Newcastle 0-0 LCFC - Post-Match Thread

[Always Next Year]

Can’t wait for Alan the Newcastle hero to cry on TV when Newcastle to get dumped out of Europe.

[weller54]

1 hour ago, Benguin said:

If only Everton were away to a team like Liverpool or United needing a win for champions league. If that were the case I’d back us to beat West Ham and stay up.

 

Bournemouth have nothing to play for and Everton are at home, I can’t see anything but an Everton win. So we go down regardless. 
 

I get that had we lost last night, Everton could have just settled for a point to stay up and there is now some pressure on them but I think we should have gambled last night personally. 
 

ah well I was expecting us to go down and at least there’s a tiny chance we won’t in the final day. 

1/5000 chance. 

[Fox92]

1 hour 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. 

Everton H was the most important at this stage of the season, we needed 3 points from that. 

[BWRL]

1 hour ago, Gamble92 said:

Three cheers for Souttar

Hip Hip Harryyyyyy

[The Doctor]

1 hour ago, Collymore said:

I think if you're going to play like that you need to have at least one nasty massive b*****d upfront. Have him in your squad, for occasions like this. 

cometh the hour, cometh the man:

 

[SouthStandUpperTier]

1 hour 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.

Spot on analysis. Every time our fate is 'in our own hands' (I do hate that phrase) we hand it straight back. It's like we can't deal with, or don't want, the responsibility of saving ourselves.

Edited 23 May 2023 by SouthStandUpperTier

[Stinkenzo]

It's funny after last night that this has appeared in my Facebook memories from 11 years ago. So close. 

[Mike Oxlong]

1 hour ago, Tomlcfc133 said:

Thought everyone to a man was brilliant last night. Showed passion, fight and great discipline 

To me this shows just how far we have fallen. Happy to show almost no attacking threat in a game that we needed a win in  to keep matters in our own hands. Keeping that clean sheet  more by good fortune that design with the width of the post saving us more than once.  I’m not saying that we should have tried to attack them but the balance in relation to attacking intent given our position just wasn’t right. 

[SouthStandUpperTier]

1 minute ago, Mike Oxlong said:

To me this shows just how far we have fallen. Happy to show almost no attacking threat in a game that we needed a win in  to keep matters in our own hands. Keeping that clean sheet  more by good fortune that design with the width of the post saving us more than once.  I’m not saying that we should have tried to attack them but the balance in relation to attacking intent given our position just wasn’t right. 

There were numerous occasions when one of our players picked up possession in space and had time to pick a pass to set us up on the counter. Nope. Every time it was just a first time aimless hoof straight back to Newcastle like the ball was about to explode.

[yorkie1999]

1 hour ago, Dames said:

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

Gonna make it exciting for the american audience on the last day though.

[ronnup]

2 hours ago, stu said:

Don’t need to lose, draw is enough if we win.

They'll win

[foxsake]

Glad of the point and I understand the tactics but it made me feel really sad to see us playing like that.. Just a universe away from the confident, skillful team we used to be.

 

So many 'if only' moments this season.. so many slip ups, VAR decisions etc.. just the rub of the green that would see a ball on the other side of the post or a pass bounce up at the right moment for a shot seemed to elude us in crucial moments.. and then last night it seems we cashed in all our lucky moments after about 500 post-hitting shots from Newcastle and I thought we might just shithouse it.. but no.

 

Everton need the win and I can't see them not getting it.. I hope Mystic Pipes is right and we beat WHam to survive on GD+.. my heart hopes but my mind is already in the barrel of crabs that we call the Championship..

Edited 23 May 2023 by foxsake

[shiv]

As people have said the game plan almost paid off. I know it wasn’t pretty but we would have got hammered if we went toe to toe with Newcastle. They are on of the best teams in the league this season when it comes to pressing. 
 

We lacked quality on the ball which is why it maybe seemed like we had zero intention of creating anything going forward. I don’t think that’s the case and can’t imagine Smith would’ve played two up top with the hope of not creating one shot on goal. We got into some good positions but couldn’t find the killer pass which is why he probably brought Maddison on. 
 

Unfortunately after 60 mins we still couldn’t quite show that little bit of quality we needed to create some clear cut chances. But I’m not mad at the set up at all - anyone thinking we should’ve gone for it is totally deluded.

[shiv]

2 minutes ago, foxsake said:

Glad of the point and I understand the tactics but it made me feel really sad to see us playing like that.. Just a universe away from the confident, skillful team we used to be.

 

So many 'if only' moments this season.. so many slip ups, VAR decisions etc.. just the rub of the green that would see a ball on the other side of the post or a pass bounce up at the right moment for a shot seemed to elude us in crucial moments.. and then last night it seems we cashed in all our lucky moments after about 500 post-hitting shots from Newcastle and I thought we might just shithouse it.. but no.

 

Everton need the win and I can't see them not getting it.. I hope Mystic Pipes is right and we beat WHam to survive on GD+.. my heart hopes but my mind is already in the barrel of crabs that we call the Championship..

In all fairness, we’ve set up like that a few times before under Rodgers (eg Man City, Liverpool) and succeeded. We just couldn’t string a pass together yesterday which is where we probably lacked quality and made it seem like we were just there to park the bus. 

[Chelmofox]

14 minutes ago, Mike Oxlong said:

To me this shows just how far we have fallen. Happy to show almost no attacking threat in a game that we needed a win in  to keep matters in our own hands. Keeping that clean sheet  more by good fortune that design with the width of the post saving us more than once.  I’m not saying that we should have tried to attack them but the balance in relation to attacking intent given our position just wasn’t right. 

Sometimes the best way of dealing with things is to except the reality of the situation and act accordingly. That's what Smith did yesterday. Sure, there is a fall from grace in there, and im sure there were players (Madders and Barnes in particular) who would rather have been playing any other system. But the stats and reality were heavily stacked against us. Going full pelt at them wasn't going to work. And even worse, going for it would likely have meant we got pumped. I think Smith probably wanted a bit more out of them from the last 20 mins, but when you play that system you can't guarantee you can switch it around quickly

 

Getting thumped 4-0 in the 2nd from last game would have killed us. 

[OwnGoal]

The bad pass Maddison made with virtually his first touch was massive.  Vardy had made his perfect run and I was shocked he over hit the pass.  He’d normally have weighted that perfectly.  The Pope save was also better than I realised when I seen it back today. Even then it almost fell to Souter to smash home. The scenes if that had gone in. 

[SouthStandUpperTier]

2 minutes ago, Chelmofox said:

Going full pelt at them wasn't going to work.

I've literally not seen one person say that we should have gone full pelt at them. But Everton showed at Brighton that you can go away to an in-form team, play a defensively minded game, and still carry a threat on the counter.

[AKCJ]

I know I won't be the only person this winds up.

 

Why do we punt a long ball up to the winger on every single kick off? I know it paid off once at Leeds away last season but I think we give the ball away from kick off within 10 seconds on 9 out of every 10 kick offs.

 

Newcastle knew we were going to try it so Isak closed Souttar down and Newcastle had the ball immediately.

 

In the 2nd half, for Newcastle's kick off, they just played football and were immediately on the attack.

[stu]

29 minutes ago, ronnup said:

They'll win

Maybe they will, but they are under a lot more pressure to win than we are. It will come down to how they can deal with being the favourites to stay up.

[StanSP]

1 minute ago, AKCJ said:

I know I won't be the only person this winds up.

 

Why do we punt a long ball up to the winger on every single kick off? I know it paid off once at Leeds away last season but I think we give the ball away from kick off within 10 seconds on 9 out of every 10 kick offs.

 

Newcastle knew we were going to try it so Isak closed Souttar down and Newcastle had the ball immediately.

 

In the 2nd half, for Newcastle's kick off, they just played football and were immediately on the attack.

I think we did it yesterday to get a lucky flick or just get the ball away from our goal very temporarily

 

To be fair, Vardy was winning some headers but there was no one close other than Iheanacho to get on the end of them. At least we didn't lump it up to our right wing where Burn would easily win the headers. 

[Chelmofox]

Strange. At work today Liverpool, Spurs and Chelsea fans saying they felt we battled hard and thoroughly deserved that. Spurs fan said he was rooting for us at the end.

 

Funny how you see games when you are not emotionally invested.

[Dames]

Still can't get my head around that people seem to think there's either 'toe to toe' or 'park the bus' like they are the only options available to us.

 

One of the things Rodgers got right a few seasons ago with largely the same group was when we beat Man City 5-2. We didn't go 'toe to toe' with them but we progressed the ball well and exploited every opportunity we could. Last night there was absolutely no plan to progress the ball beyond the halfway line other than hit and hope. It might shock some people in here but you can play defensive football and still attack well and try to win the game. 

[Death by Football]

13 minutes ago, AKCJ said:

I know I won't be the only person this winds up.

 

Why do we punt a long ball up to the winger on every single kick off? I know it paid off once at Leeds away last season but I think we give the ball away from kick off within 10 seconds on 9 out of every 10 kick offs.

 

Newcastle knew we were going to try it so Isak closed Souttar down and Newcastle had the ball immediately.

 

In the 2nd half, for Newcastle's kick off, they just played football and were immediately on the attack.

We’ve done it for years. I’ve always wondered why. 
I suppose the alternative is play it back to Tielemans who can then give possession to their most dangerous attacker in our own half.

[sacreblueits442]

2 hours ago, Dames said:

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. 

...we were not looking to press the ball, we did not want any space in between our defensive lines!!!

 We held a line on the edge of the box, and we needed someone who could have picked it up and drive forward with runners wide either side of him.

  Why would you believe that a team so lacking in confidence, leaderless and disjointed should go to what has probably been the team of the season and trade blow for blow.

 Once again, this is not the game you should be looking at, but the application and approach made in the previous games. Playing 4-2-3-1 attempting to stave off relegation in an instant, needed a pragmatic approach to who we came up against. We still had a plethora of shots against us and the central midfield pairing is a big part if our problem. 

Edited 23 May 2023 by sacreblueits442
Spelling error.

[LCCFox96]

Whether or not you agree with the game plan last night (imo we were always going to try something like that away at a rampant Newcastle) there are some positives to take away whereas after Fulham and Liverpool there were none:

 

- We've kept ourselves alive until the final day where could easily have gone down.

- We've maintained a 2 point gap to Everton with a valuable point that increases the number of variable results by which we can survive at the weekend.

- We've kept - somehow - a bastard clean sheet for the first time in months.

 

We're alive and we have a fool's hope. A favour from Bournemouth and win 1 game of football and we survive. Stood at Craven Cottage at FT, I'd have taken that if offered it tbqh such is our current state.