Match Thread Newcastle United v Everton - Preview, Match Report and MotM Poll

[ToffeeTim]

I'm sorry (and I'm not saying this to defend Brands' recruitment, as that's another issue) but a manager's job is to get the best out of what is available to him, regardless of how poor that crop of players are.

Carlo got it so wrong today that, if it wasn't for the fact he is a serial winner, I would be questioning his suitability for Everton - I'm not, because it's Ancelotti BTW, but am making the point of just how abject he was today.

That was truly awful. Moyes was one-dimensional and boring, Martinez a fantasist who couldn't deal with reality, Koeman a clueless fool who wanted to spend more time on a golf course than a football pitch, Allardyce (as well as being a loathsome individual) perhaps the prime architect of agrictural anti-football and Silva was unwilling to adapt and seemed to say one thing and do another. Ancelotti is different gravy, but my word, today was as bad, if not worse than any of the above.

We all were looking at that teamsheet wondering how the hell we were lining up and who was playing where.

First mistake, when we were undone against Southampton due to a lack of pace, dynamism and aggression was leaving out Gordon - but to not play him at all??

Then he stacks the middle of the park and appears to have selected an out of form Gomes (who has never offered anything as an attacking player) as our most attacking midfielder. He makes Sigurdsson captain again?? Seems to have told N'Kounkou to take up position as a wing back - then never gets the team to pass to him when in space. Then he takes N'Kounkou off when we are lacking pace in the game for Bernard, who drifts inside and squashes all our CMs even closer together - so loses our only width. In doing so, he leaves the awful Delph on the pitch and makes him take up a full back position when he is too slow and can't cross when facing up against pacy opposition players.

Then to compound matters, he brings on the slow and useless Tosun for Gomes, who (at best) might scuff a chance IF we are getting balls into the box. But what it actually meant was, we brought on hair in a can to stand around upfront.

Then (bearing in mind he could still bring on Gordon) he takes off our other full back Kenny (who although playing very poorly) was our only width for the lump Iwobi. Meaning that we had no full backs- oh and surprise, surprise Fraser romps down that side to set up their second. And don't give me that nonsense about Iwobi creating our goal. It was a terrible ball and all about Dom's instincts that we scored.

In short, if it was possible to give a manager a -10 for selection and subs, I think that is the closest our manager has ever done to earning one. Yes our squad is awful but the defeat today against a terrible team is all about the manager. We've seen bad elevens win games of football and be competitive, but that . . .

And his only good move was to drop calamity Jordan and then I saw in a report that Ancelotti said before the game that it doesn't matter how Olsen plays, Pickford will be back in for the next game.

So surprised and disappointed by Carlo today.

Today was the player's fault 100%.

If they don't want to try their best when they can go top of the table, then maybe they don't deserve to wear the shirt.

Until they are removed from the squad we will achieve nothing.

 

[Foot Long Hot Dog]

Hi lads... a geordie here. I had a little peek at this forum after the match to see your reaction after this game.

In my opinion you didnt want to win this game, until you went 2 nil down. Played the ball across your back 4 most of the first half with hardly any attacking intent. Obviously you didnt have some of your best players but I was bemused by the squad selection, with so many cm's.

Newcastle arent in a great way and are lacking in a few areas as well as bruceys tactics at times, but to come on here and listen to some of your comments.. you'd think yous had won the league for the last 10 years in a row".

I thought wow you have such high expectations, perhaps its because you have been so good this year? So i had a look...

1-0 win at spurs.. played well, deserved the win

5-2 win at west brom - went a goal down twice in first half, then west brom went to 10 men on 45mins.

2-1 win at Palace, winning goal with a penalty

4-2 win at brighton

2-2 draw with Liverpool. VAR! Say no more!

2-0 loss to southampton

2-1 loss to newcastle

So my point is, really good results vs spurs and brighton, but other than that.. hardly liverpool of last season!

I think you need to settle down as today was as comfortable a game as we have had in a long time.. we also missed 2 chances which would have been scored any other day!

Good luck for the season! I genuinely hope you do something in the league to break up the big six.. just a few sour fans on here are laughable! P.s. some of your fans want ancelotti to walk!!! If hes not there neither will james, allan etc!

You won today due to a horrendous penalty decision against a side with 4 of its best players missing

Sit down you helmet

 

[Jebus_lives]

Did people genuinely think players that were average last season had suddenly become good?

Outside of our first 11 we aren't very good. We knew that.

 

[Bkk Andy]

Hi lads... a geordie here. I had a little peek at this forum after the match to see your reaction after this game.

In my opinion you didnt want to win this game, until you went 2 nil down. Played the ball across your back 4 most of the first half with hardly any attacking intent. Obviously you didnt have some of your best players but I was bemused by the squad selection, with so many cm's.

Newcastle arent in a great way and are lacking in a few areas as well as bruceys tactics at times, but to come on here and listen to some of your comments.. you'd think yous had won the league for the last 10 years in a row".

I thought wow you have such high expectations, perhaps its because you have been so good this year? So i had a look...

1-0 win at spurs.. played well, deserved the win

5-2 win at west brom - went a goal down twice in first half, then west brom went to 10 men on 45mins.

2-1 win at Palace, winning goal with a penalty

4-2 win at brighton

2-2 draw with Liverpool. VAR! Say no more!

2-0 loss to southampton

2-1 loss to newcastle

So my point is, really good results vs spurs and brighton, but other than that.. hardly liverpool of last season!

I think you need to settle down as today was as comfortable a game as we have had in a long time.. we also missed 2 chances which would have been scored any other day!

Good luck for the season! I genuinely hope you do something in the league to break up the big six.. just a few sour fans on here are laughable! P.s. some of your fans want ancelotti to walk!!! If hes not there neither will james, allan etc!

Whilst I agree with pretty much everything you said the biggest wake up call should be getting advice from a Geordie, the club with the most deluded set of fans in the country.

 

[BlueToff]

Disagree mate. The fact is we didnt shift out enough players by a long shot...we had to move on 10 players really and bring in 3 more.

At the moment were stuck in limbo waiting for players to leave.

This coming summer theres 6 or 7 off but 2022 almost all of our deadwood will be out of contract.

Getting in players such as James and Allan keeps us ticking over until 2022 and we gradually add more in like Doucoure and Godfrey for the mid-long term.

Kean going to PSG is a masterstroke. Hes a poacher and was played by us on the right (where admittedly ive seen him do well in italy) and as a target man.

He'll either come back a different player next summer or we'll make a decent profit to then be able to put towards more players.

We csnt keep signing players without clearing out the squad...we should have let bernard go...free transfer and £6mil profit on the books would have been ideal.

Gordons not getting a game and yet hes been our 3rd best wide player behind Richarlison and James.

I think we need Holgate and Godfrey to be in the mix at CB as well...

I agree, Zat, we didn't shift enough players. But the two we did shift late on means we're even shorter in an area where we were already short.

Gordon is a young lad and for a team with aspirations to be pushing for Europe we can't just be chucking him in as third choice behind Richarlison or James.

We absolutely 100% needed another forward. It was utterly daft not to get one.

 

[Alanbileysfeathercut]

Hi lads... a geordie here. I had a little peek at this forum after the match to see your reaction after this game.

In my opinion you didnt want to win this game, until you went 2 nil down. Played the ball across your back 4 most of the first half with hardly any attacking intent. Obviously you didnt have some of your best players but I was bemused by the squad selection, with so many cm's.

Newcastle arent in a great way and are lacking in a few areas as well as bruceys tactics at times, but to come on here and listen to some of your comments.. you'd think yous had won the league for the last 10 years in a row".

I thought wow you have such high expectations, perhaps its because you have been so good this year? So i had a look...

1-0 win at spurs.. played well, deserved the win

5-2 win at west brom - went a goal down twice in first half, then west brom went to 10 men on 45mins.

2-1 win at Palace, winning goal with a penalty

4-2 win at brighton

2-2 draw with Liverpool. VAR! Say no more!

2-0 loss to southampton

2-1 loss to newcastle

So my point is, really good results vs spurs and brighton, but other than that.. hardly liverpool of last season!

I think you need to settle down as today was as comfortable a game as we have had in a long time.. we also missed 2 chances which would have been scored any other day!

Good luck for the season! I genuinely hope you do something in the league to break up the big six.. just a few sour fans on here are laughable! P.s. some of your fans want ancelotti to walk!!! If hes not there neither will james, allan etc!

I'd worry about your own club.
You been bought over yet?
Liverpool still your 2nd team?

 

[BlueToff]

Really wasn’t worth the risk to pay what Palace would have wanted. That’s what it boils down too, the wage bill is still too huge to accommodate another £100-150k a week player who has days where he can go missing

Even with King, Bournemouth were pricing him out late into the window that no one ended up buying him

We don't really know what Palace would have wanted. The talk is about £45m would have brought them tp the table.

Imagine our side having that option.

People were saying we didn't need a new signing because 'where would he play'.

That's not how successful squads work.

 

[Steve Wigan]

The last two matches have to set off alarm bells

The sides he’s picked, the tactics and the fact he can’t motivate this lot are all a worry

Or we can bury our heads in the sand and pretend we are going to win the league

You're talking complete tosh. We are a project that has just started and need to strengthen the squad ,but we are making progress.

 

[BlueToff]

Today was the player's fault 100%.

If they don't want to try their best when they can go top of the table, then maybe they don't deserve to wear the shirt.

Until they are removed from the squad we will achieve nothing.

Carlo's decisions were baffling Tim.

We can say that.

The players aren't good enough but Carlo kept the players who offer nothing on and took the ones offering something (bar Gomes, granted) off.

The system was absolutely dreadful and didn't work one bit.

It wasn't good enough from him and the players were crap.

 

[ToffeeTim]

No one likes to hear it, but if want to qualify for European, you have to deal with injuries and pick up points at teams like Southampton and Newcastle.

The fact we weren't able to suggests a long boring season of mid table irrelevance.

Only an extremely lucky team can expect to cope with only 10 or 11 decent outfield players.

 

[ToffeeTim]

Carlo's decisions were baffling Tim.

We can say that.

The players aren't good enough but Carlo kept the players who offer nothing on and took the ones offering something (bar Gomes, granted) off.

The system was absolutely dreadful and didn't work one bit.

It wasn't good enough from him and the players were crap.

Both goals came from individual errors.

Gomes is unlucky too but Mina just had a horrible moment. We should be keeping a clean sheet today. And longer it goes at nil nil I think we can nick one.

I could understand if Iwobi, Gordon or Bernard were offering a threat but the reality is none of them do. Gordon is young enough still to improve but he did nothing last week.

 

[DaChunk]

The rot has proper sunk in now. Been saying it since before the Liverpool game. Performances regressing by the week. Weak mentality.

 

[mrmcgee]

Whilst I agree with pretty much everything you said the biggest wake up call should be getting advice from a Geordie, the club with the most deluded set of fans in the country.

Its a myth mate. Everyone i know just doesnt want to be part of a relegation fight. We just want a team that shows some fight, win lose or draw. Thats whats been missing for so long. Its the likes of carragher, neville and richard keys who constantly say nufc fans are deluded, not our actual actions... although i must admit we all got excited by the prospect of us being the richest club in the world sobering moment when it collapsed and we signed hendricks on a free

 

[BlueToff]

Olsen - 7 - made two really good saves, not at fault for the goals
Kenny - 5 - he's poor but shouldn't have been taken off
Mina - 4 - dreadful for their second goal, we just can't play him and Keane against pace but Godfrey's injury left us short
Keane - 6 - he didn't really do anything wrong tbf
Nkounkou - 6 - couldn't get forward as an attacking threat but defended well. Shouldn't have gone off.
Allan - 6 - All round solid, did his job better than he has in a fair few weeks
Doucoure - 5 - Why are we playing him so deep? There's no need and it negates what he's good at completely.
Delph - 5 - Utter crab. Why take two touches when you can take 5?
Gomes - 3 - Bloke's confidence looks shot. Soft peng but he was caught napping.
Sigurdsson - 3 - less said the better
Calvert-Lewin - 7 - one half-chance and he sniffs out a goal

Bernard - 6 - tried to make stuff happen, not helped by having no shape to the team
Iwobi - 5 - He's so erratic, his cross was crap and it was lucky Dom got there
Tosun - 4 - MIA, and bloody hell he's literally been in training 2 mins after a severe injury and he's our only option

Carlo - 2 - there's no defending him for the tactics or decisions today, other than to say we're left with crap because our transfer strategy was negligent at the end of the window

 

[Dwight K Schrute]

Today was the player's fault 100%.

If they don't want to try their best when they can go top of the table, then maybe they don't deserve to wear the shirt.

Until they are removed from the squad we will achieve nothing.

100%??

Yeah they are mostly terrible and most of them have the hearts of mice, but come on!

Selection and subs were awful. If Carlo would have made the same basic calls even with slightly better players they would have really struggled today.

We know most of our players are bad, but read my original post, when you list it like that, it is all on the manager.