The good and bad from Newcastle 2-3 Arsenal - Five takeaways

Newcastle United’s second game of pre-season ended in a 2-3 defeat against Arsenal in Singapore on Sunday. In what was a better outing than against Celtic in Glasgow, United lost by the odd goal in five.

A first Newcastle goal from Anthony Elanga and a Jacob Murphy effort were cancelled out by goals from Mike Merino, Alex Murphy (o.g.) and Martin Odegaard (pen).

Here are our five key takeaways from the game:

1. A despairing plea for a new CB

After the humbling defeat away to Celtic, it was a desperate plea, now it’s been upgraded to a despairing plea. United must sign a CB with pace between now and the end of the transfer window. Please…anyone in the boardroom…

Zero pace, Botman off with another injury niggle, and the others well into their 30s, it’s priority number one in the transfer market (minus the one obviously glaring issue).

It’s been quiet on the transfer front for new centre-backs for a while now too. United haven’t been linked with anyone since Leonardo Balerdi in early to mid-July and Juventus are said to be rekindling their interest in the Argentinian too over the last few days. The issues in United’s central defensive area cannot go on being neglected to this extraordinary level for much longer, surely?

2. Another Pope howler?

I swear, I’m not trying to write a repeat of the takeaways from the Celtic game, but Nick Pope didn’t make it easy. I still think he will win you points in a full season, but how long is it before we talk about how many points he’s costing the side?

His kicking is dreadful and it was unfortunately another repeat performance on that front. It’s such a fundamental weakness in his game that the modern iteration of football horribly exposes it and it’s a massive negative impact on United’s build-up play from the back.

And to pull his hand away from the cross that resulted in Alex Murphy’s own goal is criminal and just screams of a ‘keeper who is too much inside his own head at the moment. All this is compounded by the loss of James Trafford to Man City this last week after United had chased his signature for nearly two years. Sigh - Lucas Chevalier anyone?

3. Good cameo’s from Miley and Murphy (Alex)

It had the potential to be a tough afternoon for Alex Murphy up against Bukayo Saka (and the own goal, despite its Pope origins, does blot his copybook slightly) but he coped well and defended the England man with a certain amount of maturity.

The Irishman timed his tackles well, had good close control and looked to have a decent turn of pace as he continued his positive start to pre-season. He played well in advanced positions against Celtic too and the 21-year-old didn’t look completely outclassed – something which cannot be said for his replacement Matt Targett who was dreadful. Can Alex Murphy step up and be Lewis Hall’s back-up this season? He’ll probably have to as it doesn’t look like we are signing any left-backs.

Lewis Miley also had a much better outing this time around as he retained possession, passed quickly and accurately, and was physically much more imposing than he was against Celtic. Hopefully this performance was a sign that the lad is getting up to speed and we can look forward to more performances akin to those from his breakout season.

4. Striker-less

United showed that they have goals in the team from wide areas with Elanga and Murphy finding the net but they continue to look short up front. Obviously we all know our star striker has downed tools and decided his future lies way from United (more on that in point five) but we simply cannot go into the new season with just the options we have now.

Every time I see Osula play I think he’s got something but he’s not quite ready – then Arsenal put a 15-year-old on the pitch, who is clearly ready, and it makes you pause and think.

Osula isn’t good enough to be our number one striker this season, that much is obvious, but is he even good enough to be our backup striker? Time will tell, but he doesn’t have much of that on his side with the make-up of the current squad. He has to deliver, and at the minute, he is falling short.

5. Isak (couldn’t not comment on this)

The Swede didn’t strike me as the sort of player who would do what he is doing now (and admittedly, it’s all third-hand coming from journalists), but it’s deeply disappointing and frustrating that he appears to have thrown the toys out of the pram and is demanding to, at a minimum, explore his options.

Unfortunately, tapping up is a part of football; everyone knows it happens, but the performative, synchronous twerking by the national media who have been shipping Isak away since January despite no official bids, first to Arsenal and now to Liverpool, is sickening.

But Isak cannot be sold until a replacement is brought in, if he is sold at all. Sesko seems to be the new rumour, but Man Utd are said to be in for him too. If the Slovenian were to go to Man Utd, then who would replace Isak? There aren’t that many top strikers left on the market.

Ultimately, if a player wants away, the contract the player has is meaningless, and I personally would always rather have players at the club who want to be here. £150m plus would be transformative for a side with a proven track record of bringing players in…but United have proven to be amateurish at best this summer.

It’s a mess, and if it’s true that Paul Mitchell reneged on an offer of a new contract last summer, it appears our former Sporting Director has left another giant turd on his empty turd filled desk at United.

Double sigh. Keep the faith.