Three Points: West Ham Draw

Three immediate takeaways from Newcastle United's scoreless draw with West Ham at Upton Park:

All about context
The performance was far from a masterclass. But it also was a colossal improvement from last week's unmitigated disaster.

In fact, you could argue Newcastle showed its backbone on the road against an awkward opponent. Newcastle defended solidly for the majority of the match — there were several worrisome moments in the second half — and, were goal line technology in place in the Premier League, would have led through Papiss Cisse's first-half effort that Winston Reid attempted to clear off the line.

However, once Aston Villa and Wigan snatched late winning goals, Newcastle's result suddenly looked pretty damaging. Should Sunderland beat or draw with Stoke on Monday and Wigan beat Swansea on Tuesday, Newcastle will occupy the final relegation place entering next week's trip to Loftus Road.

O Captain! My Captain!
How Newcastle has missed Fabricio Coloccini. With its captain back in the heart of the defense, Newcastle's backline looked notably more settled.

Apart from Mike Williamson, Newcastle doesn't possess a center back who can even hope to challenge a player like Andy Carroll in the air (and Williamson wasn't used for obvious reasons). But Coloccini and Steven Taylor coped adequately with West Ham's aerial assault. Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa bounced back from last week's embarrassment with a solid outing at left back, while Danny Simpson was decent enough at right back.

The biggest plus to take away from Saturday was that, by and large, Newcastle stifled West Ham from creating much in the way of premium scoring chances. Considering Newcastle's defensive record this season, that's an accomplishment.

Jekyll & Hyde
Why can't Newcastle manage to control play for two consecutive halves? That's the £60 million question, isn't it?

A growing segment of the fan base will place the blame squarely on manager Alan Pardew. Regardless of whether or not you subscribe to that theory, we can all agree on this much: It's up to Pardew to fix it, and he's running out of time.

In the first half of this one, Newcastle drove the play, with Hatem Ben Arfa looking dangerous and Yohan Cabaye spraying threatening balls forward (including the one that should have led to the opening goal from Cisse).

After the break, though, Ben Arfa's influence waned, Cabaye seemed to disappear altogether, and Cisse was hardly involved. And unfortunately, Newcastle doesn't seem to have another way of attacking when Cabaye isn't sewing things together in the center of the midfield.

Unlike last season, the team doesn't look dangerous on the counter and it's not built for playing direct, either. Rip Pardew for bringing on Shola Ameobi for Ben Arfa all you want, but he doesn't have anything else that resembles a physical presence up front. Or a dangerous winger off the bench, which meant Dan Gosling replaced Yoan Gouffran when the latter was battling a cramp. Vurnon Anita would have been a more sensible option, but he's not exactly a creative offensive force, either.

Comments

[Beardsley's Love Child]

No issues with bringing on Shola, but why not take Cisse off instead of Ben Arfa? We were getting more chances running at and passing thru West Hams defense but as we tired we reverted to type, went defensive and tried to lob balls over them.

I don't see us getting much from QPR next weekend playing like this. While we showed heart and started well, we do not have the type of players necessary to play the type of game we typically end up playing as we tire out.

I think its too late to fix the issue. Rather than realizing something was amiss earlier in the season, when he could afford to tinker with the team, Pardew kept playing and the players suffered for it.

[AndyMac]

The problem that Pardwho has is he thinks that taking off HBA automatically means a change in formation. If we're getting nowhere then take off Cisse and replace him with Shola (like for like0 but leave the "threat" on the field. Bale was anonymous for the best part of the game today yet he still delivered the killer blow on 85 minutes. One chance that's all it takes but Pardwho's too busy thinking about saving his worthless skin !!!!

[rob]

Between our horrible form lately and QPR just being downright horrible, I think a draw is the most likely scenario next week. We sure are putting our hopes in the results of other matches and that is a dangerous game to play.

[M]

no issues with Shola coming on, nor with him replacing an out-of-shape, fading Ben Arfa...

but Gosling????

prioritising advertising fringe players for a summer sale ahead of trying to win a game is the kind of muddled thinking that could get a team relegated...

[Paul]

I'd rather have seen young Campbell's electric pace in LWF for Goufran and Cabaye out right, allowing Vurnon Anita, who on the evidence I've seen, is a VERY creative passing force, feeding through balls for cabaye and Campbell to stretch the West Ham defence, leaving space for Cisse. When it comes to Newcastle, through balls = good, long balls = bad, whoever we have on the pitch.

[Jaeger]

i would have preferred campbell over gosling in that substitution as well. ...honestly we absolutely need to win at QPR... or somehow just do better than norwich, they have west brom and city left. besides wigan, think we are the most likely to go down. villa has caught fire, the mackems have the GD benefit, not sure about southampton's case but they seem to have more cohesion amongst themselves.

squeaky bum time these two weeks. HTL!