A Painful Reminder Of Where Newcastle Stands

Someday Newcastle United might get back to the point where it can go toe-to-toe with the Premier League's top clubs on a consistent basis.

But not right now. That much is painfully obvious after Saturday's 5-0 drubbing at Spurs. Newcastle entered the match with a chance to move into fourth place. It left London in sixth place with a goal difference of zero after its worst performance of the season.

In hindsight, we all should have seen the potential for this coming. Spurs came into the match on an emotional high after manager Harry Redknapp was cleared of tax evasion charges this week, ending 4 1/2 years of drama. Not to mention Tottenham is simply a damn good team with the sort of speed that Newcastle has struggled against at times.

The wisest thing to do would have been to sit deep and worry about stopping Spurs first and foremost. Instead, United left space for Tottenham to maneuver, got opened up time and time again by early balls into the channels and compounded those problems with some abysmal defending in and around the box. After impressing last week, Danny Guthrie and James Perch looked out of their depth against Scott Parker and Luka Modric in the center of the midfield as Newcastle struggled to maintain possession (United's 34.6 percent possession was its worst of the season*). Again, not totally surprising. But all of this is easy to say after the fact.

As always, though, some level of perspective is needed when looking at a single performance and its meaning. Fourth place looks unrealistic at this point, even if Arsenal and Chelsea are each only one point ahead of Newcastle with 13 games to play. But United is also ahead of schedule in its long-term plan. Wasn't a top-10 finish the goal for this season? Newcastle still should finish in the top seven, an achievement that shouldn't get downplayed.

If anything, Saturday confirmed what we already knew. Newcastle needs to upgrade on the flanks, both at fullback and winger. Davide Santon's defending needs to improve, while Danny Simpson is just an average Premier League player. Jonas Gutierrez is a hard worker who isn't dynamic in the slightest and Gabriel Obertan is nothing more than a squad player. United badly needs more speed at the back - isn't that right, Mike Williamson? - and on the wings.

None of those things are new revelations. It's just too bad we had to be reminded this way.

*Statistics courtesy of EPLIndex.com.

Comments

[Rob Moyer]

Willow and the rest of the back had a nightmare today. To be fair though no one looked good but still in a great position in the table.

[Michael]

True enough. When Pardew gets his tactics wrong, he gets them very wrong indeed, while Simpson and Williamson should be thanked for their efforts and moved on in the summer. As you say, though, we're still in a better position than any of us would have expected and six points from our next two games - with Cabaye and Tiote back in the centre of midfield - will more than compensate for today's result.

"Newcastle are back in their box" a Chelsea fan tweeted when the fourth went in. I know which team I'd rather be right now.

[Jaeger]

horrid performance by the back line today. poor man marking and spacing. our midfield had no imagination on offensive, couldn't give dembas a proper service. better beat wolves 5-0 to make up for this performance.

[Bob]

No one respects Tom's soccer knowledge more than me, but I gotta disagree with my co-blogger on this one. I think the Champions League is still well within reach, and this match didn't mean too much. Stay tuned for an opposing view tomorrow.

[Durhammag]

Why on earth are we even considering European football. If we finish 4th next season we will not have the depth of quality to compete in 4 competitions. Surely better to spend a year consolidating with 3 or 4 well considered long term buys then build a squad that can challenge long term. Too much too soon can be damaging as well

[I`m a Geordie, you`re not. Thus I`m automatically better than you]

Pardew threw this match for the team he loves. I hav suported him before others give him a chance, but now I see that he is the wrong man for NUFC Funny how we played like we didn`t want to win when it was against Pardew, Ashley, and LLambiass` favourite club isn`t it??

This is why Geordies don`t want Londoners in charge of NUFC They don`t even want to succeed. Just make money at the expence of Newcastle, and still support Spurs... But they won`t buy them cos they would worry about screwing it up and destroying a team the actually care about

[JeffC]

I love that NUFC newsletter Friday was touting, "Pardew Plotting Spurs Surprise" Was it that we were not going to show up? I'm all for success but I hope we don't make the CL, we do not have the depth to handle that as Durhammag stated. I'd prefer 5-7, play Europa League and be more than happy with the finish we have this year.

[Tom]

I hope the sixth comment on here is satirical. Otherwise, it's one of the most ridiculous things I've ever read.

[david russell]

beaten on the day by a much better side, performance was well below what we have come to expect, however all is not as bad as it might seem.
firstly we have our better players to come back, tiote, cabaye etc.
we all know we are short of a quality centre back and this must be addressed in the summer. all teams have had a bad day or 2 this season, arsenal at man u, man u from city spurs by man city. so we are not realy alone. it seems there are 3 away at the top deservedly so and we are in then next group of 4. who wouldn't have taken this at the begginning of the season. Rome wasnt built in a day, OUR DAY WILL COME!!!!!!!!!!