A lot of it was bad luck, you only have to look at the praise everyone has given Krul. Although there are some points that I feel must not be overlooked.
Firstly Hugo Lloris was left out of the side despite being fit. Hugo declared himself fit, but the club doctors did not feel he was 100% (following his collision). The club's decision not to field him was really down to the pressure from external sources following Lloris's concussion. The one on one with Friedel would not have ended in a goal with Lloris, as he holds a much higher line.
Lloris has 7 clean sheets in the league and currently stands at number 1 in the Golden Gloves table. The failure to field him alone could have been the only deciding factor.
We all love Brad for the saves and games he had put in prior to this game, but he is looking tired now (no fault of his own it is simple genetics).
Looking at the defence usually there would be no complaints, however of recent Dawson has been lapsing in concentration and allowing his man to wander off unmarked. Remy took full advantage of this and Dawson certainly struggled on numerous occasions. Without an experienced partner it becomes apparent at times that Dawson is not as capable being the deputy at the back. I will be the first to sing the guy's professionalism and commitment, but we cannot overlook these lapses.
Mousa Dembele has looked exceptionally tired or out of sorts in the past two games. Against Sheriff he looked a completely different player to what we are used to. I think that his strength seems to be weakening pointing to a rest being needed. Sandro came on for him at half time and it gave us a new life. For me Sandro should have started by hindsight is a fabulous thing.
Finally my last concern is that of Eriksen. He did rank third on Squawka's performance chart yesterday, but I do not feel he has settled at the moment. His first few games it was adrenaline that fueled his performances, but now that has disappeared he is struggling at times. For me the obvious inclusion was in fact Lamela. Man of the Match against Sheriff and essentially a one man demolition squad. I cannot see the sense in not starting the player? I do not agree with all the £30million and you don’t play him. I believe he is now settling and should be included more. We all know that it takes time to settle as a player, but he seems to be finding his feet (thus the performance against Sheriff).
The main issue at the moment is our midfield going forward. Vertonghen was the main threat man yesterday (from left back) and spent more time in a left midfielders position than Siggy did. Sigurdsson likes to play inside, so why keep him out on the left? For me Townsend (the natural lefty) should be on the left Sigurdsson in the middle and Lamela on the right. If we had two pacey wingers it would have been too much for Newcastle to cope.
People have been saying that the Townsend “bubble” has burst, but at times he had three markers! This was helped by the fact that Siggy was cutting into the middle too much that we were not stretching the middle of the park enough. Townsend played well, but is too young to not get marked out of the game, he needed for someone on the left to stretch it (not tuck in). When you have two wings to worry about you don’t send three men to mark one player.
Forget the first half for a minute and look at the second half. If we had of played like that for the entire game we would have walked away with at least a point!
So were we setup wrong to deal with Newcastle? Its 50/50 really. The confidence in the players sometimes seems to be non existent, look at Lennon who doesn't shoot, look at Dawson if he doesn't concentrate on his man 100% of the time. I do not believe it is a lack of confidence in the manager or tactics as they have mostly been working together for over a year now. I feel the issue is elsewhere, but I cannot put my finger on it.
To sum it up everyone was at fault. AVB for not choosing the right players to begin, those players that played poorly, the players that didn't give 100% from the start and the fans that were impatient and booing.
If we expect to build and move forward we need to trust more; The players in their skill, the players with the manager, the manager with his players and the fans with players and manager. Look at history in general and see how many great successes came on the first try?
Call me deluded, call me insane, call me a brown nose, it doesn't matter I am a fan and I believe in my club, it's players and it's staff.
I call for all those that boo to put that effort into cheering the team on. Those chants and songs held even after Newcastle scored, but impatience got the better of them and the booing started (notice it did not fuel the players). We are better than this and we know it, soon enough we will show it.
Again folks before jumping to criticise look at the stats 58% possession, 14 shot on target, 10 shots off target, 84% pass completion and 90% tackle success (most of which admittingly came in the second half). From the 20th minute our stats picked up and dramatically in the second half. Other than Krul the rest of the Newcastle team scored very low, so it says it all in those stats. If we had picked up more points before this game we would have looked at it as an unlucky result (which it was).
In this situation you must see that this was absolute bad luck at it's highest. In any other game the goal line clearance would have hit the under side of the crossbar and stayed in that’s a draw then.
What we need is simple. Lamela right and Townsend left which will stretch the play. We have enough midfielders to make up the middle of the park, but we must get it right from the start. Am I annoyed? Yes. Have I lost faith? Definately not, we’ve been through much tougher times; Isn’t that right Mr Gross?
Get behind the team, yes there have been some underwhelming games, but yesterday if a different Krul turned up it was a white wash with a 5,6,7+ goals scored by us.
COYS!!!
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