Three Points: Everton Drubbing

Three exasperated rants in the wake of Newcastle United's deflating 3-2 defeat to Everton at Goodison Park Monday:

Don't call it a comeback
In the end, it was a one-goal game, with Newcastle pushing for an equalizer. On the road against a quality opponent, that's got to qualify as a positive, right? Wrong.

The end result was a total mirage, covering up an abomination of a first-half performance in which Newcastle defended as poorly as it has in any match in Alan Pardew's managerial reign. Romelu Lukaku bludgeoned Fabricio Coloccini and Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa with his combination of speed, power and skill — gee, wouldn't it be nice to have a striker like that? — as Everton ran roughshod in the first half.

Newcastle's backline appeared completely stumped when it came to defending in transition. Davide Santon, Coloccini and Yanga-Mbiwa all failed on Everton's opening goal, Coloccini and Yanga-Mbiwa couldn't stick with Lukaku and Ross Barkley for the second, and Coloccini and Tim Krul combined to present Lukaku with a clear path to goal for the third. Not to mention: Where was Cheick Tiote, the midfielder who, in theory, should have been protecting the back four, when Everton was rampaging forward?

By halftime, Everton's players had clearly determined that they didn't need to exert much more energy. With the pressure off, Newcastle settled down a bit, played a more direct style and scored a couple of goals. Sorry, but I'm not impressed.

Where to go from here?
Quick — name Newcastle's best lineup. ... Yeah, I have no idea at this point, either.

Few argued with Pardew's lineup and formation choice ahead of the game, particularly once word emerged that Yohan Cabaye wasn't fit to start because of a groin tweak. It took gumption to start Yoan Gouffran over Papiss Cisse, and based on their individual performances this season, Gouffran deserved the nod.

But we all know the end result. So how should Pardew proceed? Should he react to the pathetic performance by making drastic changes for Saturday's game at Cardiff? Or were there so many poor individual displays that he should toss this performance out completely?

If I were Pardew, I'd yank Yanga-Mbiwa — for the time being at least — and go with either Steven Taylor or Mike Williamson next to Coloccini. And I'd give Paul Dummett a chance at left back in place of Santon. Fix the defense, then worry about the attack.

On borrowed time
I feel for Pardew, I really do. Newcastle's problems in the first half on Monday weren't tactical; most of the team simply didn't show up. These are professional players we're talking about, ones who are being paid handsomely to play in one of the top leagues in the world. They should be embarrassed.

Too often over the past 13 months, Newcastle has looked soft as a team, both mentally and physically, and devoid of on-field leadership. Or, as my brother, an Everton fan, texted me during the match, Newcastle "seems like a team with some talent but no soul."

Like it or not, though, it's much simpler to change a manager than to turn over an entire squad (and we all know owner Mike Ashley has no plans of funding such an undertaking).

And Pardew in no way escapes blame. It's difficult to make the case that he's getting through to his team, based on its performances dating back to last season. That's a fairly significant part of his job. With each new bumbling display, it seems more and more inevitable that he won't last until the end of the season. The sight of Joe Kinnear next to Ashley in the stands looked ominous — at this point it feels like it's simply a matter of time before Ashley reinstates his drinking buddy as manager. And we all know how that ended last time.

Comments

[Andyeswecan]

I don't share your sympathy for Pardew. It's his job to motivate his team and it is clear for all to see that his players are pampered and given an easy ride.

Do the players have the adequate respect for their manager? It certainly doesn't appear so.

[geordiepat]

It's hard to know where the problems originate anymore - there is something seriously wrong when a toon team gets taken to pieces by a middling to decent (lukaku aside) side like Everton -in good form and improved yes, but it's not City we're talking about.

Not sure the central defenders are the root of the problem, maybe they had a tough night, but they are left SO exposed by the fullbacks and midfielders, that seriously any top central defender would struggle in their stead. Other teams just scythe through us these days - that seems to be the root of the problem, and I think we are making our defenders look worse than they are. (this goes back a long way actually - way before Pardew) but the difference was then, that the advanced attacking team mates would make more headway at the other end, and even carve out a scoring chance occasionally.

Pardew is not as bad as his fiercest detractors would have you believe - I agree he normally speaks well about the tactical side of the game, and his teamlists are often closer to the logical choice - certainly more than people make out. We could have forgiven last night, if we'd beaten Hull at home - but it's games like that we're Pardew is doing the longterm damage. Before we know it we're on a losing streak, and Pardew doesn't seem to know how to avert one of those - without a new signing buzz, or some such external fillip.

We don't expect to win every week Pardew- but we expect to be competitive every week. And we're not. T

The discussions about Willo over Yanga, Anita over Tiote, Gouff over Cisse - and all the other hundreds we have each game are kind of irrelevant to be honest, until Pardew can build a stronger team mentality, with passion, fire and intensity, to go with the technical talent we have (or so they say.)

[Dabtoes]

As always, a very insightful article.

I think in summary it can be summed up as - no leadership in the boardroom, in the dressing room or on the pitch.

I think the signs are emerging that AP is beginning to lose the dressing room, and I believe a large part of that can be attributed to him being undermined by the illogical decisions that MA keeps making.

With no Barton, Nolan or Shearer figures on the pitch to guide and drive team performances, it now looks like we're starting to drift down the table again, and this time I cannot see it ending well.

I fear that we need a new motivational manager who can weld together what is a very good (admittedly thin) squad, and that man is NOT JFK. Regrettably that change would also need MA to put his hand in his pocket, but please don't hold your breath while you're waiting for that to happen.

[JeffC]

Agree w/ Dabtoes above. AP has lost the dressing room no thanks to MA. AP will drive us to relegation with performances like this. MA will not sack AP, so down we go? MA won't pay to sack AP and hire someone else? You, MA, will be losing money if we go down. So fork it over now and get someone that can keep us up. You are aware MA that getting into Europe brings MORE $$$ in? That's what you want, right? What quality manager would want to come here knowing the paltry aspirations of the owner?

[Jaeger]

i agree with giving dummett a starting spot... looked like a good player in all of his appearances this year. and i would put steven taylor (if healthy) back in so MYM realizes he needs to actually mark someone if he wants to play... on all 3 goals he was either ball watching or in no man's land.

most pleased with gouffran...never stopped working and was running across the entire pitch when needed to. i would rather get relegated with effort like that than lazily limp towards a 15th place finish.

needless to say, the fighting mentality was absent in the first half. i still think we can do well against cardiff which is a must win with the fixtures that follow.

I don't think we had any tactical problems yesterday which i will give pardew credit for going for it, it was a gamble that didn't work but the lineup was the best we could come up with. i agree that we need a vocal leader on the pitch, but i dont think firing pardew will get us anywhere in the longrun. we'd probably end up like the mackems where they fired PDC after what, 10-15 matches, and be in the bottom all over again.

[Dave from Newcastle]

AP is gone with a loss on Saturday. Great time to change it up with the Intl break and then a couple of massive games on the other side through the end of the month.

Not that it would be the right move, but it would be the move that MA and JFK would be forced to make the way the team is playing.

And I would start Dummett against Cardiff for the the Welsh factor. Would be a good situation for him to really impress.