If Newcastle United want to stand any chance of qualifying for Europe this season they need to start being more adventurous in the final third and taking full advantage when we have the opposition on the back foot.
Newcastle had Brighton camped out in their own half for much of the game at St James’ Park. Nick Pope could have put up a deck chair on his line in the first 30 minutes of the game, but all it took for Brighton was one chance to grab the goal they needed to win the game.
That was the huge difference between the two sides. Brighton were ineffective for 99% of the game but made the most of the one clear cut chance they had, while Newcastle dominated possession, had Brighton pinned back for most of the game but were completely ineffective where it mattered most.
We can’t pinpoint exactly what is wrong or why there seems to be a total communication breakdown when we get into the final third, but it’s something that Eddie Howe is well aware needs working on.
Eddie Howe was disappointed but tried to look at the positives
Speaking to NUFCTV after the game, Howe spoke of how he was delighted with the way his side played for 65 minutes of the game only to fall apart in the last third of the pitch and indeed the match.
“Hugely disappointed with the result, heartened by the performance overall. I thought it was a good 65 minutes of really high level football, the last part of the game I wasn’t so happy.
“But I thought there was a lot of good today, there was really good energy and speed about our play and our performance and really all that was missing was the goals and the icing on the cake for that work.”
Eddie Howe struggled to string together a coherent sentence when it came to talking about the performance
Howe was then asked the easiest question of his career – whether he thought Brighton’s goal came against the run of play. Howe obviously admitted that he thought it was, and then went on to admit that Newcastle should have done more to have had the game beyond Brighton before then.
“Yeah it was massively against the run of play. I think we’ve done everything but score, we’ve laid siege to their goal really and, yeah, these things can happen. We’ve switched off for a split second and we’ve conceded.
“I think for all our ball around their box in that first half, clear openings weren’t free flowing and we need to look at that. There were the chances there for us so we need to look at our clinical finishing in front of goal, we continue to work on our attacking stuff around the box and we will always reflect on that and try to come back and improve. But I thought it was a vast improvement overall in terms performance from the start of the season, i think we’re gathering in terms of our overall level it’s just we’re not totally clicking in every area and of course to win at this level we need all guns firing.”
If that word soup is what he’s serving up to the players in training it’s no wonder they don’t know what they’re doing.
