Same could be said about Oscar. If he's not pressing and making a nuisance of himself, he's pretty useless. Put in one good cross that Remy should have buried, but other than that it was poor.

All this intricate overplay inside the box. Make a yard and shoot. Why not keep it simple? Trying to go through congested centre and inevitably losing out when you havev just Loic Remy surrounded by 5 newcastle players.

This was a team that consisted of Colback, Anita, Mbemba, Mbambu, Collocini. Shocking.

Anyway... Personal ratings:

Begovic - 7 made a few saves.

Azpi - 7 Always the player with the most desire

Cahill - 6

Zouma - 5

Ivanovic - 5

Matic - 5 what happened to him?

Fabregas - 4

Oscar - 5

Hazard - 5

Pedro - 5

Remy - 4

------------

Ramires - 7

Willian - 6

Falcao - 5

To comeback and get a point was great but I can only look at today as another chance missed. City were battered and we could have really made a statement by beating them and surging up the table, but no, we stood off them and let them play making them look actually good. Of course because it was Chelsea they decided to turn up but we made it way too easy for them. I looked at the team sheet and saw a left back who I had never heard of, and boy was I wrong to think we were going to exploit that side and really make it difficult for him, but no, we played right into his hands and made him look like a world beater despite the fact that he'll get absolutely roasted at the Etihad next week and we'll never hear from him again

all our attacking play seems to be down the middle where we then stumble about trying to short pass or dribble through a packed penalty area. why arent players like hazard getting down the flanks, playing balls in and forcing corners and free kicks and mistakes, i was shouting out for it, newcastle were so there for the taking second half !!

Matic - 5 what happened to him?

 

 

He has to cover too much ground on every part of the pitch. He's covering in the midfield, he's covering for the CB's and most of the time, he's also helping our RB and LB. We don't have a mobile midfield and every game it becomes more and more evident. The real criticism I have of Matic (and this applies to Fabregas as well), he seems to linger too much with the ball after he's blocked an attack. I don't know how many times him and Fabregas lost possession of the ball today because they kept it for too long.

Same could be said about Oscar. If he's not pressing and making a nuisance of himself, he's pretty useless. Put in one good cross that Remy should have buried, but other than that it was poor.

All this intricate overplay inside the box. Make a yard and shoot. Why not keep it simple? Trying to go through congested centre and inevitably losing out when you havev just Loic Remy surrounded by 5 newcastle players.

This was a team that consisted of Colback, Anita, Mbemba, Mbambu, Collocini. Shocking.

Anyway... Personal ratings:

Begovic - 7 made a few saves.

Azpi - 7 Always the player with the most desire

Cahill - 6

Zouma - 5

Ivanovic - 5

Matic - 5 what happened to him?

Fabregas - 4

Oscar - 5

Hazard - 5

Pedro - 5

Remy - 4

------------

Ramires - 7

Willian - 6

Falcao - 5

About Matic, I think some of the blame goes on his midfield partners. Gary Neville pointed this out about Colquein (however you spell it) and Arsenal playing Carzola or Ozil with him. Those two dont offer much help defensively so hes stuck on his own stopping counters. Unless your name is Makalele you are going to have a hard time stopping them alone. I think thats whats going on, he isnt getting enough pressure on the ball in front of him. Teams can waltz through the middle and pass around Matic

Too many of our attacking players do a fancy flick, back heel, a pass with little effect thinking that's their job done...in final 30 minutes we started to attack them with pace, with more intent and purpose...no wonder we started to create chances at will

About Matic, I think some of the blame goes on his midfield partners. Gary Neville pointed this out about Colquein (however you spell it) and Arsenal playing Carzola or Ozil with him. Those two dont offer much help defensively so hes stuck on his own stopping counters. Unless your name is Makalele you are going to have a hard time stopping them alone. I think thats whats going on, he isnt getting enough pressure on the ball in front of him. Teams can waltz through the middle and pass around Matic

 

Logical solution to this surely is to have Ramires as the 'runner' beside Matic? Could almost have a 2005 style 4-3-3 with Oscar in the Lampard role, Pedro and Hazard as wingers supporting Costa.

Logical solution to this surely is to have Ramires as the 'runner' beside Matic? Could almost have a 2005 style 4-3-3 with Oscar in the Lampard role, Pedro and Hazard as wingers supporting Costa.

 

I think that would be our best option atm, considering Fabregas lack of form.

Logical solution to this surely is to have Ramires as the 'runner' beside Matic? Could almost have a 2005 style 4-3-3 with Oscar in the Lampard role, Pedro and Hazard as wingers supporting Costa.

Thats exactly what I would do as well. Id throw RLC in as well. Or see how Mikel does as DM with Matic box to box. For me the runner spot is perfect for RLC and if he takes his chances and earns it we'll be the better team for it.

Id always pick this triangle to start out no matter the opponent.

.....Oscar.....Ramires/RLC

..........Matic

If they park the bus take off Ramires/RLC in favor of Cesc. If we are up 2 and want to protect a lead swap in Mikel and push Matic up with Mikel as true DM.

Did Jose actually said he wished he could make 6 substitutions at half time? He must be a comedian. He has been playing this same team several times this season despite the poor performance of some of the players, whereas most of us (except Jose) knows about 3 or 4 players need to be dropped. But Jose is rigid, he will stick with the same team next week and if it doesn't turn out well, he will still start wondering what the problem is. The only change he will probably make next week is Ramires for Oscar, Falcao for Remy. The usual suspects will still keep there place!

The commentator was spot on today.

When he said he still can't figure what Chelsea tatic this season. What happened to our fast break away and counter attack?

I felt like every time we had that chance to counter this season, we slowed the game down automatically and allowed the opposition to come back and defense.

Especially Eden Hazard explosive moves... what happened to that?

Today, is a definition of "lucky", and don't get me started with Ivonovich.

Did Jose actually said he wished he could make 6 substitutions at half time? He must be a comedian. He has been playing this same team several times this season despite the poor performance of some of the players, whereas most of us (except Jose) knows about 3 or 4 players need to be dropped. But Jose is rigid, he will stick with the same team next week and if it doesn't turn out well, he will still start wondering what the problem is. The only change he will probably make next week is Ramires for Oscar, Falcao for Remy. The usual suspects will still keep there place!

 

Yeah, he's criminal with his inability to drop his preferred players.

We came back from 2-0 and got a point.

 

We were all over them.

One reason we are conceding goals is because he attack is poor and we don pressure them enough.

In the first half hour we did absolutely nothing in attack. Gave the ball away regularly and played without any drive. Pedro didn't touch the ball for the first 15 minutes.

There is no drive coming from either Matic or fabregas

Ivan's crosses have got worse if possible

Pedro was useless, ran around the pitch like a headless chook, I've see heaps of championship players do better.

I think the players are trying, maybe they are even trying too hard but there is no rhythm and no self belief.

Personally I still think we should play baba. I'm sure he'll make mistakes and we will concede some goals but we are doing that anyway and we'd get some more energy in attack.

I'd drop both fab and Matic and play Ramires and rlc and I'd drop Pedro and put Willian out there.

Fabregas and Oscar should never play together away. Fabregas can't play CM in a fast paced PL match anyway but that combination with Oscar makes us look even weaker and more vulnerable. At points in the game it looked like we couldn't reach their box because of how slow and weak some of the players were. I don't get Jose's reasoning, Fabregas is almost the complete opposite of his typical midfield player, the guy is the heart of all the problems in the team right now and he continues to play him no matter what. IMO, he brings Matic down with him, I can't put too much blame on Matic when he covers for his two midfield partners lack of physicality/energy. Hopefully that Ramires performance gets him a starting spot alongside him, with Mikel and RLC in discussion. Let Fabregas fight for a place with Oscar.

 

For some reason our fully fit captain and best CB is still on the bench, that should change from Tuesday as well.

 

No idea who that Newcastle left back is but surely that was the best football he has ever played. Absolutely dominated Pedro all game.

Edited September 26, 201510 yr by JM1

Fabregas and Oscar should never play together away. Fabregas can't play CM in a fast paced PL match anyway but that combination with Oscar makes us look even weaker and more vulnerable. At points in the game it looked like we couldn't reach their box because of how slow and weak some of the players were. I don't get Jose's reasoning, Fabregas is almost the complete opposite of his typical midfield player, the guy is the heart of all the problems in the team right now and he continues to play him no matter what. IMO, he brings Matic down with him, I can't put too much blame on Matic when he covers for his two midfield partners lack of physicality/energy. Hopefully that Ramires performance gets him a starting spot alongside him, with Mikel and RLC in discussion. Let Fabregas fight for a place with Oscar.

 

For some reason our fully fit captain and best CB is still on the bench, that should change from Tuesday as well.

 

No idea who that Newcastle left back is but surely that was the best football he has ever played. Absolutely dominated Pedro all game.

dont think so,its about time we move on form Terry,and ivanovic.Zouma cahill baba and Azpi should be our starting backline until we buy someone in january or in the summer,its time to move forward IMO

Terry can play a single game a week as long as Zouma is next to him. JT is not done yet

We have a big hole in central defense.

 

But what a comeback!

 

Although we bled, we did manage to stop it at St. James'.

 

Will take the point, thank you.

It's interesting, the two key flaws we have Jose looked to, and couldn't address in the summer.

I do think there is merit to moving to more of an inverted three in the midfield to have Matic sit deeper and Ramires and Fabregas further forward. I think this suits Ramires runs better and also allows him to lead the pressing, something he does well. It also provides more protection to Fabregas who in my view is crucial on the ball but struggling off it, bith in the deeper role and when asked to lead the press higher up.

But the main element is one of mentality. We need JT back in the team to lead us and we also need Fabregas in particular to step up and display leadership further forward. Costa will be back midweek which will also make a huge difference.

 

Name the six he would have subbed ......

 

Fabregas

Ivanovic

Zouma

Hazard

Matic

Oscar

 

?????? 

 

 

You are having a laugh if you think Brana was in those six. We know Jose, and we know his favourites are near bullet proof. I would venture the list of 6 were Matic, Cesc, Pedro, Oscar, Hazard and Remy.

 

Jose can talk all he wants, but he's the one who keeps picking out of form players. He's the one who runs all the training sessions, and yet we can't defend and we can barely create anything. We are so unbelievably slow to attack, it just lets the opposition get everyone back into position. No urgency unless we're losing by several goals. Just bloody awful week after week.

 

Agreed he needs to walk the walk. Mikel and Ramires were great in midweek (yes against Walsall but Matic hardly pulled up trees when he came on did he?) and what happened to them? Both left out of the side.

 

You need to make a stand Jose, give some of the other squad players a chance. Maybe some time out of the side will be the kick up the butt the under performers need to get back to the level they need to be.

and a big congratulations to Ramires on his newborn.

Never been to St.James's before but what a nice stadium and we had a fantastic view.  NUFC fans were very welcoming/friendly and christ can they make a noise.  

 

First half, what more can be said than what has already been posted - shambolic and no fire in anyone's belly.  Laughable that these lads can get paid so much money to churn out a performance like that.

 

Start of second half was not a lot better and nothing really changed until the sub's were made and then, like a light switch we started playing, not scintillating but good enough. Why, why, why does it take so long to get going in some matches - it was a warm evening and certainly wasn't cold and foggy on the Tyne which is the usual excuse for our warm weather stars.

 

A few comments:

 

Ivanavic - has been an unsung hero for me over the years but his time to go has come.  Slow isn't an adequate word to describe his pace - he gets ripped apart constantly.  Does this man actually practice passing the ball more than 10m?  He sprays balls willy-nilly across the pitch.  Pathetic at times.

 

Falcao - erm...what can be said other than really?  Why did we allow him to join the club?  He looks like a fat, startled rabbit in the box.  Missed a sitter from 3m out (was offside but he didn't know it at the time), just seems unaware of where the ball is when it is coming into the box.  Inept at the level we aspire to.

 

Fab' - bottles it in midfield.  Some flashes of skill but I wonder if he is really playing for us.  Head goes down too easily and he his not a man to galvanise the troops.

 

Oscar - brilliant little Oscar is just not cutting it at the moment.  Little flashes here and there but oh so quiet.  Is he really playing for us too?

 

Zouma - has potential and is ok but a long way to go.  Some of his positional play is woeful - he looks clumsy and at times way out of his depth.  I know he is young but he contributes to the shakiness of our back four.  I know this will not be popular but hey-ho.

 

Remy - a joke.  Won't mix it with defenders, stands off and looks startled and lost at times.  There were times when he was almost standing still watching the play go by.

 

Pedro - scorcher of a player.  High tempo, switches sides and other than Cahill & Azpi was the only player that looked like he was putting a shift in.  He just needs a target man to aim at and he's a real asset.  Blotted his performance by missing a sitter which isn't on at this level.

 

Hazard - alternates from lazily drifting around to some stunning dribbling.  Takes way too long at times to shoot and eventually loses the opportunity.

 

Ramires - got stuck in from the off, brilliant goal.  At least he was trying.

 

Willian - as per Ramires.

 

***

 

Overall, not a great day at the races, we are slow a lot of the time to counter which is anti-Chelsea and baffles me.  At times we could have countered fast and put them under real pressure but no, we shift the ball around at the back, wait for them to regroup and then when they are 'ready' off we go.  Woeful.

 

***

 

Jose, top, top manager but by christ the fella really needs to start earning his corn this season.  Would've been nice to see him get off his backside more during the match.  When crap is happening on the pitch I like to see the man in the box urging the lads on.

 

***

 

Well done to the half dozen players who applauded the fans at the end of the match - the others who just trooped off, well ***k you, presume you are playing for the salary and not the club.  Sorry, pet hate of mine.  Just plain rude.  If Jose can have the odd swipe at us he ought to look at the lack of respect shown to the fans by some of his players.

 

***

 

NB: how we miss JT.  Not just his defensive capabilities but we really do not have a leader on the pitch without him. Can't see a replacement for him either.

 

***

 

NB2: hurry back Costa - at least the man has some balls and fire in his belly.

Edited September 27, 201510 yr by Bloo

Both Ivan and Zouma were awful for the first goal.

Zouma hesitated and you can't do that in the box. Great touch and finish though.

Ivanovic was 2 yards away, could see the flight of the ball, Zouma and the striker without any interference. As soon as he seen Zouma hesitate, he steps in and clears. Why he also hesitates, I'll never know. His main attribute is supposed to be his defensive qualities as a full back covering for the defenders. Dave would have read that and cleared it for example.

Second goal, the less said the better.

Pedro squares to Falcao and he has a tap in. He looks low on confidence which is worrying.

Never been to St.James's before but what a nice stadium and we had a fantastic view. NUFC fans were very welcoming/friendly and christ can they make a noise.

First half, what more can be said than what has already been posted - shambolic and no fire in anyone's belly. Laughable that these lads can get paid so much money to churn out a performance like that.

Start of second half was not a lot better and nothing really changed until the sub's were made and then, like a light switch we started playing, not scintillating but good enough. Why, why, why does it take so long to get going in some matches - it was a warm evening and certainly wasn't cold and foggy on the Tyne which is the usual excuse for our warm weather stars.

A few comments:

Ivanavic - has been an unsung hero for me over the years but his time to go has come. Slow isn't an adequate word to describe his pace - he gets ripped apart constantly. Does this man actually practice passing the ball more than 10m? He sprays balls willy-nilly across the pitch. Pathetic at times.

Falcao - erm...what can be said other than really? Why did we allow him to join the club? He looks like a fat, startled rabbit in the box. Missed a sitter from 3m out (was offside but he didn't know it at the time), just seems unaware of where the ball is when it is coming into the box. Inept at the level we aspire to.

Fab' - bottles it in midfield. Some flashes of skill but I wonder if he is really playing for us. Head goes down too easily and he his not a man to galvanise the troops.

Oscar - brilliant little Oscar is just not cutting it at the moment. Little flashes here and there but oh so quiet. Is he really playing for us too?

Zouma - has potential and is ok but a long way to go. Some of his positional play is woeful - he looks clumsy and at times way out of his depth. I know he is young but he contributes to the shakiness of our back four. I know this will not be popular but hey-ho.

Remy - a joke. Won't mix it with defenders, stands off and looks startled and lost at times. There were times when he was almost standing still watching the play go by.

Pedro - scorcher of a player. High tempo, switches sides and other than Cahill & Azpi was the only player that looked like he was putting a shift in. He just needs a target man to aim at and he's a real asset. Blotted his performance by missing a sitter which isn't on at this level.

Hazard - alternates from lazily drifting around to some stunning dribbling. Takes way too long at times to shoot and eventually loses the opportunity.

Ramires - got stuck in from the off, brilliant goal. At least he was trying.

Willian - as per Ramires.

***

Overall, not a great day at the races, we are slow a lot of the time to counter which is anti-Chelsea and baffles me. At times we could have countered fast and put them under real pressure but no, we shift the ball around at the back, wait for them to regroup and then when they are 'ready' off we go. Woeful.

***

Jose, top, top manager but by christ the fella really needs to start earning his corn this season. Would've been nice to see him get off his backside more during the match. When crap is happening on the pitch I like to see the man in the box urging the lads on.

***

Well done to the half dozen players who applauded the fans at the end of the match - the others who just trooped off, well ***k you, presume you are playing for the salary and not the club. Sorry, pet hate of mine. Just plain rude. If Jose can have the odd swipe at us he ought to look at the lack of respect shown to the fans by some of his players.

***

NB: how we miss JT. Not just his defensive capabilities but we really do not have a leader on the pitch without him. Can't see a replacement for him either.

***

NB2: hurry back Costa - at least the man has some balls and fire in his belly.

Great post bloo...