Newcastle post match

[alunevans]

Hodgson's away record is just astounding. You would think he would have won more than he has just out of pure luck. You're got to be doing something very, very wrong to have the away record he has.

That's so true. Home teams win 45% of the time. Draws are around 27% of the time. Leaving aways at around 28% of the time.

So just out of pure luck you'd expect him to have won 7 or 8 from the last 27 away games, not 1.

The thing is too, you look at our For and Against numbers and it's not as if we're scoring plenty but the defence is ****, or the defence is great but we're not converting up top.

Both are poor.

Only the following sides have scored less than us away from home: Aston Villa, Wigan, Wolves and West Ham!!

Only the following sides have defended worse than us away from home: Blackpool, West Brom, Blackburn, Villa, Wolves.

As you say, this isn't luck. This is how it is.

[Rigadon]

Newcastle looked like a Championship side yesterday. Can’t believe we lost

[Drago]

Newcastle looked like a Championship side yesterday. Can’t believe we lost

Probably cause we looked like a league one team.

[Craig_H]

Nothing new to say.

[dww]

It's odd - you can see that despite his protestations Roy is changing things as the season goes on (for example from goal kicks the CBs now go wide and the DM drops, almost like we want to build from the back) but the same failings keep coming back. Konchesky is a bit rubbish, we have to pace/acceleration at the back, when we start doing well we ease off, no pressing high up the pitch, not convincing enough with our finishing.

We pass the ball around so pointlessly in deep positions. I think we must be the most frustrating team in the league to watch as you can see glimpses of how we might be good but we lack the drive.

The other thing that was really clear yesterday in comparison to previous seasons: even when we were poor you usually saw the other team wilt a bit at the end of the game like we had moved them around, given them a good game. Against Newcastle there was none of that. This season all too often the other team have been finishing the match stronger than us which used to be a massive rarity.

[McDermotX]

Had nothin to do with the five players surrounding him that couldnt be arsed or didnt have the sense to close him down...

Would expect Pepe to save them, so I was a little disappointed with that, but the more I look at that 3rd goal, the more I want to punch Lucas in the face.

[dww]

Our tactic isn't to close but hold position though. My feeling is that it is a tactical fault rather than individual error.

[Shaggy]

Our tactic isn't to close but hold position though. My feeling is that it is a tactical fault rather than individual error.

It was just symptomatic of the way we've played all season - no closing down.

[dww]

It was just symptomatic of the way we've played all season - no closing down.

What is particularly baffling is that we seem to do it for patches (start of the first half yesterday for example) then stop. You get the impression that Roy heard about Barcelona using 'false pressing' and decided that seemed like a good idea. The difference being that even their less aggressive defensive strategy is vastly less passive than ours, which is what makes the ruse work.

[Arn]

It's odd - you can see that despite his protestations Roy is changing things as the season goes on (for example from goal kicks the CBs now go wide and the DM drops, almost like we want to build from the back) but the same failings keep coming back. Konchesky is a bit rubbish, we have to pace/acceleration at the back, when we start doing well we ease off, no pressing high up the pitch, not convincing enough with our finishing.

We pass the ball around so pointlessly in deep positions. I think we must be the most frustrating team in the league to watch as you can see glimpses of how we might be good but we lack the drive.

The other thing that was really clear yesterday in comparison to previous seasons: even when we were poor you usually saw the other team wilt a bit at the end of the game like we had moved them around, given them a good game. Against Newcastle there was none of that. This season all too often the other team have been finishing the match stronger than us which used to be a massive rarity.

I think the difference is that we have no central defender except of Agger that can start a quick counter attack and we play so deep that even that we have the best keeper in the world when it comes down to setting up quick counter attacks then we can't use that because we play so deep.

We didn't exactly play that attacking the first hour or so in the games with Rafa in charge but the difference is that as you say the opposition got tired and then we upped the tempo and finished them off. That isn't happening now because the opposition don't need to chase the ball as much as before so they aren't as tired the last half an hour of the game.

[RichC]

Our tactic isn't to close but hold position though. My feeling is that it is a tactical fault rather than individual error.

Tactical all day long, if you hold position and allow teams to look for passes you'll get punished time and time again and guess what we've been punished time and time again!

[Bender]

Newcastle are above us in the table

[McDermotX]

Our tactic isn't to close but hold position though. My feeling is that it is a tactical fault rather than individual error.

No doubt that's what the old duffer on the touchline wants.........but certainly for the Carroll goal, you could see Lucas was in two minds, unsure whether he should close or stand off, started to go, then pulled back..............picked the wrong option in the end of course (although Roy probably still said well done for doing the right thing......after all it worked for some chance in some match for Malmo 35 years ago)

[dww]

No doubt that's what the old duffer on the touchline wants.........but certainly for the Carroll goal, you could see Lucas was in two minds, unsure whether he should close or stand off, started to go, then pulled back..............picked the wrong option in the end of course (although Roy probably still said well done for doing the right thing......after all it worked for some chance in some match for Malmo 35 years ago)

That is exactly the problem though - if the tactics say one thing and the situation another then under Roy's guidance (and to be fair probably Rafa's too but then he had better and more flexible tactics) it appears you are encouraged to follow the prescribed plan. It's very frustrating and I'm sure Roy would argue all the problems come from players being used to an entirely different way of playing but I just think his strategy is ****. I find it hard to blame players when they are pretty clearly doing their job as instructed.

[peekay]

That's so true. Home teams win 45% of the time. Draws are around 27% of the time. Leaving aways at around 28% of the time.

So just out of pure luck you'd expect him to have won 7 or 8 from the last 27 away games, not 1.

It is staggering how **** Roy's away record is. I dont think the players believe that they can win away and that was reflected in their "drive" as dww pointed out.

Can you imagine the away dressing room. All they need to do was put up Roy's stats on the board and even the worst pub team on the planet will be confident of a result.