Newcastle Vs Tottenham: Match thread

[hughy]

Poor referees or not, it was our own fault that we lost the lead twice. Poor defending from the right hand side let us down on both occasions, and we have to learn from that. Personally I can't remember the referee favouring one team in particular at all, and thought he put in a fair shift.

You should be ashamed of yourselves, you're starting to sound like Gooners.

 

[RickyVilla]

I felt we were lucky to get a point but it could have been very different. We had a few good chances and but for a good save from Krul, we would have been 3 1 up.

 

[RickyVilla]

Poor referees or not, it was our own fault that we lost the lead twice. Poor defending from the right hand side let us down on both occasions, and we have to learn from that. Personally I can't remember the referee favouring one team in particular at all, and thought he put in a fair shift.

You should be ashamed of yourselves, you're starting to sound like Gooners.

Oh do stop preaching. If someone wants to say the ref is poor, they are more than welcome to.

 

[guiltyparty]

Thought ref was very good

Though we were average and a point was fair

 

[tRiKS]

Rednapp was the worst of all. Today is why I spent so much time and energy dissecting the NLD performance.

 

[StartingPrice]

Poor referees or not, it was our own fault that we lost the lead twice. Poor defending from the right hand side let us down on both occasions, and we have to learn from that. Personally I can't remember the referee favouring one team in particular at all, and thought he put in a fair shift.

You should be ashamed of yourselves, you're starting to sound like Gooners.

It is possible to think the referee made some poor decisions and Spurs didn't play particularly well.
AND, for the record, I thought Newcastle (who were unbeaten and playing at home, a very hostile ground were we have a poor record), were good and am happy to have got away with a point.

But I still felt like the ref gave a lot of decisions in their favour, and I still think we had plenty of opportunities to kill the game at 2 - 1, which would have meant we won a game we didn't really deserve to. But, hey, if winning games we didn't really deserve to, is good enough for United over the last 20 odd trophy laden years, it is good enough for us occasionally.

 

[worcestersauce]

Shame we couldn't hold on to all three points, King going off didn't help and one of Dawson, Sandro, Corluka or Lennon could have made up the few % points to make the difference but previously we would probabaly have lost it especially after an International break.
Everything in Newcastle's favour today so I'll be happy with a point for now.

 

[keonb]

At 2-1 I'm sorry, the game should have been won with a 3rd and killer goal. Poor decision making in the final third at that point.... Maybe tired legs, who knows. We can play very well in the middle of the park, in tight areas and emerge with the ball, running at their defence. Just the runs and that correct pass can be improved definitely... But we can do it (VDV's goal against Arse, VDV's against Wigan), but it was lacking today.

Overall, decent day IMO, I know we lost the lead twice but Newcastle are a good team, I don't care if people think they've been lucky recently, they still had to get the results, and they will finish top 8. Kaboul was incredible, really needed him to be solid and he was, Bassong to me is too relaxed on the ball, defensively he is decent but his ball playing skills are of such a low level... Important? Not so much. Walker to me is defensively poor, will improve with time (Ca$hley) but he lets wingers have too much space, relying on his pace massively.

Modric was poor once again, think it's just a rotten couple of games he's had, I'm sure he'll bounce back, this system though is hard to adjust to, just to accomodate VDV for 60 minutes.

 

[mano-obe]

Maybe should have killed them off at 2-1, but I think a lot of us would have taken a draw before the match.

There wasn't an awful lot in it first half, second half they came out all guns blazing. We got ourselves back infront maybe against the run of play.

We were hanging on at the end and could have lost.

I think overall a draw is a fair result and against an unbeaten team. I'm actually not disappointed

 

[hughy]

Oh do stop preaching. If someone wants to say the ref is poor, they are more than welcome to.

I'll preach if i like, bitch.

 

[RickyVilla]

I'll preach if i like, bitch.

Ha ha ha ha. You sounds well gangsta Hughy.

 

[boxbat]

Some good things to come out of the game: Adebayor hopefully over his injury scare (and continuing to make significant contributions), 2 away goals against the team with the best defensive record in the league, VdV and particularly Defoe in clinical form.

Losing a lead twice is disappointing, but it happens. At least their second goal was more down to them than us, which makes it more bearable.

The two main bad points from my point are view are these:

1. A big problem with fitting players in/playing out of position is developing. I'm confident VdV, Modric and Bale can do good things from the right, but not as consistently, and sometimes them being there is detrimental to the team. Lennon looks the best option on the right, but once he's back another big name would have to miss out. We'll have at least 8 players who would expect to start competing for 6 spots.

2. CB suddenly looking very thin again. There's a worry that not only may it have to be Kaboul and Bassong at back for the next league game (or two, or three), but also that they might both have to play in the EL on Thursday. And if one of those gets injured, we're really in trouble.

 

[ardiles]

If we had King and Sandro for the full game, I think that we would have won it easily.

A fully fit Sandro would have owned Tiote and we would have controlled the midfield.

 

[WhiteHart4Ever]

If we had King and Sandro for the full game, I think that we would have won it easily.

A fully fit Sandro would have owned Tiote and we would have controlled the midfield.

Tbh Tiote was very very good, but agree that Sandro would've helped immensely. Him and King for the full game and we'd have the three points.

Not sure which debate goes where at the moment, but for what it's worth I present my ranking of the contest "who should play on the right":

1) Aaron Lennon
2) VDV in 4231/433 (both means Modric in front of Parker/Sandro and Ade up front)
3) Modric, Kranjcar or Piennar
4) Bale

So, for yesterday's players I'd go with a 4-3-3 / 4-5-1 / 4-2-3-1 (yesyesyes, it's all the same, you can mix it up tactically as much as you like) with Parker, Livermore and Modric centrally, Bale sticking to the left, VDV going inwards from the right with Walker overlapping. One out of Livermore or Parker would need some extra defensive responsibility to cover for VDV, but they should manage.

Having said that, I'm fairly pleased with both the team selection and the performance, thought we were unlucky not to run away winners from the home of a team that haven't lost all year, and I'm delighted our forwards keep scoring. With King the whole game we would've won, but I also think a point up there is still top 4 form..

 

[brendanb50]

Tbh Tiote was very very good, but agree that Sandro would've helped immensely. Him and King for the full game and we'd have the three points.

Not sure which debate goes where at the moment, but for what it's worth I present my ranking of the contest "who should play on the right":

1) Aaron Lennon
2) VDV in 4231/433 (both means Modric in front of Parker/Sandro and Ade up front)
3) Modric, Kranjcar or Piennar
4) Bale

So, for yesterday's players I'd go with a 4-3-3 / 4-5-1 / 4-2-3-1 (yesyesyes, it's all the same, you can mix it up tactically as much as you like) with Parker, Livermore and Modric centrally, Bale sticking to the left, VDV going inwards from the right with Walker overlapping. One out of Livermore or Parker would need some extra defensive responsibility to cover for VDV, but they should manage.

Having said that, I'm fairly pleased with both the team selection and the performance, thought we were unlucky not to run away winners from the home of a team that haven't lost all year, and I'm delighted our forwards keep scoring. With King the whole game we would've won, but I also think a point up there is still top 4 form..

Some very good points.

A bit of luck with Ledders and we may have had the three points. I didn't think we worked the ball anywhere near as well as we can/should but against an in form team, away and with a few selection troubles i don't think we fared too badly.

 

[mill]

3 times yesterday a square ball was needed to put us 3 1 up and 3 bad decisions by our players cost us, that was the difference between winning and drawing

 

[StartingPrice]

3 times yesterday a square ball was needed to put us 3 1 up and 3 bad decisions by our players cost us, that was the difference between winning and drawing

Ultimately, we should have put at least one of those chances away...and we criticised Lennon for his decision making - GET YOUR HEAD UP:bang:

 

[mpickard2087]

Ultimately, we should have put at least one of those chances away...and we criticised Lennon for his decision making - GET YOUR HEAD UP:bang:

It is frustrating that a lot of our players have serious defficiencies when it comes to decision making!

 

[felmani26]

The truth of the matter is that bar Modric and VdV, we still have a lack of footballing nous in the final third and it's not something that can be learnt - you either have it or you don't.

This is quite apparent with our strikers and our wide men who time and again fail to spot the runner or man in space to convert a great move into a relatively simple tap in.

That is a fundamental reason why United continue to perform the way they do as they have intelligence out wide in Young and Nani compared to Bale and Lennon who struggle to make the telling final ball often enough which is crucial in securing our targets this season.

 

[Narnill]

The truth of the matter is that bar Modric and VdV, we still have a lack of footballing nous in the final third and it's not something that can be learnt - you either have it or you don't.

This is quite apparent with our strikers and our wide men who time and again fail to spot the runner or man in space to convert a great move into a relatively simple tap in.

That is a fundamental reason why United continue to perform the way they do as they have intelligence out wide in Young and Nani compared to Bale and Lennon who struggle to make the telling final ball often enough which is crucial in securing our targets this season.

I agree. You watch teams like United and despite some of their players limitations, their decision making in the final third is so much better.

Look at Welbeck or Anderson against us earlier in the season. it's decisive and it's clinical. Neither of those two would get into our team by the way.