Once or twice, well, maybe that can happen. But Newcastle United’s issue has rapidly become so clear and obvious that even the least adequately run of VAR systems would be able to spot it.
Against teams that come for them, that they can square up to and trade rapid blows, they are, at times, devastating. Back-to front in less than the time it takes to accept a bid for an Academy graduate on PSR deadline day.
But against the so-called lesser sides – and when your ambition is, like Newcastle’s, a regular Champions League berth, there is legitimately such a thing – those who come to contain, to sit back, maybe even to counter themselves? Eddie Howe’s team have serious issues.
Newcastle just can't master the block
Try as they might (and they do very much try), they simply cannot break them down.
Monday night’s defeat to West Ham was amongst Howe’s most frustrating since his arrival at Newcastle. Victory would have lifted United to sixth, and had they then followed it up with a win at Crystal Palace on Saturday, they would have been third on Sunday morning. The odd draw here and there could have led to Liverpool’s visit to Tyneside next week being first versus second. Instead, Howe etc. al. were left pouring oat milk onto their Tuesday morning muesli in miserable mid-table.
In some ways, in the context of the craziness of this Premier League season, the result was no shock. Newcastle have bookended triumphs against Arsenal, Chelsea and Nottingham Forest, with just the one point and one goal against Brighton, Everton and West Ham. Brighton are the outliers in the latter group, but when they travelled north earlier in the season, they were missing five or six starters.
"We haven't grabbed the games in these moments as well as we could have done," Howe admitted to reporters. "Of course, they present a different challenge to us mentally, tactically and technically.”
It should be said that for Julen Lopetegui, the win was wonderful. The Spaniard was said to have two matches – this and then Arsenal on Saturday, which he will watch from the stands having collected a third yellow of the season – to save his West Ham gig. If that is true, Lopetegui is halfway to a little extra time.
But what of Newcastle? They are a team stuck between what they know and what they want to be. They must find a way to make better use of the ball.
What's wrong with Newcastle?
What is their issue? Complacency, a footballer’s kryptonite? Impossible to know whether that had crept into them on Monday, but they certainly gave the impression it might have. Their big names were present in body but not spirit. An evening of frustration, of unforced errors, of almost but not quite. True, as Howe pointed out afterwards, there were moments that could have tilted the scales. Alexander Isak’s marginal offside. The same man’s volley narrowly wide. Anthony Gordon’s missed chance.
But what is most worrying is Newcastle’s reaction to falling behind. There seemed little by way of fight. A soft underbelly? Maybe. Once West Ham got their second – and 37 minutes remained at that point – Newcastle capitulated. Lukasz Fabianski will have had more strenuous eye tests.
Newcastle’s defending hardly helped them, though. For the opener, Lloyd Kelly left Tomas Soucek in several yards of space, making his goalward glance simple. Kelly’s looping header and subsequent failure to close the space would later help Aaron Wan-Bissaka in scoring his first goal since February 2021. Kelly generally endured an evening of bullying at the hands of Michail Antonio, whose pace has long since gone to be replaced by pure muscle.
"For both goals we know we made individual mistakes,” Howe explained in his post-match press conference. He didn’t name check Kelly, but did add that Dan Burn – serving a one-match ban for five yellows – might have prevented at least one goal. “It was disappointing from our perspective. Very uncharacteristic from us because we've defended well in recent weeks.” Burn will not be sweating on whether he will immediately return on Saturday.
Howe’s substitutions hardly helped. Callum Wilson, with his first appearance of the season, at least quashed rumours that he no longer really exists, but it all stank of round holes and square pegs. A patchwork of players, but little cohesion.
"Certainly a game that we'll rue when we watch it back"Newcastle manager Eddie Howe reacts to their 2-0 defeat to West Ham 🎙️ pic.twitter.com/AWWfguYIpLNovember 25, 2024
And perhaps that is Newcastle’s reality. They have two men – Gordon and Harvey Barnes – who only want to play wide left. Gordon was clearly unhappy about being switched to the right during the first half. Howe’s issue is that he has no-one of a suitable standard to play on that flank and cannot shift the players he needs to in order to make financial wiggle room. And they cannot find a way of getting a top-tier midfielder, Sandro Tonali, into their side.
"I really didn't like us in the last half an hour,” Howe added to reporters. “That leaves us with a negative feeling because the majority of the early exchanges and the first 60 minutes was very good. Of course, the players who enter the pitch to justify playing in the next game, we didn't do that well enough today."
What Newcastle need in games where the opposition are on stymy setting, is a lock-picker, someone with the necessary craft and guile. They have lungs and pace a plenty. Run. Run. Run. But no-one who sees things in the way that say a James Maddison or Dejan Kulusevski do at Tottenham. Their options are to either buy someone in January – easier said than done – or find another route to success. Otherwise, come June, they may well be looking back on the past nine months with plenty of regret.
