This needs to stop - Dealing with defeat at Newcastle United
It may be the minority, but I found it quite alarming to see some sections of our fan base seriously question Eddie Howe and his credentials after yesterday's defeat to Liverpool.
It was an unprecedented turn of events to concede twice in the final 10 minutes and an absolute sickener. Criticism is fair in football and a lot of it was justified on Sunday night. Some of it, however, was over the top, misplaced and frankly ridiculous.
'Shocking tactical naivety. Anymore of this and Howe will be out.' That was one comment I woke up to on the blog this morning. I've seen a few on Facebook suggest he'll be history if this happens again and Twitter rants questioning if he can make the right substitutions, compete with top managers and/or come up with a plan B. To be clear, criticism is fair after such an awful defeat and collapse, but sweeping statements about his ability as a manager feel painfully premature the moment things don't go our way.
It's a sad state of affairs if 18 months of incredible form, a top four finish, just five defeats last season, the second best defence in the Premier League and a cup final leaves you under fire (from some) as soon as we suffer back-to-back defeats against Man City and Liverpool.
Of course we can be critical - the nature of loss was bad and that's football sometimes - but parts of our fanbase can be so black and white. If Almiron’s effort hits the other side of the post or that ball doesn't deflect off Botman and into the path of Nunez, we’re all celebrating a comfortable win and go into Saturday's trip to Brighton absolutely flying.
Fine margins, costly misses and errors at the back that have been punished brutally, yet I find some of the post-match reaction towards Howe a bit much. He's bad at subs now? Two weeks ago, we were raving about the impact Barnes and Wilson made against Villa, where both scored to seal the win in style.
That doesn't make Sunday's changes the right ones - Howe's decision to take off Gordon and Tonali was odd at the time and backfired badly - but some of the reactions I've seen over the past 24 hours and questioning of Howe from small but vocal sections of social media are painful to read.
Yes, it went horribly wrong yesterday and he'll have to learn, but that's football. We're still growing. We do struggle to break down low blocks and did manage the game poorly, but we're on a hiding to nothing if we expect to be outstanding in all departments. We're not going to enjoy this journey if small setbacks lead to meltdowns online and finger pointing at the earliest opportunity.
Let's stay calm and keep faith in a manager and group of lads who've given us so little reason to doubt them over the past 18 months. Criticism will come but keeping our heads when things get tough is important for us fans; even if expectations have risen in light of our recent success.
