Eddie Howe and his Newcastle United team lost a football match on Monday night.
You might have heard.
West Ham came to St James’ Park and won 2-0.
Following that defeat, there has been a lot said by a lot of Newcastle United fans.
So I thought I would add my bit to the conversation.
My take on it?
Newcastle United losing a football match does NOT mean the players are useless and Eddie Howe should be sacked.
It is crazy that anybody feels they have to say this but that is what some Newcastle United fans have driven myself and others to.
Never mind what these Newcastle United players and Eddie Howe have shown/proved to us over three years, you just need to look at the previous three games!
I honestly feel ashamed to be associated with some of our fanbase, the things they have said, the disrespect shown to some great people. They don’t deserve it.
As others have said, it is very difficult these days to gauge exactly what the Newcastle United fanbase is thinking generally.
We are subjected to so much rubbish online, so many desperate people trying to get our attention, especially those trying to make a few quid.
I don’t go actively looking for them but difficult to totally avoid them, the Newcastle United YouTubers especially. From what I have seen, the vast majority of them would sell the proverbial ‘grannie’, if it meant they made a few quid. They will say anything, no matter how embarrassing, if they think it will get them some attention and cash. Following the West Ham match, all of the NUFC YouTube headlines I have seen, are going on like this is the end of the world, worst performance ever, what a disgrace, drastic action must be taken…
As other more rational (honest?) Newcastle United fans have already pointed out on The Mag and elsewhere, as Eddie Howe pointed out himself as well, Newcastle played well for around an hour (including first half added time), indeed really well I thought, but didn’t have their shooting boots on. As well as nothing dropping their way, in including that very close offside on Isak’s ‘goal’ and the penalty that was outrageously not given. Yet we are Newcastle United and not Arsenal, Liverpool or Man U, so nothing is made of that shocking non-penalty decision by the media.
Callum Wilson Penalty Appeal Newcastle West Ham
In the past, Newcastle United fans would get angry about the match officials, tear into them (rather than get angry and tear into their own players and manager), especially for how the referee allowed Fabianski wasting around half the entire game, as we waited on him taking goal-kicks. The reason there were so many Fabianski/West Ham goal-kicks and free-kicks etc? Well that would be because the majority of the match, certainly that first hour or so, we saw the ball flying around and past the West Ham goal.
Some stats can’t be trusted and on this occasion, I think the possession one was massively distorted.
West Ham were credited with 48% possession but I honestly think something like half of that was the time in between the ball going out of play (usually after a Newcastle attack) and waiting for West Ham, especially Fabianski, to put it back into play.
At a rough guess, I have been to around 1,000 Newcastle United matches.
If I was ranking them all by how the Newcastle United team had played in each of the thousand games, I doubt that Monday night would be in the worst 500.
Remember, we are NOT talking about the result. We ARE talking about the team’s performance.
I was gutted due to the fact that Newcastle United lost to West Ham BUT I wasn’t gutted as to how we played overall. If we played to that level regularly, then I think Newcastle would win eight in ten matches. The same when we played and lost to Brighton.
Football is all about creating as many chances as possible of your own, plus other generally good situations, whilst at the same time restricting the opposition to as few as possible chances and other generally positive situations.
I totally understand why Newcastle United fans are gutted and frustrated that we lost to Brighton and West Ham, I am one of them!
However, in the vast majority of matches, Newcastle United would win if they played like that.
You get matches where you don’t take your chances and the opposition then punish you when getting their far fewer chances.
I have seen Newcastle United do this countless times to other teams. Where we have been average, even rubbish, yet still somehow win. If you are honest with yourself, you will have countless instances in the past when you can remember NUFC doing this.
So many laughable comments since Monday.
‘Rafa Benitez should replace Eddie Howe’
We all love Rafa for what he did for us under Mike Ashley in very difficult circumstances BUT maybe worth looking at what has happened under our former Spanish love these past five years.
‘Jose Mourinho should replace Eddie Howe’
Very similar to Rafa in terms of looking at what has happened in more recent times with him. Even when he was successful in the past in the Premier League, he had the backing of ridiculous amounts of money that gave him and his club a huge advantage. With PSR, United couldn’t offer that to Mourinho, indeed, this past summer Eddie Howe saw Newcastle make a profit in the transfer market.
‘The Newcastle United midfield is clearly not working’
Nobody was saying this after the excellent wins over Arsenal and Forest. These very vocal Newcastle United fans now slagging Eddie Howe and his team off, were all saying how things had now clicked, the team flowing and so on. Indeed, loads of praise for all of the last three wins, as a slightly different NUFC team selection also played so well and knocked Chelsea out of the cup.
There have always been Newcastle United fans who you would shake your head at. Wondering how clueless someone could be.
It is like back in the day, those who would (and still do!) go on about how Kevin Keegan ‘lost Newcastle United the Premier League title’, as though every season we were competing for it and winning it on a regular basis. Not the reality that Kevin Keegan was a miracle worker who was incredible, who was so unlucky in not getting us over the line. Man U just incredible in that second half of the season, their last 15 games they won 13, drew one and lost one, Schmeichel and Cantona were world class game after game and got them to that title. Man U had a far stronger squad and so many other advantages, Newcastle United and Kevin Keegan though had been magnificent.
Which brings us back to Eddie Howe and his Newcastle United players.
They have been magnificent and Eddie Howe has been a miracle worker these past three years.
Some Newcastle United fans should have a good look at themselves, appreciate what we have got, that Eddie Howe and a mixture of very talented players and those who play above themselves on a regular basis, have delivered the results these past three years, INCLUDING these past four weeks the wins against Chelsea, Arsenal and away at Forest.