I have to admit, I was one of the lucky ones. I didn’t have to travel to Reading to watch Newcastle United serve up yet another sickening away performance. Then again, when you consider the fact I was at the Stadium of Light to watch Sunderland struggling against Fulham, maybe I wasn’t so lucky after all!
At least I didn’t have the 12-hour round trip to deal with and I suspect anyone who did travel to Reading will feel as though Sam Allardyce has ruined whatever goodwill he had built up in recent weeks.
For me, there is nothing worse than watching a side being easily beaten which has been set-up with the sole intention of being hard to beat. That, though, is what Newcastle became at the weekend - dull, unambitious and unimaginative. To borrow a phrase from some American teen drama or other, that sucks!
It’s all well and good harping on about best starts to the season in 11 years, but when you can’t win - or even play well - away from home you have a big problem. Manchester City, Derby County and now Reading - poor performances, poor results and a poor impression made by the manager.
I was talking to an ex-Newcastle player this morning about the Magpies’ start to the season and argued that, despite the poor away form, they can still mount a serious challenge for Uefa Cup qualification because the league is so evenly-matched.
I still stand by that statement, but said ex-player also pointed out that Newcastle, unlike their rivals for a top six or seven finish, have not played one of the Big Four, either home or away, so far this season, yet, they are still not in the top six. Furthermore, they have lost games at struggling Reading and Derby, grounds where others teams have greedily helped themselves to points.
It was also pointed out to me that, while Newcastle’s unbeaten home form is a definite positive, who have they actually played at St James’s Park? Well none of the seven teams above them in the table for a start, while only the win over Everton - Tottenham were in disarray - can be considered a victory over a big team. A rather bleak assessment of the progress made this season, but food for thought nonetheless wouldn’t you say?
For me, there have been a few encouraging signs under Allardyce, but they have all come at home, with the exception of the opening-day victory over Bolton who, as their former manager, Allardyce should know how to beat.
In fact, it looks to me as if Newcastle’s manager is actually struggling to work out how to set his team up to play on the road. It doesn’t matter how well you prepare the players, how many backroom staff you have and how many things you work on in training, if the team isn’t going to work properly as a unit it’s going to end in defeat.
Look, I don’t have any coaching badges, not even one from McDonalds, but I’d suggest that a midfield made up of four central midfielders isn’t going to work, ever, not in a million Sundays, years, months, whatever. Why no James Milner or Charles N’Zogbia in the starting line up?
As for Joey Barton, it will inevitably take him a few games to settle into things and rediscover his best form, but it should also be pointed out that, after an ineffective first start for the club, it is going to take rather more than throwing his shirt into the stands after the game to impress the fans.
Finally, having suggested that Steven Taylor (and David Rozehnal) had been dropped because of one bad game against Manchester City, I wonder what Sam will do now that Cacapa, Jose Enrique, Habib Beye and Abdoulaye Faye have had a stinker at Reading? Should make team selection for the game against Portsmouth interesting anyway...
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