Newcastle United Weekend Wrapup
Wow, a weekend wrapup on Thursday. Now THAT'S dedication. Well, it's taken me these four days to wipe the tears from my eyes, send in my keyboard to get repairs after tears got it in and caused a malfunction, clean up all the glass and parts from my tv after I sunk my foot in it after the match through frustration, and waited patiently for the knots in my stomach to untangle themselves.
Now look, this last weekend was somewhat of a watershed moment for all our beloved Magpies. It was Bolton, who are a quality side, but did NOT play as well as they can. It was at St. James Park, a place where we hadn't LOST to Bolton in like 30 years. Where, before this season, teams would come in, HOPING for a draw, and not being too confident even on that. St. James Park was a major advantage for us in recent history. And, looking at our current form, we'd just had two very disappointing matches, at Old Trafford and Anfield, losing 2-0 in each. We did have one underwhelming Uefa Cup win in there and a very strange tie at home against Everton. But it had been a full month since our last QUALITY performance against West Ham (who everyone seems to be having a quality performance against.) If we pulled three points from this game, we'd rocket back up to 11th place, close to the top half. And as we found out from last year, it only takes one nice string of wins in the second half of the season to pull yourself up. So if we can stay in mid to upper table, we can manage the latter half of the season.
But no. We dropped three points, putting us only 2 POINTS from the drop zone. 2 POINTS. The entire first half, we controlled posession, and there's no reason why we only came away with one goal. We need to learn how to finish. But obviously, this is not our main priority. First, we need to learn how to defend. Harper has been shy like a kitten between the sticks. He need to A) Learn how to come off his line early enough to let people know that he's there and ready to take the ball and B)Learn how to HOLD the ball, rather than just punch it away. Man, that annoys me.
Then there's the defense. Again, Roeder gives Bramble the nod. Again, Bramble is slow of his mark, slow to mark strikers, uncoordinated with the ball, and in the end, he is to blame for (at least) one goal. But Roeder ALWAYS gives him more starts. So why would he be bothered if he lost the game for us? There are no repurcussions for him. He goes about his business, waiting for that next game, so he could "turn things around." Please.
The ONLY shred of light on the defense was again, Peter Ramage. He played with fire, he was smart, and he rarely was caught out of position. He's quick enough to get back on defense when he makes forward runs (unlike Steven Carr) and he's got a fire in his belly. I recall the play where Diouf came down his sideline, and as he tried to turn on Ramage, he efficiently took down Diouf and the ball, a questionable play which rightly got the whistle but could just as well have gone without one, but as he got up he looked Diouf right in the eye as he lay on the turf and said some rather harsh and impacting words. Didn't him to forget what just happened. I liked that, after seeing the fearful, flat, unknowing stare of Titus Shambles all season.
So, as I said before, we're two points from a relegation battle, I've lost all confidence in Roeder to field a side that makes any sense (his side was different than my predicted one) and we're not getting any better in defense. Something drastic has to change, very soon.
Now look, this last weekend was somewhat of a watershed moment for all our beloved Magpies. It was Bolton, who are a quality side, but did NOT play as well as they can. It was at St. James Park, a place where we hadn't LOST to Bolton in like 30 years. Where, before this season, teams would come in, HOPING for a draw, and not being too confident even on that. St. James Park was a major advantage for us in recent history. And, looking at our current form, we'd just had two very disappointing matches, at Old Trafford and Anfield, losing 2-0 in each. We did have one underwhelming Uefa Cup win in there and a very strange tie at home against Everton. But it had been a full month since our last QUALITY performance against West Ham (who everyone seems to be having a quality performance against.) If we pulled three points from this game, we'd rocket back up to 11th place, close to the top half. And as we found out from last year, it only takes one nice string of wins in the second half of the season to pull yourself up. So if we can stay in mid to upper table, we can manage the latter half of the season.
But no. We dropped three points, putting us only 2 POINTS from the drop zone. 2 POINTS. The entire first half, we controlled posession, and there's no reason why we only came away with one goal. We need to learn how to finish. But obviously, this is not our main priority. First, we need to learn how to defend. Harper has been shy like a kitten between the sticks. He need to A) Learn how to come off his line early enough to let people know that he's there and ready to take the ball and B)Learn how to HOLD the ball, rather than just punch it away. Man, that annoys me.
Then there's the defense. Again, Roeder gives Bramble the nod. Again, Bramble is slow of his mark, slow to mark strikers, uncoordinated with the ball, and in the end, he is to blame for (at least) one goal. But Roeder ALWAYS gives him more starts. So why would he be bothered if he lost the game for us? There are no repurcussions for him. He goes about his business, waiting for that next game, so he could "turn things around." Please.
The ONLY shred of light on the defense was again, Peter Ramage. He played with fire, he was smart, and he rarely was caught out of position. He's quick enough to get back on defense when he makes forward runs (unlike Steven Carr) and he's got a fire in his belly. I recall the play where Diouf came down his sideline, and as he tried to turn on Ramage, he efficiently took down Diouf and the ball, a questionable play which rightly got the whistle but could just as well have gone without one, but as he got up he looked Diouf right in the eye as he lay on the turf and said some rather harsh and impacting words. Didn't him to forget what just happened. I liked that, after seeing the fearful, flat, unknowing stare of Titus Shambles all season.
So, as I said before, we're two points from a relegation battle, I've lost all confidence in Roeder to field a side that makes any sense (his side was different than my predicted one) and we're not getting any better in defense. Something drastic has to change, very soon.
posted by darkred at 4:05 AM
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