As a football fan I try not to be reactionary. There are plenty of voices saying it’s the end of the world after defeat, or that we’re world beaters after winning, but even for someone trying to stay level, Newcastle United’s two-goal defeat to Aston Villa was a bad watch.
After Sandro missed the chance in the first minute that he had wonderfully created for himself and should have put away, we were in second place.
So easy to play through, completely lost when it came to figuring out Rogers and Buendia, and with no spark going forward.
It’s quite easy to point out the lack of Bruno Guimaraes in the middle, and while that had an effect, I’d describe the main problem: fluidity versus stiffness – the rock had no response to the water flowing around it.
We know what we’re going to get with Eddie Howe; 4-3-3 with one deep-lying midfielder, one playmaker and one destroyer. If we know that, we can be sure that every manager and coach in the league knows it too.
Aston Villa played with the now fashionable (thanks to Pep) box midfield. Onana and Tielemans deep with Beundia and Rogers higher. Sancho provided width and kept Hall from coming in to support, Watkins stayed high and kept the CBs honest, but he also dropped between the lines when he felt like it. This meant we were constantly getting run over in the middle of the field.
Big Joe was probably our best player, Tonali did what he could and probably gets a 6.5/10, and Botman was the only one on the field other than Pope worth a 7 (Pope a 7.5).
Miley is not mobile enough yet. Whether that’s a physical thing (I don’t think so, because he makes those runs in the right channel very well) or an experience thing, who knows for sure? But there were a number of occasions where Tonali made the press that Miley should have made instead, throwing us off balance in that deeper CM role. Of course, if Bruno was playing he would have stopped creating that double turn with Sandro, and this would have had the dual benefit of closing off a lot of the space that Villa used so well and giving us a better platform to move the ball forward ourselves. But if Miley replaces Bruno, that should be his responsibility too, right? However, he will be forgiven for everything, he is only 19 and well ahead of schedule in his development, but I said in my last article that he is not yet the answer in the middle of the park, and I still stand by that after today. He wasn’t bad, but he wasn’t enough.
Then there was the bizarre decision to have Barnes play as a second striker during the first half. So often he was central when the ball went wide, meaning it was up to Miley to make the runs into that channel to create any width at all. Wouldn’t it have been better to do that with Gordon? Do you have Barnes on the left and Gordon on the right, but are you concentrating on supporting Wissa? Barnes was completely anonymous in the first half and not much better in the second half. Gordon had a few good runs down the line, followed by terrible crosses that went straight out of play. Furthermore, he played with his back to the goal and therefore offered little threat.
Having played a lot of football at a decent but not amazing level, and coached a very successful youth team, I understand that players have days off. There are many reasons for that, but I don’t think it was a bad game for individuals, but rather a bad game for our system. Too predictable and unable to provide immediate answers when serious questions are asked.
Take their first goal. It came after a terrible touch from Wissa (not a hold-up striker) and they broke. Tonali was isolated against Rogers and Buendia (Botman should have closed Buendia), and he was so easily bypassed. It was a great finish, but he shouldn’t have been given so much time and space on the edge of our box. A double turn or more effort during the retreat might have helped us prevent that.
How many times have we had reasonable moves down the line that were ruined by a bad ball in the penalty area. Actually, some of the balls were great, but there was no one within 10 yards. If Miley had lifted his head before pinging it in, there was often an opportunity to run in from deeper. Does Eddie coach the early ball (which I’m actually a big fan of)? If he does, why doesn’t he coach our forwards to stand on the shoulder of the last man? Strange how often that happened today.
There were a few positives: Elanga looked a threat when he came on. Lightning fast, direct running and some great deliveries that Woltemade should have gambled on.
I also thought Ramsey looked good after replacing Joelinton, but in reality it was a despicable performance that I think raises some legitimate questions about our Head Coach.
I love Eddie Howe and hope he stays with us for many years to come… but I also think he really needs to develop his team more tactically.
When we play so many games in a season, we can’t rely on this ‘Intensity is our identity’ again and again, especially with so many games if we qualify for Europe.
Maybe it’s time to think about a double pivot with Nick Woltemade in the gap behind Yoane Wissa? Something has to be done because it wasn’t that difficult for Villa to reach us today.
#time #Nick #Woltemade #Yoane #Wissa #Aston #Villa