polegategavin

Even when Bednarek was culpable for both Newcastle’s goals last night, his usual half hearted attempt at blocking a cross and then a shot for each goal. And the keeper gets the blame for not stopping point blank shots instead 🤪

I’m staggered by the negativity towards our own team on this forum. we have a new manager who will be here until at least the end of the season, why don’t we just support (him and) the team and give them as much energy to go out and do what we all want them to do, win as many games as possible and not be relegated.

Or playing Football Manager! Regardless of being bottom of the league or not we are a fair way down the pecking order when players consider a move to us, and they want to ensure that other options aren’t possible first, leaving us to wait until the end of the transfer window. Moffi was an example, we clearly wanted him but he has received a better option (in his opinion).

And this was solely (if at all) the fault of Nathan Jones?

Except the “pre-season” was 1 match and 5 weeks of training, not the same as a full pre-season. The criticism of Jones is harsh, especially given the time he has actually managed the team. You can’t count the Liverpool game he simply sat and watched it as he had arrived hours before. I feel everyone is frustrated by the lack of new manager bounce, especially given our position in the league, but these things are never guaranteed. I see some positives, and feel we need to allow Jones another month or so to see if the performances improve, as the team selection becomes settled and the players learn the new style. Seems ironic that people are complaining about the style and then saying they’d rather we had appointed Dyche.

Goalkeepers always get the credit for clean sheets, but it is actually teams that earn clean sheets.

I do think Mara has earned the chance to play a few games to show what he can do, and I feel a front 3 of Armstrong (A), Mara and Edozie would be our best, and have been responsible for some of our better attacking performances in the last few weeks. Orsic can come on a sub for whichever has run themselves into the ground during the second half.

I completely agree Chez, in fact in the first half Jones was getting exasperated after about 20 minutes, he called Djenepo over gave him some harsh words, and then had another word with him about 10 minutes later. Other players got frustrated at Djenepo, as he was offering no defensive cover and then not available for a pass. He seems like someone with brain fog and although he can be exciting sometimes, he far too often struggles to do the basics or read the game. With Orsic struggling on the other wing tonight, it was a lot of the reason why we were out fought and played in the first half. His injury was a blessing, and I stated so at the time he was substituted.

Having been a season ticket holder now for more than 15 years, and attending a good percentage of games before that for over 25 years, I’ve seen all standards of keeper. I also played football to National League level, albeit as an outfield player, and IMHO Bazunu is a far better keeper than Gunn was, and I also feel he makes far fewer mistakes than McCarthy did/ would. If we could have afforded a keeper , and attracted them, we would have clearly signed Bazunu as understudy. But some of the vitriol against him, especially when you look back at the abject performances from both McCarthy and Foster in recent history, and now they are being held up as a better option, is unfair in my opinion. Sometimes just because a keeper concedes a higher number of goals they become a bad keeper. I’d like to know the mistakes he has made that have made some fans feel he is so bad?

No we didn’t, it was a clean tackle, he pushed the ball away from the penalty area, if it had been a foul the ball would have continue off the end of the pitch for a goal kick. Fans simply want a scape goat, and Bazunu is it at the moment.

You could flip this around completely. Perhaps Bazunu’s confidence is affected by the abject defending at times. I have been a fan of DCC since he came into the team, but he was completely at fault for the goal on Saturday, as he was marking Watkins and decided to not track back at all and ended up 2 yards behind him. Probably expecting the defence to have held their line, but we seem too inclined to rely on playing the opposition offside and it is being timed well by the opposition. We must have conceded about 8 to 10 goals in the same way, from either a cross, free kick or through ball this season. Why the coaches haven’t changed this approach and simply defend the box as other compact teams do I just don’t know. Everyone seems to be scapegoating Bazunu simply because he is young, and most mistakes he makes results in conceding a goal, but if an outfield player concedes the ball or leaves their runner it still becomes the keepers fault. Lazy supporter attitude I’m afraid. My overall opinion is that the margins between us being successful or not are very small, and given the right support I still feel we can turn things around, butturning on the players won’t help.

I just can’t see how xG determined we had a probability of scoring at less than 1 and Man City had a probability oF more than 1 when the chances in the game were at best similar, and the fact that a lobbed shot and a stroked home shot for our 2 goals did not require anything unusual or exceptional to provide our 2 goals. When the xG for us isn’t somewhere between 1 and 2 in this particular game, I am sceptical about the logic of the analysis.

Exactly! Better explanation than mine. And probably will help Bazunu’s confidence too

I feel DCC is key, as he seems to Marshall the defence and provides more confidence and keeps things calm at the back.

These stats seem contradictory. How can a team that has made so many long passes have 59% of possession and 80% passing accuracy? I wonder what constitutes a long pass for these stats. It is interesting though that West Ham get a reputation of being a long ball team. My perception was that they were a long ball team, however these stats are for the current season, and they have not had Carlton Cole or Andy Carroll playing, and IMHO this means they would have to play a different style. It certainly seemed to me that when Saints played them last season they were using the long ball tactic against us. Maybe this was because Allardyce felt we were weak in this area of defence. I will watch with interest on Sunday, but I wouldn't expect us to be playing the "long ball" very often, I feel we mix it up, and have used the possession game, short passing and move style, and that this has been part of our problem with a lack of goals as we are sometimes trying to be over intricate.