Tufan changed the game, still don’t think Xisco know his best 11 a point was a fair result as I thought Newcastle should have had a few goals in the 1st half. I’m not confident with Xisco at all I think we need to get a new coach in soon as we have some very challenging games approaching and I can’t see us picking up many points.
I'm not going to get too excited, after all we should have lost really against a pretty grim Newcastle side, but we finally showed something after going behind
Decent first ten and last ten. The rest eminently forgettable. Made Newcastle look like world beaters unable to pass coherently a midfield vacuum. Some excellent players but you have to play as a unit. King looked good. Pedro too and has some more strength. Rose was quite obviously MOTM. England recall perhaps. ? Cathcart made a vital interception late on but he and a couple of others need to be moved into the shade. Etebo playing deep allows the rest of the midfield to flourish. How he has been dropped and unfortunately picked up a hamstring strain now beats me. Tufan was a real bright spark. Adds the invention and technique and spreads the play as an advanced playmaker. Shame that pass to Sarr was a tad overhit otherwise that would have been a first assist. Dennis was poor today. Needs to pick his head up and be less selfish. Sarr also needs to attack his full back more especially given that it was Ritchie but did not shy away from the hurry burly. Class header and another assist for King. The referee was an utter clown. Ritchie, Hayden and Manquillo all escaped a red card. Lots to work on before Leeds but if we can get Sierralta back, Pedro up to speed with Tufan and drop Etebo as an anchor we look far better balanced. Nice to see Kiko and Ngakia playing well today as well. The international break needs a good look at analysing our set pieces and defending them and working the ball in midfield and final third. For much of the game there was nothing in midfield and considering who we have as midfielders that is disappointing. The balance with Etebo and Tufan and Sissoko is a level above that with Kucka and Cleverly. Obviously we can rotate position and players in there. Still overall disappointing to drop two points to what will be another relegation candidate.
Worriyingly woeful defending but at least we matched them 2nd half. Thought Newcastle actually played ok and I'll give them a bit of credit for making us look like cloggers. Shame King was offside.
Definitely a point gained. No idea how we got anything out of the game. Positives but not many. We didn't give up, Tufan is ready and good to see Pedro back.
That Newcastle squad is decent, but their manager is pretty dire, dare I say worse than Xisco. Felt gutted when the goal was chalked off, although it did feel a little better when I saw that King was miles off. Still, another assist for him, better than nothing!
An absolutely shameful error strewn embarrassment of a first half, second half better but still some comically bad moments. The harsh fact is that us aside, that is the second worst team in the league at home, plus they had key players out. We need at least 8 more wins, if you can’t get one of those 8 in those circumstances the question is when can you? We may lack creativity in midfield but we’ve got players who can be combative, yet we still get overrun in every game. We also didn’t exploit the fact both fullbacks were on yellows, no football intelligence. Another side better than Newcastle would’ve punished the never ending stream of errors a lot more. I really dread to think of the outcome when we finally play a good team.
It wasn't entirely a must win just yet, but it was certainly a must not lose. Thankfully we didn't. A point seemed just about fair overall. I'm not convinced by Foster and Cathcart being back - Foster should have saved the goal, even if he made some good stops later on, and Cathcart almost cost us with another lax back-pass. They could both easily lead us back down to the Champ again. Tufan looked class when he came on, he has a fantastic first touch. We'll certainly need him as Etebo looked screwed at the final whistle after definitely pulling something sprinting back. Clevs prob should have been subbed earlier, was clearly disoriented after that whack. King was miles offside for the goal, not sure what he was thinking. His general play was good again but his lack of sharpness in front of goal is apparent. He also should have rather slid in Dennis when he had that second half run and shot. I know it's his first game back in a while, but Joao Pedro looked a waste of a shirt when he came on - strange sub. CF will remain a problem position with our current lot. Sissoko was great. Kucka looked a bit more energetic again than recent performances, but also appears a red card waiting to happen.
Poor first half , better second half (after subs) by **** was that an exciting last 10 mins Cathcart poor, Foster made some vital saves (think we need to see Bachman back though) 7 points from 6 games not awful , but 9 would have been better
We’ve got away with one there. Definitely didn’t deserve a point, battered for most of it. Another poor performance, lose at Leeds and you’d think that’s Xisco done
Kucka and Cleverley look like two players who were good enough a few years ago, but who have lost a step and can't do it on a consistent basis now (albeit Cleverley did pick up a head knock early on!) 100% our best midfield is Etebo, Sissoko and Tufan. Dennis looked far too quick to cut onto his left today, I mean I get that he's a right-footer, but he showed his intentions too easily, as if he has absolutely no left foot whatsoever, Sarr did OK and did score, but yeah, more attacking his man (a makeshift full-back at that), less tentativeness and going to ground. Agreed that we need to work on set-pieces, Longstaff had two shots that weren't far away from the second ball from set-pieces, we were ******* warned!
I fear Leeds will be another Wolves, a team in bad form who can’t buy a win but they’ll magically become a good team again against us.
Foster did make some crucial saves, but they were all the kind of meat and drink saves that Bachmann would have saved. For all Bachmann's faults, I don't remember them peppering our 6 yard box with crosses, and he definitely would have saved the Longstaff shot
Thoroughly enjoyed that second half, both are teams are crap and will be battling relgation, end to end stuff after we scored, celebrating our 2nd and forgetting VAR existed for a moment haha. Foster should have saved their first goal but showed he had the reactions of a 39 year old, pulled off some good saves after though. It is going to be a long hard season but we knew that before the started. Love the Prem though, every game is an event.
Sometimes if you can’t win a match, make sure you don’t lose it. A point feels disappointing as it looked an eminently winnable fixture at home, the last one at the Vic for a while that you can say that about. But it’s another point in the bank, and none of the three previously winless sides today managed 3 points despite all leading at one stage. Next Saturday will be our 4th consecutive game against opponents who’ve yet to win this season. A very strange quirk of fate.
Referee was beyond awful. I heard that's his first or second top flight game. It's ok, when he gets home he can take off his Newcastle top. Almost everything went their way especially first half, but it's hard to put the two points dropped down to the ref. Newcastle's goal was a great strike, but he should of been closed down much sooner thanks to some poor choices at the back. Foster did not exactly win GO PRO of the year award and should of saved it. We were deservedly booed off at the break and although somewhat fortunate - Newcastle deserved the lead. Second half was better, but only marginally. I think our pressure deserved the equalizer, and it was well taken by Sarr. He seems the only player apart from Dennis who look capable of scoring at this level which is a real concern. What a chance Newcastle had though right at the death, how Jacob Murray missed when clean through with Foster.... but we got away with a point, and it's one more than the performance deserved. Defeats for Norwich, Leeds and only a point for Burnley means we pull a little further clear as it stands. Performance levels must improve overall, and the slack way we are playing (especially at home all of a sudden) is going to derail any chance we have of survival this season. If you don't win, try not to lose, which we just about did today. On another day we walk out of this game with three points, or zero points. A draw was probably fair overall, two very under performing sides and we will take the point more than Newcastle will however. Lots to work on, especially in communication and levels. Leeds away next, and yet another team who are struggling for goals and form at the start of the season. We get three points there, that's 7 from our last nine - pretty good. But let's not sugarcoat today because we didn't lose, we were below par and Xisco must have seen that. Foster needs to get his head out of social media and back on the pitch too - some of his positioning especially first half was terrible. Shout Box was awesome again - thank you to everyone who took part.
I missed watford"s winner being ruled out by VAR because I had my t shirt over my head and was slapping my belly. #VAR
Applying the 'if you can't win then at least draw' rule we've managed something we've not done 3 other times this season. So a little credit is due. But that's really it. We've thrown away two winnable home games on the bounce now and earned 1pt and a 1-3 aggregate defeat from them. It's feeling like 19/20 all over again. Oh and Mr Gillett needs transporting back to the colonies pronto.
Just looked at the stats , we made 19 fowls, in comparison Leeds only made 10 , are we now Dirty Watford ?
Fine but why does numpty lino not put his flag up immediately? He was clearly chatting with Steve Smith in the middle but left it down for a ridiculous amount of time. I trust VAR wirh offside calls but that sort of thing sours it a little. Flag up straight away and King doesn't end up shirt off halfway up the lower GT (or whatever).
Ref happy to yellow early on but would never gmhave got a second yellow out. epitomised by booking Darlow in injury time for doing something he did all game.. Didnt want to make a wrong bad decision on his debut, so made no decision but the easy ones. Fair dinkum he said after the game.
Tbf it was one of those were King went that bit too early one way, while the Newcastle defence went the other way, I didn't spot it in real time and I don't blame the officials for not spotting it neither!
I actually quite enjoyed that in the end, something I thought I wouldn't say at half time. The first 10 or so minutes we looked alright, and there were some nice interchanges (including one really decent 3 pass chain that was really incisive). We were then very poor for the rest of the first half. The team looked like a bunch of strangers (which to be fair they are, to a point). Second half was a substantial improvement. Tufan was the difference maker, I think; Cleverley, Kucka and Sissoko don't work as a three because they all have a more defensive/tackling/closing down based game. We need a more creative outlet as one of the three and Tufan definitely looks to fit that role. Fluffed an unfortunately easy looking opportunity to put Sarr through, but as first games go it was promising and hopefully he can build on it. Looking forward to seeing more of what he can do. Some shocking individual errors today, in many cases unforced. Not sure if it's confidence or nerves, but it needs to be addressed. Cathcart was particularly fortunate that Newcastle didn't capitalise on his horrendous backpass. That sort of error is just indefensible and he has more than enough experience not to do that sort of thing. I'm torn over how harsh to be on Foster for their goal; it took a deflection which might have been what deceived him in the end, but I feel like he should have done slightly better and that feeling is only strengthened by the fact he pounded the floor with his fist in frustration after it went in. If he feels he could have done better then it was probably a mistake. Etebo looked good when he came on; hopefully he isn't injured, as I think he could be very good for us and I feel a midfield three of Tufan, Etebo and Kucka/Sissoko would be quite effective. Kucka looks like he has a decent shot on him, should be good for a few goals this year I think. Sarr was pretty anonymous first half but quite good in the second half. Nice to see him score a headed goal (and from a set piece, no less). He did miss one 1-2 opportunity near the end of the second half with Ngakia that would have put Ngakia through down the flanks for an uncontested cross. I think if that had been Kiko, Sarr probably would have returned the ball. Whether or not that's lack of faith in Ngakia's ability to deliver or just lack of time playing together, I don't know. I feel bad for King that he thought he scored and then had it taken away from him, but it was a definite offside, no doubt about it. Our fans came through quite well today, I thought, despite the Newcastle fans' bizarre library taunt. The noise when the disallowed second went in was incredible, too. Pretty sure Sierralta must have had some kind of strop over the international situation. Him not being in the squad and playing poorly v Stoke make me suspect he didn't take that well. Hopefully we can get him back soon, because he's an asset we need. Final word on the ref: I thought he was absolutely shocking. Initially he just looked like he was giving everything against us, but he then went on to make a bizarre set of decisions against Newcastle too. He was poor for both teams, although I think we got the worst of it. The two early bookings were a joke (neither ours nor theirs was a yellow). Sarr was kicked to pieces all game, being fouled so often I lost count, many of the fouls unpunished. The early decision where the Newcastle defender was all over Sarr and then won a foul after practically throwing Sarr to the floor summed things up perfectly; utterly bizarre decisions all game long. They should have been down to 10 at the end; kicking the ball away in dissent is a bookable offence. You walk for that if you're already on a yellow, and he bottled it. All in all, very poor showing from the referee. We're going to need to improve as a unit fairly quickly, but there are more promising signs offensively than in prior games and I think the midfield/forwards are are least starting to come together more. The biggest concern for me would be the silly unforced errors we keep making under no pressure. It's one thing being physically unable to compete and making mistakes due to that, but when you're under no pressure it's something else entirely.
I doubt it, I would say we are where we are meant to be with the correct number of points really. A defeat away to a good Leeds side wont make any difference.
It was the slightest of deflections, certainly didn't look like it overly distracted Foster seeing as he got a good hand to it. I guess the lesson from today is that as long as we can keep Tufan fit, we have a chance, we have something different in our locker, but without him we look very ordinary
