Newcastle United ‘bubble burst’ – Snap judgements laughable

The Mag

·19 August 2024

Newcastle United ‘bubble burst’ – Snap judgements laughable

Just the one Newcastle United match into the season but so much to talk about.

Only natural that fans and media will want to dissect what we all witnessed.

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However, you do still have to keep it real.

With so little to go on, it would be beyond stupid for anybody to be claiming anything as for sure.

As in, this opening Newcastle United match against Southampton ‘proves’ anything.

First games of the season are notoriously unpredictable for starters.

Whilst with this opening Newcastle United game, you can only really analyse the opening 25 minutes or so to any extent, as when it goes 10 v 11 it turns into something else entirely, compared to a normal match.

What I did see when it was 11 v 11, was Newcastle start brightly, doing the expected high press, Southampton struggling with that and United getting plenty of encouragement the first five minutes or so.

Then we had another five minutes or so of Newcastle continuing to high press but the visitors finding their feet and some confidence, starting to keep the ball far better and play through the high press. Fair play to them as it was brave stuff from a promoted team, playing it around at the back and keeping the ball, rather than clearing up the pitch.

Whether a signal from Eddie Howe or just the players appreciating the situation for themselves, Newcastle United clearly changed from the higher risk high press, to sitting off a bit and letting Southampton have some soft possession in their own half.

Not the biggest surprise, opening game of the season and always tougher physically, not wanting to use up valuable energy chasing lost causes,, especially with Southampton getting some early joy of beating that high press.

I saw it as a case of calming it down and not doing anything daft for 20 minutes or whatever, then pick up the pace and pressure later.

So we had maybe 15 minutes or so of Southampton the better team, dominating most of the possession, plus they did actually create a couple of decent situations, but no real scares for Nick Pope.

Then we had the Fabian Schar/Ben Brereton Diaz incident which made the rest of the match that very different situation.

I can’t believe some fans getting so negative just on that opening 28 minutes.

You have to give some credit to Southampton for that bravery on the ball and indeed, ironically, that led to Newcastle’s winning goal from Joelinton, as the keeper’s weak pass was gobbled up by Isak and fed to the Brazilian.

My belief is that without the red card, Newcastle United would have gradually got hold of the match and increasingly took over as the dominant force. Which in turn would have led to chances created and almost certainly, goals scored. It might even have taken until the 60+ minute mark and possibly the strength in depth bench, the likes of Willock, Barnes, Almiron etc to finally make the breakthrough(s), but I definitely think that would be how it played out.

Again though, as we all know, vital not to give a team such as Southampton any encouragement with a soft goal for them to hang onto.

I have seen some Newcastle United fans (and media) claiming this opening match tells us blah blah blah about where we are at now. In reality though you can only go a very small way on that front.

The same with individual performances and who was and wasn’t playing.

This is the FIRST game of the season AND players such as Gordon and Bruno having had very little time back with the squad, after extended breaks due to international duty.

One more PL match before Tonali returns as well, never mind the likes of Willock, Trippier and others getting back to full fitness.

We all know that it would be a massive boost if one or two really substantial signings are made by the end of the month, BUT to try and portray this as some kind of a disaster/crisis if that doesn’t happen, is laughable in the extreme.

Especially as well all know quite clearly the club are trying to sign Marc Guehi or another central defender, plus very likely at least one other player.

Stats via BBC Sport:

Newcastle 1 Southampton 0 – Saturday 17 August 3pm

Goals:

Newcastle United:

Schar red card 28, Joelinton 45

Southampton:

(Half-time stats in brackets)

Possession was Newcastle 22% (27%) Southampton 78% (73%)

Total shots were Newcastle 3 (3) Southampton 19 (4)

Shots on target were Newcastle 1 (1) Southampton 5 (1)

Corners were Newcastle 3 (3) Southampton 12 (1)

Touches in the box Newcastle 16 (11) Southampton 48 (8)