Not panicking yet, but our squad depth is letting us down - My thoughts on the Bournemouth game

Not yet but in 3 weeks people will soon see what's been staring them in the face all season.

This side doesn't have the ability to score enough goals to avoid trouble.

Can Howe fix that? I hope so but I don't think he's got the squad.

 

Yeah, Howe can only work with what he has available. And a fair amount of that is crap at the moment, despite spending over £200m. I don't blame Howe for lack of squad depth. Other people are paid to scout talent and negotiate deals for new players. It just costs a whole lot more these days to really enhance a squad. The money in football has gone crazy.

 

Schar is not great in a back 4. If it wasn’t for his goals then everyone would notice how average he is

 

We'll never know why or who's been turned down mind. It's possible Howe and Newcastle believed what they had was suddenly good enough because of a run of somewhat fortunate results after he took over last season.

Newcastle grinded out wins in close encounters throughout rather than becoming anything eye catchingly good.

Is it not possible Howe believed he could turn longstaff Murphy Fraser etc into the next Joelinton?

 

His passing is decent but burn is dictating and his passes are too slow... From back to front everything was too slow yesterday and Bournemouth had got into position while Newcastle piss farted around collecting possession stats no other club was competing for.

I think Bournemouth were the better team they were more effective and had agood game plan.. They should've won.... If lerma didn't handball it that cross was going to threaten nothing.

Newcastle got lucky.

 

Every coach should have that sort of belief in themselves mate. It's a fundamental part of the job. To believe you can improve a player during what night be a short period of time.

 

Wilson is back and could have played yesterday but was kept back to keep him fresh. Maxi has had a setback in his and may miss October.

 

Exactly and I'm questioning what we'll never know really.

We can only guess what went on in the summer, so we can only really judge results as fans.

 

I doubt very much that Eddie said to the board: "You know what, don't buy any more players, I think I can turn Murphy, Longstaff, Wood, Almiron and Fraser into world class players, so save the money."

I bet he was gagging for 2 or 3 more to be added, but for whatever reason it couldn't be resolved. Whether that be because we're not big/attractive enough (and not offering Europe, blah, blah), or prices are being over inflated, or the players available didn't fit the character profile the club wants, or we don't have good enough scouts/negotiators, or whatever.

 

Behave yourself man will you. What do you think your doing? Coming on here and speaking all kinds of sensible stuff like that. FFS you have a reputation to protect.

 

Oops, sorry, I slipped out of character.

It's just Chaos has suggested that maybe the issue is that Eddie thinks he could make these guys brilliant. I just think he's having to work with what he has - a half decent squad, plus a pile of steaming crap from Ashley's days. I'm sure he's prefer a stronger squad given the option. I don't think he sees himself as a miracle worker.

 

We don't know who or what was rejected though. Essentially we can only guess so it's unfair to judge anything other than results.

People just assume as you just did that he didn't refuse anyone based on character or other preferences.

What I'm saying is we don't know so it's what it is.. The results

 

I was at the game. And I'm capable of making my own observations rather than relying on stats to tell a story.

I'm quite capable of making my own mind up and I don't just assume. Your stats don't refute my point.

The chances we created at times were not good chances and they fell to players we really don't need them to.

At times we looked bang out of ideas.

How long can we say "we were just unlucky"?

It was the same last game, we had tonnes of "chances" and tonnes of shots on target but we couldn't score in open play besides a scrappy own goal from a set piece.

I know what I'm talking about.

 

I agree newcastle only had possession because Bournemouth weren't interested in it. The shots were all from miles out and via desperation.

Newcastle have looked ****e the last two games since Liverpool took their souls psychologically in the 98th.. They've been riding a wave of confidence and that's now been extinguished.

Howe and his squad now face a tough challenge in changing the momentum again.

Newcastle need a result from Fulham and Brentford to avoid being dragged back into deep waters.

Only stats that matter are points.... All that crap rafa got about possession was for the birds.... It's what you do with the ball when you've got it....

 

Agree 100% that we should literally be 7th place right now, but the point remains, we're struggling to create anything and take chances because most of those chances are half chances landing to Joelinton, Willock and Fraser.

Against Palace we needed a scrappy own goal, against Bournemouth we needed a pen.

Credit to our defence because it has literally been the key to us getting so many points despite often being toothless in attack.

The reality is we lack attacking midfield quality.

Without ASM, we have Almiron, Fraser, Willock and Joelinton trying to score, and we're failing to give Isak a decent opportunity because we have no one with the quality of through ball that he needs to be effective.

We should have signed another attacking midfielder or winger.

We shouldn't be panicking but we shouldn't consider ourselves that unlucky in the last two games, especially bournemouthn.

 

League position is almost irrelevant at this point. The big picture is how well a squad will cope over a season, in particular during the winter months and fixture congestion after that.

Newcastles weak squad was exposed after only 3 games

The point you've made about scoring goals is the crux of the matter. Where's the goals going to come from to avoid a relegation scrap?

 

That’s a fair assessment. So on the whole it’s not bad. But that missed 2 points yesterday has to be questioned.

It’s only fair that when we give all the positive vibes when we do well we can also positively criticise when it goes wrong.

There’s two way of looking at it.

We have won 1 in 7. That looks bad.
We have lost 1 in 7. That looks good.

But The quality is much better and we demand a team that tries. Which they are.

So I will back off. For now.

 

Exactly there's two types of people..

1.. The ones that see the train coming
2. The ones that tell you there's nothing coming until they get hit.

There's no harm in pointing things out.

 

I must be 3. as I’m nowhere near a railway

 

You've missed the train of thought