Newcastle 0-0 LCFC - Post-Match Thread

[mod hero]

4 minutes ago, oxtonfox said:

It says something when the woodwork is your best defender. 

Souttar was immense last night to be fair 

[sacreblueits442]

8 minutes ago, Dames said:

I dont make it sound like a given. My gripe is that there was no attempt to win the game until the 92nd minute. A lot of people on here are praising that attempt btw so who knows maybe if we had more we’d have stood a better chance? We won’t know however now because it was left too late. 

...we had no one in central midfield who could transition the play when Newcastle lost the ball!!!

  The big surprise was Maddison being  left out, he should have been the #8 used in that situation which could take the ball from the edge of our box and bring it forward..

  Nacho was clearly not ready and having a two upfront effectively we were playing with one man less. The idea was clearly to break on them, but we were just hooking balls away,  anywhere would do, it wasn't pretty and I am sure was not the plan.

[smudgerfox]

23 minutes ago, StanSP said:

Yet we still didn't concede. Yes we rode our luck, but it wasn't just because Newcastle couldn't finish. We had bodies in the right place to cut down their clear cut opportunities. The fact they only had 4 shots on target to me says we were defensively solid. Lucky in some part, yes. Defensively organised, yes. 

 

There may not have been an attacking plan of sorts but that's what the plan was. Soak up all the pressure and get a goal as late as possible. It nearly worked. 

 

Nearly isn't good enough for us now, but I'd have rather yesterday happened as opposed to attack from the off and be 3-0 down by half time and game over. You make it sound like a given that if we did attack then we definitely would have won. 

Time to dig out your prediction table of a few weeks ago Stan..how’s that looking now?

[LCFCJohn]

1 hour ago, ClaphamFox said:

Although I’d prefer to be in Everton’s position, I wonder if it might suit our team psychologically to be chasing rather than at the front of the pack? If survival was ours to lose rather than gain at Everton’s expense, I could see some of our lot folding under the pressure.

I think I agree with this. Plus if Everton had lost at the weekend we could have stayed up with a draw had they lost but I think this suits us better. We need a win. We need not even bother knowing what Everton are doing as it does not matter in that it changes or goal. Just do the business.

[StanSP]

Just now, smudgerfox said:

Time to dig out your prediction table of a few weeks ago Stan..how’s that looking now?

Utterly shite. 

 

Does that make you feel better

 

 

[Dames]

8 minutes ago, Guest said:

It was pretty grim stuff. I'm not sure I've ever seen a team approach a game with less ambition to win or even score. Perhaps this time next week we'll be looking back and seeing this for the Dean Smith masterclass it truly is but for now it does sort of seem like we were really quite happy for our fate to be taken out of our hands, maybe because it means we might have someone else to blame now if it goes wrong on the final day.

 

I accept that if we'd gone there trying to hammer Newcastle they'd almost certainly have opened us up but a) they did basically do that anyway, with the only real difference between yesterday and Liverpool being that three of their shots hit the woodwork rather than going in and b) I would like to imagine there could have been some sort of middle ground between suicidal all-out attack and total refusal to actively participate in the game. Even at the very end when we somehow ended up having them pretty rattled, we looked reluctant to take advantage, as though we weren't entirely sure that scoring a goal would be of any benefit to us. If we don't win and/or Everton do then those last couple of minutes where Iversen was wasting time and our forwards were happily allowing Botman and Schar to play keep ball are going to feel even more odd in retrospect.

A lot of people are so desperate to find any sort of positive they won’t accept that there is and should have been a middle ground. 

[smudgerfox]

3 minutes ago, StanSP said:

Utterly shite. 

 

Does that make you feel better

 

 

Not much - repost it - let’s have a gander

[yorkie1999]

Still don't get last nights game, we had one spell where we looked a completly different side and nearly scored, was that the plan? to hold on for 85 minutes and just wait for one chance.  surely not, or are there darker forces at work.

[Death by Football]

Bizarrely I quite enjoyed that match. It made a nice change to watch my team show some fight. I fully expected us to lose so a point is a bonus. We needed a win to keep it in our hands but based on performances this season there was no way that was going to happen. At least the pressure on Everton to win is there rather than being able to settle for a draw. 
Just a shame we’ve shown some fight and it’s too little too late. 
 

[Balj]

Don't concede first seemed to be the message and the gameplay. Frustrating as Nacho was a waste of a player (not ready) when Maddison was sat on the bench to give us at least a semblance of being able to transition back to front. As it was we were no threat until the last 10. 

 

Still think we would have the worst 2 keepers in the Championship let alone the Prem.

[Dames]

16 minutes ago, sacreblueits442 said:

...we had no one in central midfield who could transition the play when Newcastle lost the ball!!!

  The big surprise was Maddison being  left out, he should have been the #8 used in that situation which could take the ball from the edge of our box and bring it forward..

  Nacho was clearly not ready and having a two upfront effectively we were playing with one man less. The idea was clearly to break on them, but we were just hooking balls away,  anywhere would do, it wasn't pretty and I am sure was not the plan.

Your first sentence highlights exactly why I cant get behind the plan. There was no coherent plan on attempting to press the ball, turn it over and make chances for ourselves. 
 

This is why is so unforgivable for me. If we made more of an effort to win the game i’d have fully backed it but we didnt. 

[Dames]

8 minutes ago, yorkie1999 said:

Still don't get last nights game, we had one spell where we looked a completly different side and nearly scored, was that the plan? to hold on for 85 minutes and just wait for one chance.  surely not, or are there darker forces at work.

No. That was the plan. 2 wins needed to secure safety and that was the plan. 

[TheFiveTime]

Still some fraility in there, defo some nerves, but I was actually proud of the team last night for their spirit, determination and the fact that even against overwhelming odds we never gave up or let the heads drop. Although we cant repeat that game plan, more of the fight for west ham and pressure will be on everton

[Gamble92]

23 minutes ago, mod hero said:

Souttar was immense last night to be fair 

Three cheers for Souttar

[sacreblueits442]

6 minutes ago, Dames said:

A lot of people are so desperate to find any sort of positive they won’t accept that there is and should have been a middle ground. 

...this game required a plan which we failed to execute fully!!!

  Thus is not the games you should be looking at, it was the previous games where we dropped points because we went out there trying to win games and being opened up at will.

  Smith continues to tryst Tielemans and Soumare in the centre of midfield and they are weak points in this team. Defensively they are pretty much why teams walk straight through us, we needed other players to support our defense, Smith does not see that.

  I would like to see a back three with the wingbacks pushing forward more, Mendy brought back in and Maddison as the #8 beside him. That would probably be your middle ground, but I would like to see us use Tete and Barnes as added fire power.

[Twitcher]

I still think we should have tried to take the game to them more last night. I accept it took Leeds out of our survival equation, and put us in theirs. Imagine needing to win and have two other results that have to go in your favour. So I do get that, but I still think it will mean we'll fall short, whereas a win last night...

If we do stay up though, we'll have to be able to compete more with teams than what we saw last night, or we'd only be putting off relegation for a season.

[StonyFox]

If we go down, a draw at Newcastle isn't the reason why. It's home defeats to Southampton and Bournemouth that will have lead to relegation. Only two teams have won at Newcastle this season, the only way we could have was the game plan we had last night. Keep it tight, try and snatch a goal. 

 

A win would have been better, but we're only relying on one team to slip up, not two now. 

[StanSP]

23 minutes ago, smudgerfox said:

Not much - repost it - let’s have a gander

Nah, you can find it considering you care about it enough to bring it up again

 

[egg_fried_rice]

The morning after it still feels like a ridiculous way to approach a must win game.

 

In principle, I have no problem in setting up a deep defensive block against a better team, hoping to hit them on the counter. We were really poor at the counter bit which is no great surprise given our form, but fair enough.

 

What I can’t accept is that as the game went on at 0-0, us clearly deciding to settle for the draw rather than throwing everything at the win. Even if that opened us up defensively. We went 424 against Wolves to some effect so it is possible.

 

Instead, it was an open concession that “we can’t win this game”. I know we are shit, I know Newcastle were in form and people were expecting a battering, but I don’t think that’s ever an appropriate position for a team and manager to ever take. What’s the point otherwise? It’s football - we all know the most unlikely results can happen - but only if you give yourself a chance at going after them.

 

For me, a valiant loss in pursuit of a win would have been better than the draw we got last night. Our premier league status is now out of our hands - we surrendered agency about our future as a club because we were scared Newcastle had too much for us. We could beat West Ham 9-0 and we’d still be relying on the Everton result. A loss would have just added a terrible Leeds team into that equation too.

 

I know we’re not down yet, but that game last night really rankles. I’ll still be hoping against hope that somehow we can beat West Ham (who brushed aside Leeds in the end) and a seemingly teflon Everton, buoyed by a last minute winner and some half decent fighting performances in recent weeks, finally lose their premier league stick.

[volpeazzurro]

39 minutes ago, sacreblueits442 said:

...we had no one in central midfield who could transition the play when Newcastle lost the ball!!!

  The big surprise was Maddison being  left out, he should have been the #8 used in that situation which could take the ball from the edge of our box and bring it forward..

  Nacho was clearly not ready and having a two upfront effectively we were playing with one man less. The idea was clearly to break on them, but we were just hooking balls away,  anywhere would do, it wasn't pretty and I am sure was not the plan.

In fairness, Maddison was pretty ineffective when he came on. Tielemans was again pathetic throughout and should have been left out for Mendy. 

[Dames]

12 minutes ago, StonyFox said:

If we go down, a draw at Newcastle isn't the reason why. It's home defeats to Southampton and Bournemouth that will have lead to relegation. Only two teams have won at Newcastle this season, the only way we could have was the game plan we had last night. Keep it tight, try and snatch a goal. 

 

A win would have been better, but we're only relying on one team to slip up, not two now. 

You're right it won't be the sole reason why but it'll be a big what if. 

[Larry_LCFC]

8 hours ago, sacreblueits442 said:

...for a team that had no confidence and showed no mentality for a fight, going into this game against a team with their record, at home needing a point for the Champions League, this was a well-strategised move by Smith!!!

  At last, he was playing the team in front of him, not the occasion.

If we needed a point for survival, then I'd agree. But we didn't. 

[Chelmofox]

I've slept on this a bit. The really odd feeling i have right now is sense of pride. I don't think i have seen us dig a point like that for some time, and i think it took a lot of discipline at this stage to move away from their natural way of playing. This is the way other teams at the bottom have been doing it, and when they do people say those teams are fighting.  If we have been prepared to be this resolute several times earlier in the season and rack up a few draws, we would be more than safe right now.

 

I don't think for one moment Dean wanted to setup like that at this stage of the season.  But, i feel its the first time he's been in control of things since he came in. Dropping Madders and Barnes was a big statement, and one largely needed and I applaud him for that. This is the best we have seen most of our defense, and the midfield whilst completely unspectacular didn't constantly throw them under a bus.   It was the best i've seen Ndidi in a long time and he actually looked like he enjoyed his job last night.

 

We rode our luck and it almost worked.  Whats so funny when you think about, is that at the end we had Newcastle on the ropes. They couldn't wait for the final whistle.

 

Everyone thought we were getting pumped. Everyone. I thought this could be 3 or 4 - 1.  Anyone thinking we could rock up to Newcastle and smash them off the park needs their heads checked. In retrospect this was the only way to do it. I applaud them all for that. I'm sure they all feel a little dirty having to do it this way, but fair play to them.

 

The final thing to consider is that we kept our first clean sheet in ages and based on the job we have to do, Leeds are taken out of the equation. I've always felt Leeds will beat Spurs as they are a right mess at the moment, but it doesn't matter anymore. As long as we win its about us and Everton. Based on our mentality i think chasing it works out best for us. 

 

 

[TheFish]

Geordie back and in peace.

 

Not the result that I expected (or most of you to be fair), but your boys defended like lions last night. No, you didn't pose many problems up our end until the final 5-10 minutes, but had you tried to play out from the first minute I think we would have taken advantage of that. The way Smith set you up got you one point closer to safety and one top class save away from all 3pts. Oh, and if Bruno had seen red for that tackle, I don't think anyone could complain too loudly. 

 

I know you're now reliant on beating Everton's result, but had you come and lost you would have needed to beat both of the other teams' results, right?

 

For what it's worth I think you'll beat West Ham. You surely won't play like you did last night and with the home fans behind the team that'll be enough to get past a West Ham team who'll likely have made a load of changes and have both eyes on their European Final.

 

Genuinely hope you stay up.

[Aleksz]

They were on it last night and but us putting everything on the line would have pasted us if we’d turned up and gone all out.

 

Thought the plan was brilliant and you could see Deano was frustrated that we weren’t going for it enough late on as per that plan.

 

Think the only thing we got wrong was that Iheanacho wasn’t ready and we might have had more threat had Madders started but that’s just hindsight. If Castagne crashes in that chance we’re all calling it a Dean Smith masterclass.

 

Just need to do our bit and hope for a bit of luck at the weekend now - I think Everton will find it a whole lot more difficult than some of you doom and gloomers think.

 

Onto the weekend.