I Wish I Was A Geordie - The Blog of Newcastle United in the US

On The Air: A Villa Versus A Flat

The American Geordies-at-heart are back with a post-match, post-transfer window audio extravaganza. This edition of the podcast features a dissection of Newcastle's oddly flat outing against an oddly inspired cast of Villa(i)ns, an attempted diagnosis of the malaise infecting last season's stars, and a look ahead to big matches at Everton and Abidjan. Plus: Exactly how disappointed should we be about the summer? And, as always, the Skype hang-up tone. Click below to listen, or visit our iTunes page to download, rate and subscribe.

 

I Wish I Was A Geordie 2013-2

 

Newcastle Still A Work In Progress

Every season is its own story. Despite retaining all the key players from last year's charge to fifth place, Newcastle has had to start back at page one, just like everyone else. After today's draw against Aston Villa, the frustration is natural.

But think back to this time last year. Despite two wins and a draw, the team looked worryingly stale. Listless against Arsenal, similarly so at the Stadium of Light, and desperately clinging to a 2-1 win over Fulham. In fact, you could argue that despite the unbeaten record, Newcastle didn't put together a good performance until September 24 against Blackburn, six matches into the Premier League season, when Demba Ba scored his first goal for the club, then added two more for good measure. So it's far too early to overreact to the season thus far.

Much like last week's loss against Chelsea, there was plenty of good mixed into a poor result today. It will require a change of system to make the most of it, and it remains to be seen whether Alan Pardew is willing to let go of his stubbornness to make it happen.

Outside of the five minutes before Villa's goal, and the first 10 of the second half, Newcastle controlled the play. And if you can stomach reliving the disappointment, I'd urge you to rewatch the match later and see how many chances were actually created.

Papiss Cissé should have scored midway through the first half, and just missed a header as the half closed. Hatem Ben Arfa blasted a header straight at Villa keeper Brad Guzan before his brilliant goal. Ba had a free header in the second half as well. And there were a couple more before Yohan Cabaye nearly scored a matchwinning free kick. On a day where everyone was in top form, who knows what would have happened?

Nearly all of those chances came after Danny Simpson left with a hamstring injury and Pardew used the injury timeout to change systems. Instead of a flat four in midfield - which has time and again proved not to work with this set of players - he shifted Ben Arfa behind Ba and Cissé, with Cabaye, Jonás Gutiérrez, and Gael Bigirimana sharing central midfield duties. It wasn't immediately successful, but the second half showed what can happen when the team makes a concerted effort to close down space in midfield.

Even with Cabaye still trying to find his form and fitness, the central trio combined to hit 83% of their passes (94 of 113) while leaving Villa with very little to do in the final third as the game wore on. Vurnon Anita may not prefer to play at fullback, but he provided the needed width in the 4-3-1-2 formation, as did Davide Santon on the other flank.

Pardew has talked at length, on several occasions, about the importance of winning the midfield. With that philosophy in mind, he has to know that pushing Jonás to the wing, leaving just Cabaye and someone else in the center, will not get that job done. He needs to stop forcing that issue and pack the midfield with three players. There may be other issues to Newcastle's sluggish start, but in my view, that has certainly been the most obvious - and easiest to address.

The Middle-Ground View Of Newcastle's Summer

Transfer deadline day went precisely how we all thought it would.

As in, it was a total snoozefest for Newcastle United fans.

That wasn't any sort of a surprise, despite Alan Pardew's suggestion that he might ponder a late move in the wake of Ryan Taylor's serious knee injury. It's simply not in this hiearchy's makeup to be forced into a purchase, and transfers tend to be long, drawn-out affairs.

So, Newcastle closed the book on the summer window having lost Danny Guthrie, Peter Lovenkrands and Alan Smith on free transfers, sold Leon Best and Fraser Forster and purchased Vurnon Anita, Gael Bigirimana, Romain Amalfitano and Curtis Good.

The reaction among fans on Twitter seemed to fall into two distinct camps:

1) Those that played it cool and insisted that holding on to the likes of Yohan Cabaye, Cheick Tiote and Fabricio Coloccini was enough of an accomplishment.

2) Those who grumbled that Newcastle missed out on an opportunity to build on last season's fifth-place finish by adding a couple quality pieces.

As always with two conflicting opinions, the appropriate reaction seems to be somewhere in the middle.

Job No. 1 for Newcastle this summer was always to keep hold of its top players. That the club managed to do so in this era of free spending is fairly remarkable.

But it's not as if keeping players and buying others are mutually exclusive occurrences (although this summer would seem to confirm that selling a star for big money is central to United's recruitment model). Newcastle did have chances to add several players at key positions, but wouldn't budge on its valuations (and thereby, its offers).

Alan Pardew has talked about the importance of pushing for a Champions League spot to take Newcastle to the next level. Adding Mathieu Debuchy and a striker would no doubt have improved United's chances of fulfilling that aim.

That's not to say Newcastle now has no hope of a top-four finish. Of the other teams that finished third through eighth last season, only Chelsea and Everton have made significant improvements to their squads. Arsenal added promising players but also lost several key performers; Spurs were once again the darlings of deadline day but look like a club in transition; and Liverpool is still finding its way under Brendan Rodgers.

But Newcastle has enough holes that you'd have to be a real optimist to confidently forecast Champions League qualification at this point. The starting fullbacks are a concern and there isn't much depth up front or along the backline. United is also relying on injury-prone players - Steven Taylor, Sylvain Marveaux, Shola Ameobi, Haris Vuckic and Shane Ferguson all qualify - to provide adequate cover in a busy season. And should Senegal upset Ivory Coast to qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations, then Pardew will have major selection problems at striker in late January.

If there's one thing the past 20 months have taught us, though, it's the value of patience in evaluating the club's decisions. A year ago, nearly every Newcastle fan was dumbfounded by United's failure to land a striker, before Demba Ba vindicated his employers' inaction and Papiss Cisse arrived for a reasonable fee in January.

Anita has strengthened Newcastle's midfield, and his signing looks particularly astute in light of Tiote's current injury. Bigirimana has already turned heads, while Amalfitano is an inexpensive and adaptable option who could prove useful with United's swollen schedule. Good is still a total unknown at this point, but, all in all, Newcastle's squad looks stronger than it did at this point last year.

So, in evaluating United's summer, it's fair to say the club may not have taken a huge step forward. But at least it continued moving in the right direction.