A lot has been said after Eddie Howe held his press conference on Friday.
Newcastle United boss speaks ahead of the match against Crystal Palace.
However, it was a question about the match against Burnley and Eddie Howe’s response to it that received the most attention.
The United boss disputed a Burnley ‘attack’ by one of the journalists.
Eddie Howe replies…“An attack? What? Against us? Have you seen the statistics of that match? You must have watched another match. There was no attack. Yes, we had moments [where Burnley had chances and pressure] of course, although we also had moments in the other direction. If it had been an attack, I would say it was.”
I have to say I have every sympathy for Eddie Howe here.
The reporting by some media, especially the local journalists/media, is quite appalling these days.
We rarely see any fairness or balance and it very much feels like certain media outlets are now so desperate that they will say and write anything to get attention and clicks. It seems they see exaggerated headlines and negativity as their best way to get noticed. I think I often think you’re wrong to think they wrote to please non-Newcastle United fans by attracting them with their clickbait negativity.
If Newcastle United have suffered an ‘attack’ from Burnley, what does that mean for the Man U and Chelsea matches? Especially the first half against Chelsea, when Newcastle absolutely got them, before mistakes from Ramsdale and Thiaw allowed two soft goals in a more even second half. Then, at Old Trafford, Man U barely left their half after the break and United had more than twice as much possession in total.
Burnley had only lost by more than one goal at home twice before, against Arsenal and Chelsea. Home and away they were generally competitive and when they lost, usually only by the odd goal. They are not whipping boys who get hammered every week.
Burnley would certainly have a real chance after losing twice and they scored a good goal after just over twenty minutes. They didn’t score for the next seventy or so minutes and although they had some decent attacking play I think Newcastle defended themselves quite well and Nick Pope only had to make three saves after the goal. He did well, but that was the reality: four attempts on target for Burnley in the entire match. Burnley did hit the woodwork (Gordon hit it twice from distance in the reverse fixture at St James’ Park!) but they didn’t get a second chance as clear as, say, Harvey Barmes when he was played through one-on-one with Dubravka. Newcastle also had an effort cleared off the line, Gordon and others had chances that they should have cleared.
As Eddie Howe says, look at the stats. Newcastle United had more shots (20 vs. 15), more attempts on target (9 vs. 4), more corners (4 vs. 3), more ball possession (52% vs. 48%).
United also had an expected goals statistic almost double that of Burnley.
Like I said before, it feels like there is so much negativity in the media reporting, no balance, journalists like a dog with a bone, relentless in pursuing a negative agenda.
Fair enough, go on and on about Newcastle United’s away record (which in the last six weeks has actually seen NUFC win twice, lose twice and draw in Leverkusen), but you certainly have to give at least as much weight to home form, with the last ten at SJP yielding eight wins, two draws and 21 goals, scoring at least twice in each of these last ten home games.
You should certainly also take into account that Eddie Howe has had to deal with so many injuries (and suspensions) in his selection and matches every midweek and weekend.
Only now is Yoane Wissa hopefully fully fit again and we also saw that Pope and Joelinton could get back into the Burnley team. Eddie Howe revealed on Friday he may have three more missed players available long-term against Palace, with Botman, Trippier and Tino hopefully in the matchday squad.
No one thinks this season has been perfect so far, BUT it certainly hasn’t been the disaster that certain journalists want to make it out to be.
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