Fingers need to be pointed now at Newcastle United players who are living off reputation alone
Newcastle United can put their league woes behind them in the Champions League but that shouldn’t paper over the cracks
Newcastle United player Joelinton reacts during training ahead of their UEFA Champions League match against Athletic Club
See saw, see saw. Up and down, up and down. I’m getting sickness with all the turbulence! Can’t we just be consistent? Consistently good.
I suppose the only consolation is that Newcastle are about to play in the Champions League again. They seem to get up for that, as they should, but as they don’t for some unfathomable reason in the Premier League.
I’m getting fed up. It really isn’t good enough but for now let us concentrate on what is to hand. Let’s win again in the Champions League while the going is good. Two victories out of three starts and the second successive home fixture before we hit the air miles. No room to mess up now. Foot on the pedal. Nine points required before tough times to come.
United are supposed to have the best in-depth squad of Eddie Howe’s reign but you wouldn’t have thought it at West Ham. The starting XI were abysmal and the substitutes no better.
Inspiration was in short supply. Fingers need to be pointed because sometimes ‘nicey nicey’ is not the answer. How people respond is crucial and facts should not be skirted around. Everyone has been let down.
If you look at performances last time out it is all negative. Pope was abysmal on match changing moments; United got nothing offensively from their full-backs Krafth and Burn who lack what Livramento, Hall and Trippier give us which is the Newcastle way. As a trio our midfield was nowhere near the best in the PL which is how they are often touted; Joelinton has been well below par for a while; Gordon only plays in what he considers big games; Elanga owes us along with others; where are the leaders? What has happened to the one-for-all-and-all-for-one inspiration and band of brothers?
Gordon is returning to his field of dreams, the Champions League, where he scores with regularity yet in the Premier League, his everyday workplace, he has gone 19 games without scoring or providing an assist for one of his team-mates. That’s a shocking stat for an England winger. He and Big Joe are currently living on reputation.
The sooner Yoane Wissa recovers from injury to add some variety in attack and allow Nick Woltemade the freedom to roam and create as well as score the better. The German was a lost soul at the London Stadium.
Dan Burn has started and completed just about every game, often out of his natural position, and is beginning to look like it. Woltemade likewise has been unable to be left off Howe’s initial team sheet through necessity and only lasted to half-time in the east end of London.
Eddie is facing the sort of problems which he has not had to confront since he arrived. He has to get back to what he had and that requires a willingness amongst the troops to respond.
Maybe it is not normally as bad as this but it is all too often at the moment especially away from home. When United are not bang at it, playing with 100 per cent intensity, they are nowhere near what they need to be.
Nevertheless I have no doubt United will win here. It’s the Champions League, it’s at home, it’s under the lights. Mr Hyde will become Dr Jekyll again. Temporarily at least.
The Basques of Bilbao have upstanding history but little form as they head our way. Having been beaten by Real Sociadad in the Basque derby Athletic are marooned 11th in La Liga having lost more matches than they have won and travel with an equally unimpressive Champions League set of results.
They got tucked up by two well known clubs Arsenal (2-0 at home) and Borussia Dortmund (4-1 away) before recording their first victory 3-1 over Euro minnows Qarabag.
What of their background? Well, they are a club of history and tradition, one of three founding members of Spain’s Primera Division who have never been relegated from the top sphere since its inception in 1929. The other two? Giants Real Madrid and Barcelona.
A bit like Yorkshire cricket club back in the day Athletic only sign players from their own area ie the Basque country. They may look like Sunderland but actually they are Southampton in disguise.
A young student from Bilbao named Juan Elorduy, who was spending Christmas 1909 in London, was charged by the club to buy 25 new shirts, but was unable to find enough. Waiting for the ship back to Bilbao and empty handed, Elorduy realised that the colours of the local team Southampton matched the colours of the City of Bilbao, and bought 50 shirts to take with him. So since 1910 Athletic have played in red and white stripes.
Does that make this a Tyne-Wear derby? Naw but we need to see off the Basque Mackems.
While I want and expect victory over Athletic I am more worried about what happens at Brentford. That is the game of apprehension. Any chance of a life on an even keel? There are a lot of individual reputations which had seemed so secure now on the line. I hope that is realised.
