The Players Had A Team Summit

http://www.journallive.co.uk/nufc/newcastle-united-news/2012/11/19/61634-32259338/?

MIKE Williamson has revealed Newcastle United's players held a summit to get to the bottom of their poor form last week.

The United defender said the squad was still together in the wake of back-to-back home defeats which leave the team in the bottom half of the Premier League table for the first time this season.

That means a frank meeting of minds to digest their poor run.

He said: “The lads had a meeting during the week and everyone has put their thoughts across, and it’s just about continuing to work hard and carrying on and sticking together as a group.

“Everyone will go through tough periods in a season and this one is ours.

“It’s no secret our form and the results aren’t and haven’t been what we’d hoped.

“The fact is we’re looking at things, ways of improving, any different areas where we can progress, from the management to the players.


“That’s what we’re doing. We’re pulling together and that’s what you have to do when go through a difficult period.”

Williamson admitted to fears United might have been “found out” by certain teams.

He added: “I think it could be a factor in some ways.

“People have worked certain things out, like who our danger men are.

“There are certain times when there are two or three players on Hatem Ben Arfa, for example.

“It’s like a puzzle we all have to work out.

“The fact is we need to utilise our big players to the best of their ability, create different ways of attacking and work on being solid, too, because at the moment, we’re struggling to score goals and we’re leaking at the other end.

“So it’s not great, but it’s something everyone is working on extremely hard behind the scenes to try and correct.”

Although all of that might sound depressing, the defender did offer words of encouragement and said Newcastle would “dig deep” to return to winning ways.

Williamson said: “It has been tough so far and the last two results have been disappointing.

“It’s time to dig deep, you know, show our character, work hard on the training ground.

“We just continue what we’re doing and I’m sure the belief will come back.

“It’s only a matter of time because it’s not as if we’re doing anything different.

“It’s just that the results aren’t clicking at the minute, so we have to find the right formula like we did last year.”

 

Mike needs to walk the walk not talk the talk to the media

 

Obviously they have to answer the questions put to them and they're clearly aware of the problems. It simply comes down to them working it out and putting it right on the pitch.

 

Good, but I dont think Williamson is telling us something we dont already know.
Get out on the training ground then on the field and put it right.

 

Judging by Saturdays performance I don't think the meeting did any good whatsoever as it was no improvement on previous week and same faults repeated. I am concerned that unless big improvement in next 6 weeks we could be in botton 4 by then as I see 6 points max in the 8 games. I see us beating Wigan & QPR but will struggle at Southampton, Stoke, Fulham, Man U, Arsenal all away and Man C at home.

 

Of course other teams are starting to fathom us out, that's part and parcel of the preparation for the game. They see Ben Arfa as the threat he undoubtably is, and are doubling up on him to counteract his threat. Other teams have been doing that all season, and our response is to still give him the ball and hope for the best.

Our set plays are so predictable they are laughable and again easy to defend against.

I have said before that l feel there is an issue between Ba and Cisse that is not being resolved. Injury and suspensions are inevitable and there ought to be a plan B to minimise the impact of them.

I am glad the players have got together to talk things through, to be honest l would have been surprised if they hadn't. However, we need to see something a tad more creative on the pitch, this will be difficult now that Cabaye is injured, but surely we can look for inspiration from more than just one or two players. If Ben Afra is seen as the key to unlocking other teams, he will have to be supported better and space created for him to
function.
There is nothing in the revelations from Williamson that the rest of us could not have told him, the time has come for us to see the improvement that this meeting, the training ground, tactics, team spirit and hard graft should bring.

 

No games are going to be easy because some of those teams are going to be fighting for survival.

 

Williamson needs to up his own game and forget talking to the media. A penguin playing in an Indian summer would play better than that idiot.

 

Have to agree AB, that's why I predict 6 points max and thats relegation form,

 

Can't blame Williamson in my opinion, as even his best form only brings him up to the standard of a below average CB for this league. He's simply not good enough for the Prem, which is unfortunate as he's whole hearted and always gives his best for the cause.

 

agree with this, people seem to think we should be walking all over these teams, but in all fairness we haven't started great. West Ham are flying and Swansea are also doing well! No game is easy in the premier league

 

This is the problem with our support at times. We seem to think we're one of the big clubs like a Chelsea, Man U or Man C. Even they have lost shock games this season and being honest, they're in a different stratosphere. They will roll certain teams over. We can't expect that and need to temper our expectations to a more realistic level. It was always the danger from last season. Our final league position suggesting to some that we were vastly superior to the vast majority of sides. It is simply not the case, we're a good side but the PL is a very competitive arena.

If you point this out you're making excuses. That isn't the case, its simply a fact of life in the PL. Some need to remember where we were 3 seasons ago and get their feet back on the floor. We are Newcastle though and will always have a certain few who expect too much too soon!

 

I both agree and disagree with your last sentence, simply because I could accept our points tally if our performances had been better. However some of our results have covered up the cracks.

Against Spurs and West Brom a draw would have been fair, Reading deserved to beat us and Everton were hard done by from the Ref. So there are 6 points there that we've gained but in reality didn't deserve. I accept that this is part of football, however we've gained points that we didn't deserve to but haven't lost any points that we did deserve (if that makes sense?).

So that's why there are a few of us (I accept we're in the minority) that are becoming increasingly concerned.

 

Nobody is saying we've played well though. There are just very good reasons why we haven't. Being honest continually looking at where points could have been lost or gained is folly as you say yourself. At the end of the season you finish where you deserve to based on how you've performed and the hand you're dealt with luck with injuries etc. We had plenty of that regard last year (barely made a change for 11 games), and we're at the other end of the scale this year (I doubt we've picked our best 11 once). As a fan we need to accept this and alter our expectations. Its different for the big clubs fans. Their budgets and depth of squad mean they can rightly expect to cope.

We have to be realistic rather than concerned.

 

Well it didn't work

 

Summit and Nothing then lol