Sam Allardyce seemed quite annoyed today, when he spoke about the game on Saturday.
But Newcastle dished up their worst display of the season in front of 52,000 fanatical home fans and were down 3-0 after just 11 minutes.
One great goal and two gifts were how Portsmouth found themselves so far ahead after so little playing time on Saturday.
The Geordie crowd were stunned at the ineptitude of the home defense – and that is probably the understatement of the season.
Sam Allardyce – ability alone not good enough in Premiership
Sam talked about the game today:
“You cannot play football on ability alone. Sometimes we play football or rely on our ability too much to win a game of football. But you need much, much more than that.â€
“I don’t think anybody really had that good a game, the lads themselves know that.†“Week in, week out, you cannot have a day off in this league. You have got to go to your full extent every single game.â€
“You have got to stick to the basics, and if you don’t do that as a side you will never be resilient, you will never look organized, and you will never be a good side in possession or a difficult side to break down when out of possession.â€
“Because we went 3-0 down so early, a lot of the players lost their discipline and shape. We became very ragged and ultimately, we lost our football and passing game.†“We created very little in the second half because we lost our shape and discipline.”
Newcastle have kept their season alive by successive home victories over Wigan, West Ham, Everton and Tottenham but the wheels came off on Saturday. It will hard to get them back on before Saturday against Sunderland, but that’s what Sam and his staff will be trying to do this week in training.
But the way in which Newcastle’s defense completely disintegrated on Saturday, has to have loyal fans wondering how many more times they’ll see the defense give way under the slightest pressure.
If Saturday is anything to go by, then nothing much seems to have changed from the last couple of years – at least as far as our defense is concerned. We wonder which one will turn up for the next game, just like the last few seasons.
Allardyce continued:
“We were looking very comfortable playing at home and defensively we were allowing our attacking flair players to go and create and score goals.â€
“But it has all gone out of the window. It’s back to basics and back to square one. It’s back to rolling our sleeves up and digging in.†“It doesn’t need somebody like me, who has been in the game a long time, to say it was virtually put beyond our reach in the space of 12 minutes.â€
“Two defensive errors made life extremely difficult for us, and, of course, one wonder goal to begin with.†“We felt a little sorry for ourselves because they scored such a wonderful goal, and unless we get basic defending right, then life will be difficult for us.”
We don’t want to be too hard on the players but the Newcastle team let the fans down on Saturday – big time. It’s not good to have players, some of whom earn more in a year than most working men earn in a lifetime, serve up their wares in such a sloppy and seemingly uncaring way. The Newcastle fans are the best in the country by far, and they will not put up with this kind of sloppiness.
The sooner that gets through loud and clear to the players – the better for everyone concerned. They are paid big money to serve up some big displays. We are waiting.
Comments welcome.
10 comments so far
iain
Nov 5, 2007 at 8:54 PM
Comment #1the amount of chances we create from mistakes, that lead to goals for journey men like pamarot is getting beyond a joke.
what was that spurs guy who rifled one in when spurs last won up here. left footed left back who rifled one in from 25 yrds ?
for some reason its always open season for longshots from the edge of area at st james, we never ever close down players outside the box at st james almost dismising there ability to score from such distance but i think that arrogance has to stop. it may of been a wonder goal by pamarot, but a proper clearance or someone closing him down would of prevented it.
i think we need to start trying to do the basics never mind going back to them.
keeping possesion is a basic top level skill and we cant do it and havnt done all season.
Hadrian
Nov 5, 2007 at 9:59 PM
Comment #2yeah there have been a few ‘wonder goals’ scored against us according to sam , seems like not a game go’s by when we are told ‘that was a goal we could do nothing about’ . if these kind of goals exists id like to know why were not scoring them .
your right about the cash aswell , lets face it , some of the guys on the lower wage packets make more in a week than at least 50k of those toon fans make in a year . your damn right our fans are entitled to speak out ,
i cant see how big sam will get out of this , im not so confident in some of the signings anymore , and cant see ashley opening his wallet to wide for big sam when he wasnt appointed by him , especcially when you learn of sam’s agent getting a cut in the transfers we made at the start of the season , didnt take them long ehh?
Hammy
Nov 5, 2007 at 10:01 PM
Comment #3“It’s not good to have players, some of whom earn more in a year than most working men earn in a lifetime, serve up their wares in such a sloppy and seemingly uncaring way”……
just correct you there Ed……..That should be “week”……..
agree with you entirely on this one.
Brisbane Mag
Nov 5, 2007 at 10:06 PM
Comment #4The display against Pompey was not acceptable and if we play the same way against Sunderland, we’ll lose that game also…….
We must give BSA time to sort out the team and defence. Some of the so called wonder goals are due to midfield not closing down players and not defensive errors.
Pompey was a kick in the pants as we must NOT lose against Sunderland!
Leo
Nov 5, 2007 at 10:26 PM
Comment #5we dont close down full stop iain, look at the space we gave elano against man city… we have not got enough pace
Bill f
Nov 5, 2007 at 10:26 PM
Comment #6Damm right, there was a time when being a footballer was a privelege that dragged you out from a mediocre job perhaps these are some of the basics some of them should go back to.
Every one was saying how the international breaks would give the squad a chance to gel, well it looks more like jelly to me they were so wobbly on saturday. Please no more of this I keep having to reset my pacemaker.
valle
Nov 5, 2007 at 10:31 PM
Comment #7Pamerot’s goal will properly be the best shot he has ever hit in his carreer, he just he it so true with all that power, and i would guess that presented with the exact same space again he would only have 1 out 100 to hit it so true from that distance, add to that the fact that he placed it outside harpers reach and u can up the odds to a once in a lifetime for a leftback… A guy like Gerard who is one of the best at shots from outside the box imo would properly put that goal as one of his best carreer goals (Not considering match importance ofc.). Yah it hurts, and yah, midfield should have closed him down, but that goal would have gone in against anyone in the league and when he shot, the most likely outcome would have been a NUFC goal kick… whats annoying tho, is that this guy is their freakin reserve!!!, he was only on because the regular joe was injured, and then he scores the goal of his carreer against us ofc… Its a hard thing, not beleiving in jinxes when u support NUFC 😉
valle
Nov 5, 2007 at 10:34 PM
Comment #8Hadrian… Short memory mate… Emre, against Everton, theres one for u… Not as great as this one, agreed, but still a shot that went in, when the most likely outcome was a goal kick to them.
Bill f
Nov 5, 2007 at 10:41 PM
Comment #9Valle you are so right, I remember that joke goalie a couple of season back playing for Fulham when we lost 4-1 or something similar, it was as if he was on speed or something similar. It may sound a little barmy but I can’t help thinking a Feng Shui expert or even a Sami Shaman from your neck of the woods ought to be called in. And I aint joking. Is it possible that St James park is on the site of an ancient burial ground or something. (That is a joke) 🙂
valle
Nov 6, 2007 at 12:07 AM
Comment #10Bill F… Yah, we havnt see much luck thats for sure… perhaps its the club tea lady who jinx us 😉