Newcastle United’s worst performance of the season at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday afternoon saw them thrashed 4-0. In what was billed as a pivotal game at the top of the Premier League table, United fell well short of what’s required and left the Northwest well and truly humbled.
Man City’s scorers were via a first half hattrick from Omar Marmoush and James McAtee late in the second half.
Here are our five takeaways from the game:
- Shocking game plan
Eddie Howe’s passive game plan against a defensively weak team was truly baffling. It felt like we played their reputation and not the actual players on the pitch.
We were sluggish, could barely connect any passes, and everyone seemed lethargic, as if they were recovering from the mother of all hangovers.
The gameplan was a hugely misjudged, it was perhaps the worst read of an opponent I’ve ever seen, especially considering the recent successes against Arsenal and Birmingham, where they got pretty much everything right.
- One eye on the Cup Final?
This comment appeared frequently on social media during the game – well, if that’s the case then it’s going to be a bloody long month. We simply cannot allow this month to drift, the games we have are too big, mean too much and deserve our full focus.
It stinks of a small team mentality and it’s something the team needs to shift away from quickly as it continues to plague us when we play in big games.
Developing a winning mentality requires time and effort. Given Newcastle United’s long period without major success, it may take some time for this mindset to evolve and change.
It will certainly require us to strengthen the squad and lift its quality ‘floor’, something we have been unable/unwilling to do (delete as according to personal feelings) in the last THREE transfer windows.
- No credit whatsoever
Nobody comes out of that game with any credit whatsoever. There’s no point singling anybody out; everyone was poor from the starting eleven, to the subs, to the coaches, to some of the embarrassing head-loss comments and posts on social media.
To be fair the team were slightly better early in the second half after Miley and Livramento were introduced at halftime but it’s always an uphill battle when you’re already 3-0 down at half time.
90% of teams don’t come back from 2-0 down (as was proven by Sky Sports a few years ago) let alone 3-0 and Man City have been so inconsistent recently they were happy to let us have the ball and sit back, ultimately adding a fourth late in the second half.
- Most of our rivals won too…
To compound a deeply disappointing afternoon for Newcastle most of our rivals for a top four/five position won too. Bournemouth, Brentford, Fulham and Brighton (on Friday night) all picking up three points to concertina the top half even more, with Villa picking up a point too.
It’s going to be a scrap for the Champions League positions that likely comes down to the last weekend of the season and United just have to find a way to stay in contention until then; with Forest and Liverpool being our next two games we will simply have to be much, much better to pick up points and will know a lot more about our fate come the end of February.
- Please, let’s try not to lose our heads completely
My brother and I often see football differently, especially during the 90 minutes. We have debates about tactics and players like any other siblings who support the same team, and they can often be heated; he’s more of a full-on vociferous fan, whereas I’m more of an analytical fan.
Despite our different outlooks, what we both agreed on post-match is that there cannot be a massive collective head loss following this game. Yes, it was poor (as I’ve outlined above) and it feels worse because there was such confidence in the fan base prior to kick-off about our chances of finally winning a game at the Etihad, but we have such huge games coming up we, like the players must forget about this game quickly.
It’s also important to bear in mind that Man City were having a stinking season and were able to go out and spend £200m to correct the problems they were having. We were not. Just hours before the game PSR/APT rules that were designed to stop us following the PIF takeover were ruled ‘void’ and ‘unenforceable’ hopefully these sorts of decisions will allow our megarich owners to finally flex their muscles in the upcoming transfer windows or sue the league for anticompetitive practices.
Unfortunately, all that means nothing until the summer and Eddie Howe and the players will have to push through until the end of the season. We have been made weaker by the league’s rules forcing us to sell yet more players in January, and we are yet to have our true breakout moment like Man City did 14 years ago following their first Premier League title.
But we are still in the FA Cup fifth round and are just a good 90 minutes away from our first domestic trophy in 70 years. The 90 minutes on Saturday were awful but the big picture at United is much, much brighter.
Keep the faith.
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