Newcastle need to cut out the costly errors!
Posted on November 21st, 2010 | 86 Comments |
It can be dressed up as much as you like, but there was far too many below-par performances from too many individuals at The Reebok.
Despite that though, I feel that there is an element of our team being the architects of their own downfall, and it has been that way for a few weeks now.
Our defence had started drawing praise from several areas after a string of impressive performances. In fact it’s only a couple of weeks back that our back-four earned rave reviews for their performance during the 1-0 win at Arsenal. They were tremendous that day, as was the rest of the team, but since then something has gone wrong.
The very next game, a 2-1 loss at home against Blackburn Rovers, can be attributed to two of our own errors. Firstly there was Cheick Tiote who tried dribbling the ball out of his own area, losing the ball in the process and paying the ultimate price by conceding a goal. Then there was Mike Williamson and Fabricio Coloccini, who both got bullied and barged around by Jason Roberts who scored the winning goal.
Next up was the Fulham game, which was rather forgettable to be honest. I’ll end that one there as I don’t have much to say about it really.
Then we took on Bolton yesterday. As I said, the scoreline was 5-1, but I feel that we didn’t help ourselves with regards to that scoreline.
For the first goal, our defence had a couple of opportunities to clear the ball. They failed to do this, which is why Kevin Nolan had to be where he was, and ultimately why we gave away a penalty.
Then, for the second goal, it was another defensive howler and again the defence could have cleared the ball. They didn’t, and they tried to play the ball out from defence and got caught out. You can argue that the Bolton player was offside if you wish, but if they had have cleared the ball it wouldn’t have been an issue would it?
For Bolton’s fourth goal it was more of an individual error that a defensive one to be fair. Coloccini shouldn’t have let the ball bounce, but he did and that gave Elmannder the sniff he needed to get after the ball and out-muscle the Argie.
So you see, a lot of our goals conceded have come from individual errors. Logic would dictate that if you cut the errors out you will also cut down on the amount of goals conceded. I know they can do that as they have demonstrated it already this season, but it’s just a matter of getting back to basics.
All in my opinion of course…
Love the idea of going to a game together.
December though is a no no for me
After that somewhere in the midlands would be good been to both Liverpool clubs and thought they were rubbish.
Me and the laddie are keen.
I’ve said it before this premier league is a funny animal picking winners and losers is impossible. We will have defeats some of them thumpings but pick up surprise points.
Still believe the team needs to be freshened up.
It aint about dropping people its about having a team that can adapt to situations