So I have calmed down, and wanted to try and take an objective look at why I think NUFC are shite at the moment. In trying to do this, it made me full of rage again, so there is every chance that may come across in these words. I love Eddie and I love a lot of these lads for what they’ve given us. It doesn’t mean you can go away to two of the worst teams in the league and turn in that kind of performance though. Something needs to change. For me there are two main things, and one of them is the keeper.
Nick Pope has been excellent for us in general since he signed and he kept none clean sheets last season which is decent. He made a real difference to the side when he joined and was part of the first transformation, from relegation candidates to cup finalists. He no longer does what we need him to do, though. We seem wedded to the idea of playing out from the back, and I am all for that when everyone is technically in a position to do this.
With Livramento injured and Hall not playing -for whatever reason you want to pick (anything ranging from Dan Burn is Eddie’s actual son and has nudes of him, to Hall isn’t match fit) – we have too few options in the backline to effectively move the ball. Burn simply isn’t good enough or quick enough to move the ball well, and whilst Trippier has more quality than Burn, his best days of movement and overlapping are past him.
It leaves us too easy to press and teams aren’t pressing us to make the defenders cough up the ball, they are doing it to get the ball to Pope who looks like he couldn’t kick snow off a rope, especially when the ball isn’t stationary. I feel harsh saying that about him, but the number of times he slices at the ball and it whips wide right like my tee shots on the first after a night on the sauce, is no longer acceptable.
To add insult to injury (or concussion) he has now become somewhat flappy. Punching (badly) at balls he should catch and generally getting beaten when he shouldn’t. I’d blame at least one against West Ham on Pope and one on Sunday too. Ramsdale is as good a shot stopper as Pope in my book and is an actual footballer. In fact, it should be said that for an actual footballer, Nick Pope’s ability with an actual football is actually shocking.
Ramsdale, however, will play further up in his box which moves people up the pitch a little and his team mates won’t be scared to pass him the ball. This in turn will help us move the ball quicker and give the defensive line the confidence to move the ball in tighter areas and rely less on Burn and Tripps. The whole thing would be helped by the full backs moving further up the pitch and not being so flat footed at the back, and that brings me to point two…
There’s a multitude of issues revolving around how we use the ball, but the biggest one for me is what we are doing off the ball…or aren’t doing, to be precise. We are simply too easy to defend against because we try and play sideways at the back, get pressed and either hump it forward to big Nick who is very keenly proving he is not a hold up man number 9 or give it to Pope who sticks it in row Z.
A huge issue causing this is the number of players playing with their back to goal. No one is turning and either running into space or beating a man. I genuinely can’t remember the last time a winger beat a full back for NUFC. All of this means the game gets cramped into the middle third of the pitch and when we inevitably cough it up because we are playing in too tight a space, we are playing a high line and a long ball over us unlocks the backline.
We have a very slow defence at the minute, with the exception of Thiaw, and it gives teams an easy in, and stretches us too quickly. We saw the worst of that with Burn’s general performance on Sunday. He wasn’t alone to be fair – the number of times Botman turned and looked like me sprinting for the chippy before closing time was worrying.
Another issue with this is Woltemade. He becomes too easy to defend against. When we play in such a compact area you can crowd him out. He is always facing away from goal and his first pass will be in the direction of his own goal. Whilst his touch and strength are good, he’s often got two on him and you’re rarely going to come out on top in the situation over the course of 90 minutes.
If he has Barnes running behind him, for example, he can hold the ball OR flick it on. He can lay a quick touch to someone who can play it into space behind the defence and in time it makes it less easy to defend against him because teams won’t know what is going to come next. We need people running beyond our midfield and our attacking line. Full backs, wingers and midfielders. At the moment we look so scared that we may concede that we aren’t trying anything close to breaking lines and it’s costing us.
Now I know there’s more to this and I am just a tubby bloke who loves writing about the Toon, so I don’t have the fixes to make this happen in real life. Whilst I believe in Eddie 100% still, this is now starting to fall on his shoulders. There have been errors in the summer window, there have been tactical errors and there have been selection errors. There have been in game mistakes and when it all adds together, it’s a lot to handle. I say I believe in him and I mean that. However I know there are others who don’t.
Our next 4 fixtures (Man City H, Marseille A, Everton A and Spurs H) give little room for error, and a very tough test. By the time, we descend on the great unwashed in December, he better have sorted his shit sorted out. Because if he doesn’t, I worry he will be having more time off over Christmas than he’s become used to.
Dai Rees
