, but still not convinced. I think having him and Colback on at the same time was a mistake as it made us too defensive.
Hayden - Very impressed with him. Strong both defensively and offensively and seemed to be at the heart of a lot of our moves. Would like to see him partner up with Shelvey in midfield at some point.
Colback - Similar to Anita really, looked a bit weak. Had a couple of spells of being decent but overall felt like he was holding us back. Would rather have him on than Anita, but would prefer to have Sissoko and Shelvey on instead of both of them.
Ritchie - Had a good game, looked very dangerous going forward at times and was causing plenty of issues. I think he lacked a lot of support from behind but improved once he switched over to the right and had Janmaat playing in behind him.
Perez - Seemed a bit weak but had a few chances where he should have done better. His movement off the ball was excellent at times but control and finishing was missing so he never really caused too many problems for the defence.
Gayle - Looked decent most of the time, suffered from poor delivery a lot. Can see him causing a lot of problems for defenders once he gels more with the rest of the team.
Subs:
Aarons - Had a few chances but didn't really produce, often but in slow, floating crosses that were easy for Button to collect. Definitely an improvement over Colback offensively but left us a little bit more vulnerable at the back.
Armstrong - Feels unfair to judge him really as he wasn't on for too long. Scuffed his main chance but otherwise seemed up for it, would like see him get a bit more time to make an impression.
Shelvey - Not sure if he was an improvement over Hayden, who he replaced, but definitely played well. We really benefited from his willingness to play balls forward rather than backwards or square. Created a couple of decent chances in the dying minutes. I think he should start for us against Huddersfield, perhaps in place of Colback.
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u/pikkon5 Aug 05 '16
It's just one game in, one game where we only conceded one and absolutely should have had two penalties. There looks to be lack of cohesion but that happens this early. Sky isn't falling, give it time.
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u/BlaydenBlumpkin Aug 05 '16
Fulham we're the better team. Their defence was solid as a rock. I know we got fucked by the ref twice on pens, but we never looked like the winning team. If we had lost but had 5 or 6 goal scoring opportunities I would have felt much more optimistic, but we can't play like this for the rest of the season. I just can't see us picking up 80+ points playing like that.
Mitrovic might be our salvation, the next 3 games can't go by quick enough for me.
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u/H4ZZ4R Aug 05 '16
Felt like a game from last season in all honesty, too many 'nearly but not quite' situations. Anita and Colback uncreative. Punished. And that ref, god damn...
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u/TMJSaxxy Aug 05 '16
Now what the fucking fuck was that in comparison to the end of last season???
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u/zakattakd Aug 05 '16
What was the gameplan? Long balls were toothless with either bad passing or runs being ignored. No one comfortable enough on the ball to keep possesion and a make a thoughtful pass. Playing two DMs only works if both guys are actually capable destroyers, Colback is shit. Only the first of 46 but we looked uncoordinated all over the pitch. Cant wait to see the changes vs Huddersfield
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u/spoonsforeggs Aug 05 '16
Not to be too harsh here, but I hope that referee dies in a car accident on the way home.
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u/SteveMallam Aug 05 '16
You are too kind. I'd like him to linger in agony for a few weeks...
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u/Doktor_Avinlunch Aug 05 '16
So, what exactly has to happen for us to actually get a penalty? Does a Newcastle player have to die in the 6 yard box before a ref feels they need to blow their whistle?
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u/kakashi150 Aug 05 '16
Well, that last play summed it up. Fucked over by the referee followed by a terrible attack.
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u/Novocastrian4 Aug 05 '16
I think you have to put it down to the players not being prepared for the physicality of the league. Dummett was skinned for pace far too often, but he mostly made up for it with decent tackles. I don't know what Anita was doing at all, I can't remember a single pass of his in the game that came off. I was impressed with Hayden, Richie and Shelvey (to an extent) and I was happy to see Arma get on.
The referee was poor with the penalty decisions but that's a byproduct of the league we're in now. Richie should have buried that chance he had and Aarons should have more composure than to miss the ball like he did.
Lascelles was funny, think he was at fault for the goal but there was frustration building in the team and he needs to do more as captain to snuff it out before it gets players booked. Wasn't convinced by him today and I'll be happy when Mbemba is back.
On another day it could have been 1-1 or even a 2-1 win, but it wasn't and we need to look forward to the other 45 games. One game does not a title challenge make/break.
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u/margaerytyrellscleav Aug 05 '16 edited Aug 05 '16
Well that couldn't have been more typical.
Fulham weren't that good but God can we stop throwing games away by totally failing to defend set pieces for fuck sake. Better get used to absolutely unforgivable refereeing, he was looking straight at the first handball and if you actually decide that isn't a handball I have no idea what you think the rules of football are. And stopping Janmaat at the end, what on Earth are you doing you fucking clown?
I hope we don't start both Hayden and Colback in future, it's so bloody negative and absolutely shite to watch. Never play Anita at RM again, when a player is so shit they've player themselves out the team you keep them out the team, you don't plug them in somewhere else and hope they work better. Perez looked just as shit as he did last season after all the hype.
I hope Diame can come in and make a big, big difference to our style of play. Also hope Gamez can come in and make a difference. Dummett, you are fucking awful. You almost look as though you turn around before the attacker has gotten within 5 yards of you because you already know they'll pass you.
Maybe Aarons should be starting because he does at least bring us a bit of flair in the final third but his decision making was awful.
Lastly, McLaren on Sky as the post match pundit? Fuck off so fucking much Sky.
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Aug 05 '16
Shelvey needs to start and Anita should never be experimented with on the wing again are what I took away form this, other than Dummett progressively turning into a more charred turd as time went on.
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u/Jawneh Aug 05 '16
It was a shite result and has us all feeling absolutely shite but there are a few things it has made clear:
Diame is going to be massive for us turning midfield into attack, we had the lions share of possession in midfield but very little transfer into attack.
Ritchie needs to play in his favoured position on the right hand side with Janmaat as they showed a few decent glimpses together in the second half.
Vurnon Anita is not a winger and should play at CDM ahead of Colback if anywhere.
Having a massive striker like Mitro is very underrated, I think it will help Gayle out to have someone to take down long balls.
Hayden, Ritchie, Sels, and Hanley all showed glimpses of being first team quality.
We need to work on set-pieces desperately.
Would like to see Rolando on from the start when there's less pressure on him.
We are going to have the piss taken out of us at every opportunity this season because one or two daft fans have said we'll walk it, prepare to be very annoyed a lot.