Stale mate! Leicester 0 Newcastle 0
Posted on January 30th, 2010 | 84 Comments |
It will be a long journey back home for those loyal Mags who had to sit through another unstimulating performance from our team. Even with the well worn cliche of ten men often being harder to play against, tonight was a perfect opportunity to get ourselves back on track and put some daylight between us and the chasers. Unfortunately we fell miles short of looking anything like taking the 3 points at any stage in the game, and if any team looked more likely to create something, it was Leicester.
We just look completely stale and while I’ve argued for months now that we’ve rarely looked like a good football team, we also now seem to have lost some of the hunger that was earning us points regardless of the style we played. Defensively we’re still stubborn and less likely to concede than the opposition generally, but in midfield and upfront we seem to have lost our appetite and drive. Big players like Smith and Nolan, seem quiet and ineffective, drifting in and out games with barely an influence on the occasion.
Hughton gave full debuts to van Anholt and Routledge, with the young Dutchman slotting straight in to replace the injured Enrique at left back. Routledge took up his more recognised role wide on the right as Danny Guthrie switched over to the left, leaving Gutierrez on the bench, presumably still feeling a knock from the Palace game. Ryan Taylor returned from suspension to fill in at right back with Kadar dropping to the bench.
But the biggest decision Hughton had to make was his formation further afield and when he predictably plumped for the 4-4-1-1 option, and stuck Nicky Butt in for Lovenkrands, the writing was on the wall for me. The pedestrian pace that Butt, Nolan and Smith play at in the middle is something to behold when they’re on the same pitch together. And with Guthrie out on the left, our only real outlet was Wayne Routledge, who was inexplicably starved of possession for long periods of the game.
With Derby winning at Forest, it was an ideal scenario laid out before us, and with ten minutes gone we had at least played some possession football without ever looking dangerous. But that changed all too soon and the game became very scrappy, notably when Richie Wellens could have walked for a challenge on Smith. And on the half hour, he did walk after a much more innocuous pull on Routledge.
And so with the advantage gained so early on, most Toon fans most have been fairly optimistic of taking all three points. However, the first half was largely void of any goalmouth action and Leicester’s Matty Fryatt came as close as anyone, forcing Harper into tipping over the crossbar midway through the first half, and then having a shot blocked by Van Aanholt after cutting through the United defence as if it wasn’t there. At the other end, Weale pushed a Van Aanholt effort round the post and we went close twice after headers from Smith and Carroll.
We inevitably put them under a period of pressure but without ever really looking convincing with our attacks, and Weale never had to make a save of any note in the second half. The introduction of Nobby Solano was probably as noteworthy as any of the football and the quality dipped even lower with the combination of our desperation to take all three points and their dogged determination not to allow it.
Even the introduction of Ranger failed to make any impression as we belatedly went for a more attack-minded approach. And ultimately we just weren’t good enough on a night when many of our inadequacies were exposed. Leicester battled admirably, as many teams have done against this season and can undoubtedly be proud of their performance in adversity. They even managed to pass the ball around us, despite being a man down. But the fact remains that we played to their strengths. Their dogged defending was helped by a side lacking ideas or the ability to put them to good use. The lack of any real penetration was painfully obvious, where in the absence of Enrique and Gutierrez who have chanelled the play all season, we just looked bereft of any direction.
It seems somehow indecent that we should be complaining when we’re top of the league but the harsh reality is that pretty much all season, for some fans (though not this particular supporter), winning has masked the awful means that led to it. And when we don’t win, it’s even hard for them to stomach. It’s not so much what this has done in the immediate future because the table still looks healthy. But promotion still seems an awful long way away on these performances.
Us – Harper 7, R Taylor 5, Coloccini 6, Williamson 6, van Aanholt 7, Routledge 6, Butt 5, Smith 5, Guthrie 6, Nolan 5, Carroll 5
Subs – Krul, Kadar, Gutierrez, Lovenkrands, Ranger 5, Hall, Pancrate 5
Leicester – Weale, Morrison, Brown, Oakley, King, Fryatt, Berner, Waghorn, Wellens, Gallagher, Hobbs
Subs – Nielson, McGivern, Solano, Howard, Dyer, Logan, N’Guessan
Att – 29,067 (with 3,000+ noisy Mags by the sounds of it)
NUFCBlog Author: bowburnmag
bowburnmag has written 234 articles on this blog.
Same old, same old…
Cannot wait to sleep through the Cardiff game now.