Newcastle 0 Liverpool 0 (Dec 30 2020)

[tlw content 11,840]

 

 

 

Report by

Dave Usher

 

On the bright side it was better than West Brom. And Fulham. This dropping points to shite really needs to stop though doesn’t it? It’s all well and good us hardly ever losing, but the old expression ‘its the draws that kill you’ is actually spot on. 

 

In 2008/09 when we finished second we only lost twice all season. Didn’t do us any good because of all the draws against shite. There are shades of that with what’s happening at the moment. I’m still confident it won’t end the same way, but we could have put a lot of daylight between ourselves and the pack just by beating two shit teams.

 

After that 7-0 over Palace it was all set for us to assert our dominance over the league and all we had to do was beat dogshit West Brom and a very limited Newcastle. And we failed. Just like we failed to beat two other bottom dwellers Fulham and Brighton. 

 

The problem is we’ve been spoilt over the last couple of years. These kind of results are normal. It’s always been like this. The Champions will have several games when they drop points to teams they shouldn’t. That’s why anything approaching 90 points would usually win you the league.

 

What we’ve seen from the Reds over the last two seasons and from City in two of the last three has been the exception to the norm. This is the norm and I’ll be honest, I don’t like it. I’m in a stinking mood today because we didn’t beat Newcastle. 

 

The dropped points to West Brom didn’t impact me too much because I expected we’d put it right at St James’ Park. We didn’t. In isolation though this wasn’t bad. We weren’t at our best but we played well enough to win. Not just by one either. If this had finished 2-0 nobody would have said we didn’t deserve it or we were lucky.

 

Unfortunately we didn’t take our chances and we had absolutely no luck either. That can happen and if we hadn’t dropped so many points to shite before this one I’d probably have been completely fine about this. But we have dropped loads of points to shite and therefore I’m not taking this one very well.

 

It’s not that I’m blaming anyone or that I’m angry with anyone. I’m just pissed off and feeling sorry for myself that somehow, if they win their game in hand, United will be level with us. That does my head in. Not just because I can’t stand the fuckers, but because frankly I don’t think they’re even close to being on the same level as our team.

 

If it was Man City who were breathing right down our necks (and if they win their games in hand they will be) that would be easier to stomach. But we’re miles better than United but we’ve somehow let them sneak up on us.

 

 

This is just a teaser, click here to view the full article

 

Please note that Match Reports are only available to website subscribers. Subscriptions cost just £2 a month (you need to register first) and can be purchased here. 

[Mark M 1,469]

Completely agree on the Shaq sub i was going mad when he was bringing him on 91st minute with 4 minutes stoppage time!! I’m pretty sure he didn’t even touch the ball. 

[ralph 38]

Accurate report Dave, New year top of the league, that'll do under the circumstances. 

Happy New Year. 

[DJLJ 341]

One of the things we did last year was always press till the last minute, always trying to find a winner, which was one of the main reasons why we got so many 1 goal wins, when the other teams started tirering. This seems to have totally gone from our locker, instead we do this shit tiki-taka side to side with no urgency crap. Doing my head in, perhaps even more than the sub yesterday. To me it all points to not wanting the win as much as we did last year. 

[Jordy Brouwer 409]

That's a very level headed way of looking at things. More level headed than I've been able to be. 

 

As the phrase goes around here "you need a bit of that". 

[m0e 1,452]

The final sub will, when the game is in the balance, always come on in injury time.

 

Klopp talked about this when he was complaining about the 5 subs, saying he'd have to leave at least 1, and maybe 2 players on the bench in case we pick up injuries.

 

Best get used to it.

[dockers_strike 1,905]

Good report, Dave. I was actually fuming, yes, fuming over this result more than West Brom. Against West Brom we were very slow, very poor and created nothing. This game though, we created 4 or 5 good chances and didnt bury one of them. Every save Darlow had to make was just at the right height for him.

 

Someone in the match thread said it's a bit much expecting Curtis to unlock the defence. Maybe but what's he doing playing ahead of Shaq, Ox and Taki then? I was surprised Jurgen played him to be honest unless it was a 'get back on the horse' after the West Brom error.

 

Love Jurgen but totally agree about his late, late, late subs of Div against West Brom and Shaq against Newscastle. An utter fucking waste of time and doesnt help the players.

 

Owen's making a lot about Darlow grabbing Sadio by the thigh and stopping him getting to the ball. But we all know if that's fernandes and united, VAR is giving them a penalty there. Did they look at it for us, Im not even sure they did?

[Butch 861]

Next 2 games are massive, hopefully with thaigo back in he will push them on. 

[bigal 190]

Said on the match thread that the subs is an area I think Jurgen isn't the best. Too little too late is often the case, Shaq's last night an example.

Hendo looked tired, it was his weakest game in some time. We needed more thrust in midfield, it was a game for Ox to play with two midfielders behind him, or Shaq. 

Trent is a concern, he was finally regaining form when he got injured and it's back to square one. His set piece delivery has been dreadful in all honesty.

Alisson, Robbo and Fab were the only ones to come out with any credit for me. Thiago was the main positive. But as a North Easterner this is one game I always want to win, we should have done and it's annoying the hell out of me. 

Other teams being so close is annoying but we can win still.

[Captain Howdy 911]

The only thing I can think of with Shaq is that Klopp was hoping for a last minute free kick near the area, that’s the only thing I can think of that makes a modicum of sense. To me it all hinges on what we do in the window, if we don’t bring a centre half in we ain’t winning shit and the league will be between City and Utd. 

[Kevin D 7,389]

Very easy to put a bad result down to lucky defending and bad finishing.
 

I think we’re better than that and can collectively say fair play to Liverpool, they gave us a real game.

[lebron 386]

On 31/12/2020 at 18:34, DJLJ said:

One of the things we did last year was always press till the last minute, always trying to find a winner, which was one of the main reasons why we got so many 1 goal wins, when the other teams started tirering. This seems to have totally gone from our locker, instead we do this shit tiki-taka side to side with no urgency crap. Doing my head in, perhaps even more than the sub yesterday. To me it all points to not wanting the win as much as we did last year. 

 

Nah, it's just that the players are told to take fewer risks, as with our current defenders being exposed to pace on the counter will lead to goals. Whereas with Virgil/Joe we could afford to suffocate teams as their recovery pace would make it worthwhile taking that risk.

[Barnesey 281]

"...the only positive being we finally ended our wait for the title...."

 

As consolations go...

[Supremolad 108]

Top top "jinxing us with Darlow" analysis, Dave.

 

To be fair, the ball just didn't bounce our way a couple crucial times, so it wasn't like Darlow was making worldies one after the other. Better finishing, and he would have been picking the ball from his net 3 or 4 times.

[dave u 5,843]

9/10 that performance wins the game. 

 

It's because we've failed to beat other shite teams it feels much worse than it actually was. The West Brom one looks even worse seeing whats happened to them since.