Right, a classic post-match angst-fest to join in on then...
For me, the two biggest concerns coming out of that game were things which have been concerns for a while: one, the lack of a backup CB, and two, our inability to break down teams who defend deep and narrow.
The first issue has been obvious since the moment Boxall left. Although you don't expect to lose a CB inside the first half hour of the season it was madness to never have specialist cover there. Already you could argue it's cost us 3 points. I just don't understand why Ernie didn't sign a backup CB. I just don't get it. Why?
The second issue has been obvious since about the middle of last season. We signed Griffiths partly to combat it I think. Last night, we had no width, but we also had no striker playing centrally. Our fullbacks weren't hugging the line on attack, in fact Fenton in particular kept trying to cut in field every time he was one-on-one with the Jets FB. Then he'd end up passing back into the croud centrally and running into the same zone that Krishna or Powell was already occupying around the corner of the 18yd box. The middle of the park was horribly congested when we had possession. But without a striker who poses at least a bit of an aerial threat we don't cross so we're left with trying to play into a massive croud every time (Krishna did get a header on target of course but a bigger striker would have been able to get over the ball more and hopefully make it harder for the keeper).
Maybe another way to do it would be to get to the byline and cut back - and that's how we scored - but then we never seemed to really try that again. Flat low crosses in the gap behind keeper and defence might also work but there wasn't much gap there and our not-a-strikers never seem to make the runs they need to for that kind of ball to work. Instead the vast majority of our attacks involved a slow passing move out to the full back and then back in again, when we'd then just get caught with the ball at our feet while we looked for options, or try to pass through about 3 guys at once.
Again, none of this is new. These issues were there at the end of last season. Why haven't they been addressed? Does Ernie like the not-a-striker gag and doesn't want it to stop? Does he really think that Manny is a solid option at CB?
Overall, I know people will say that this is just the first game and don't read too much into it. And that's true to a point, but after last season and the massively long off season we haven't even managed to address 2 obvious problems before the first game of this season. Definitely not a promising start.
Other random thoughts:
- Either a bunch of our guys put on a few pounds over winter or the spikey makes players look fatter than the stripey does
- Sarpong was underwhelming, but I'm willing to give him a few weeks to find his feet.
- I haven't seen a replay of Krishna's penalty attempt, I only saw it live at the ground, but I didn't think it was too bad - at least he got it low and on target. Maybe I'm expecting so little from Nix penalties now though.
- Man that ref sucked.
- The possession stats are meaningless. Newcastle never tried to hold possession and were willing to let us keep it all we liked. We can't claim some sort of moral victory just because we touched the ball more often.
People like Coldplay and voted for the Nazis. You can't trust people.
"Phoenix till they lose"
