Though Hayden was class last night alongside Diame in the first half, Shelvey left him a bit exposed in the 2nd and he faded. Still won a decent amount of challenges and put himself about. If Diame is injured we really are ****ed because we have no physicality in CM going into our hardest run of the season - probably our most underrated player by far, some of the stats shown on my stream last night! He is top of just about everything bar goals for us. For the second goal yeah Hayden lost it (so did just about everyone else at some point in the game) but the defending was atrocious, 2v2 vs United and the players who did recover (really well) completely neglected Rashford. Granted we were pushing forwards for an equalizer but we could and should have done better with it all round. On a positive Rafa's subs last night were on point and at the right times - couldn't help Dubravka made his annual mistake on the first game of the year just before the second sub but we expected nothing from the game so not really much to complain about. Atsu worked very hard but I'd guarantee Kenedy or Murphy finish one of those 3 glorious chances he had and while Rondon is a great target man - jeeezus man he is as slow as they come and has the turning circle of a tank.
Was thinking the exact same with Atsu last night. It's tough because Kennedy gets into those positions behind the defence less and Murphy tends to like starting in front of the defender, but Atsu can't hit a barn door so it's a moot point. With confidence he might improve his end product but we don't have the time. Shame Murphy's seen little time since that tidy assist like, I'd go with him right now. We are ****ed without Diame. He's infuriating with the ball but there's nowt more reassuring than seeing him tracking back a midfielder, I'd say 95% of the time he comes out with the ball. We have nobody else for that and its integral to how we play. Imagine Shelvey and Hayden in the middle against Chelsea for 90 mins, holy ****! I wonder if a new AM and a better winger might make Rondon look better? I can't tell if he's too starved of support or he really is that bad at holding up play. Another moot point because we'll be getting neither. Also wish we still had Gayle, just offers another possibility in attack. He's no awe inspiring player but he'd have scared Phil Jones ****less last night with his runs and Shelvey's passing isn't the same without an attacker who can get in behind the defence.
Wing back, not out and out winger. It still means some responsibility to defend. Yedlin, most of the time, was the player highest up on the pitch. Shame like, if we could get a right back I'd love to just give him carte blanche on right wing.
Arguably Dubravka cost us the game with that mistake, or are we all ignoring that because we like him? Newcastle don't come back from losing positions, this has been well established. Plus, again, we're bringing up that one dribble as if we've never seen Diame, Ritchie, Kennedy, Perez do the exact same thing against lesser opposition. I see it on a weekly basis with our lot. I'd say Hayden's appeared in about 10 games since last Jan and not sure he's started more than 2 of them. Think he did well all things considered.
We were still in the game at 1-0 down, regardless of any statistics, we could have a got a point then and were playing ok, Hayden's mistake was at a key moment, and effectively ended any chance of a comeback. Yeah we were 1-0 down, but Man U certainly weren't invincible at that point. Dubravka made a howler earlier yes, but the second goal finished it as a competition. That and Hayden's awful dribbling off the pitch in the first half are his moments that stand out. Simple fact is Diame and Hayden don't work together, there's no creativity there. Shelvey needs a run out in the Blackburn game, then can hopefully go in the side vs Chelsea.
