11 Feb 2018 17:13:48
The Magpies made more sprints (553 to their opponents' 490), ran further (115km to 105km), and in DeAndre Yedlin and Ritchie had the game's fastest and most industrious players.

Pretty damning statistics.

1.) 11 Feb 2018
11 Feb 2018 17:58:12
Story if every game AJH. We might not always play well but we should always be seen to give 100%. The majority of the group of these players have been like this for many seasons.

2.) 11 Feb 2018
11 Feb 2018 18:07:52
Does the team with the ball not tend to do a bit less than the team chasing it?

3.) 11 Feb 2018
11 Feb 2018 18:11:09
There is an argument that we don't work hard enough as a team, yet surprisingly more often than not those teams in the bottom half of the league are the top ten teams in terms of distance covered and sprints.

So doing a lot of running isn't a good barometer to measure if a team has played well.

I'm not defending our poor performance today, but you have to appreciate that we missed two clear cut chances that on any other day would have been certain goals. Also Newcastle made two last ditch tackles and cleared three balls off the goal line.
It could easily be said that luck was not on our side.

However, I believe you make your own luck. It is no coincidence that the ones who really give it a go and try are the ones "luck" seems to favour.

Our issue today was the same it has been under Mourinho, we lack a midfielder with the ability to move the ball around quickly and thus pull a tight deep sitting defence out of shape to create the space for our attackers to exploit.

I'm a little annoyed that Jose has moved our most inform forward from his favoured position to accommodate Sanchez. Martial has more than twice as many goals and assists as Sanchez does this season in around half as many minutes. He has just had a real purple patch and for most of January his goals and assists have dragged results out of the bag for us. So moving him for a player who will be trying to settle in to a side and isn't guaranteed to click with his teammates immediately isn't ideal.

Smalling needs to be moved on. The only thing he's good for is deflecting away crosses, but in all honesty I've seen trees do a better job in the local park. Positionally he is terrible, he pulls players back all the time because he allows them to get goal side of him and he has these bone head moments like today diving in a stupid area and giving away the free kick that they score the winner from. He's big, strong and quick, but can't defend to save his life, and that's without taking his passing out from the back into consideration, I'm sure his boots are hexagonal. Seriously when he goes to kick a ball it really could go anywhere.

We need that ball playing midfielder, and until we get one we will continue to struggle against sides that sit deep.

4.) 11 Feb 2018
11 Feb 2018 18:20:07
AJH, you called me bitter, well pal you couldn't have been further from the truth, maureen is taking you nowhere. You will never catch citeh, with him as your manager spending fortunes on gorillas, playing caveman football. I know our problems, yours are polar opposite.

5.) 11 Feb 2018
11 Feb 2018 18:43:25
I normally agree with all your posts Shappy but I can't agree about Martial. I like him, he's a talented player but for me he doesn't work anywhere near well enough off the ball either defensively or offensively. At this moment in time he's not in the same league as Sanchez and I'm surprised Jose has shifted him to the right especially away from home. It simply hasn't worked and we've lacked balance.

For me the answer is obvious, in the big games and away from home Herrera has to come in and play in a midfield 3 with Pogba and Matic. Whilst I agree we lack that player to make us really tick Matic is decent on the ball and with Carrick now fit again he is more than capable of performing that role with Pogba and Herrera alongside him. Herrera is probably one of the only players in our team that is actually capable of winning the ball back. Whilst he may not be a long term solution he's ok until the summer.

Sanchez should play from the left with Lukaku up top and Mata or Lingard from the right in my opinion.

I agree Smalling has been nothing short of dreadful in our last two away games!

I honestly believe that 4-2-3-1 will be the death of us especially in the big games and after today I'd even say we need to ditch it altogether especially away from OT.

I honestly fear for the rest of our season if he can't solve this problem.

6.) 11 Feb 2018
11 Feb 2018 18:55:55
Danny
We didn't play 4231 today?
If people are still complaing about a system we didn't even play what does that say?
People gave made there mind up before a ball is kicked.

7.) 11 Feb 2018
11 Feb 2018 18:59:22
Danny how did you think pogba played today?
Matic sat lingers and pogba in front of him.

8.) 11 Feb 2018
11 Feb 2018 19:21:31
Jred - My post has gone of the others page about the formation today! I have no idea what Pogba and Lingard were supposed to be doing today I thought they were both dreadful mate.

I know you like 4-2-3-1 but I honestly believe that is our problem especially in the big games and away from home. If he continues with that team today, especially in the big games we've got coming up against our rivals for top 4 and in Europe I honestly fear for us pal.

This team has to built around Pogba and Sanchez in my opinion.

9.) 11 Feb 2018
11 Feb 2018 19:30:14
Danny but we didn't play 4231 to day pal .
Pogba was dreadful . What was he doing for there goal?
Sanchez is our new star man creative force pogba has been dropped and subbed twice since we signed him .
Never mind formation he needs to do more .
Not sure brand pogba is happy . Hope he responds well.

10.) 11 Feb 2018
11 Feb 2018 20:07:32
Danny, Martial may lack a bit of work rate, but what we missed today was goals.

Dress it up how you like but this season Martial has scored and assisted twice as many goals as Sanchez has in half the amount of time.

An argument could be made that if he played more minutes this season and was able to keep up his form then he may well be on 30 goals/ assists so far this season. Personally I think that would be unlikely, but I am sure he'd have more than he has already, which as pointed out is more than Sanchez has managed in twice the time.

This isn't about which players I like or not, it's a cold hard decision based on who has been more productive as an offensive player this season. And so far that is Martial.

11.) 11 Feb 2018
11 Feb 2018 20:26:50
Shappy, he missed all our best chances today. Not surebi understand your point.

12.) 11 Feb 2018
11 Feb 2018 22:33:36
Worst game Pogba has had for us today hope it never happens again. We definitely need another CDM to sit with Matic . 😆😆.