Three more big concerns from Newcastle's defeat at Everton

Newcastle United lost 3-1 to Everton on Thursday night, crashing out of the League Cup in the process. Another insipid attacking performance from United meant that the Toffees didn’t even have to play that well to win.

Combined with the defence basically gift-wrapping all three of their goals, it was a night to forget for the Magpies, but one that raises so many questions about this side’s capabilities of dealing with well-coached, well-organised but average sides.

Here are my three big concerns from the game:

Bad: The Attack

Despite 28 shots towards goal (plus the actual Dan Burn goal itself) and looking half-decent in the opening twenty minutes, I challenge you to recall one threatening strike on Everton’s goal.

Barnes, Osula, Hall and Murphy were all guilty of scuffing shots or waiting too long to shoot when well-placed, and the pace with which we build up and attack teams is snail-like. It’s further confounding because this wasn’t the case in the opening two games of the season against Liverpool and Spurs, but, by every metric, this attack/forward line is regressing fast.

It was all neatly summed up by Yoane Wissa completely shanking the ball out for a goal kick when he was in space and well-placed on the edge of the box to get a threatening effort away late in the second half.

Considering United have been a generally poor side for much of my life, I’m struggling to recall a bigger waste of money than the DR Congo international when you factor in the transfer fee. I think it might be time to cut our losses in January and offload him to a club in Turkey.

Bad: The Defence

For all the improvement the backline brought on Sunday, it was all thrown out of the window at the Hill Dickinson. Everton, whilst they were clear winners on the night, didn’t have to do anything special to win that game, such was our incompetence at the back.

Dedic must just clear his lines for their first. Instead, he’s caught in possession, and Garner can stroke the ball home without a player in pink/lilac anywhere near him.

The second is a shambles of a goal to concede on the counter. Yes, the ref missed a blatant penalty for the foul on Barnes, but for only Jacob Ramsey (just back from injury, remember) to be anywhere near Hackney when he volleys the ball home from basically inside the six-yard box is criminal. It showed a lack of heart, will and desire to want to try and stay in the game. Perhaps some of the lads were distracted by the non-award of the penalty, but it was garbage all round from lads who had been relatively solid on Sunday.

Hornicek should do better, in my opinion, too, but the Czech seems to really struggle to command his box, and at the minute, his better ability with the ball at his feet doesn’t seem like a fair trade-off for what we’ve lost in solidity in that area.

The third felt like a goal you give up when you know you’re not getting back into a game. There’s almost a literal ocean of space on the right-hand side which Everton drive into, and Burn is caught in two minds (when he really should just be covering Barry). It’s a simple goal to kill the game.

United are in such a bad place defensively now: Thiaw and Botman are wretchedly out of form, and our only fit full-backs are Hall and Dedic (another just back from injury), which means they’re constantly physically flogged game to game.

Throw in the fact that Burn is 34 and Schär is almost 35, and the return of that centre-back pairing was only ever going to be a short-term solution. I just didn’t think short-term meant one game…

Bad: The Manager

If Sunday was a shot in the arm for Jaissle, then Thursday was the complete opposite. At times, I just don’t see what we’re trying to do in terms of attacking shape, movement and pressure in the opponents’ third.

Considering Jaissle himself stated when he took over that his playing style was like what we were playing under Howe, I’m sorry, but most of the time, it appears to be so far away from that it may as well be on the moon.

We are so pedestrian all over the pitch. We hardly seem to get out of first gear, even when we’re behind in games (which is becoming an unwanted regular occurrence), and we struggle to press as a team. This allows opponents to quickly recycle possession through a couple of defenders and, because of the huge hole in the middle of the park, they’re in on us.

I think Jaissle needs to hurry up and come to the realisation that the squad we have is not built (yet) to play in his preferred style and make changes accordingly.

We have a load of “8s” in the squad (Ramsey, Joelinton, Miley, Willock, Steur, etc.), but he wants to play with two “6s” and a “10”, and none of those players appear to be good proxies/stopgaps for those positions.

They’re specialist positions that require a specific skill set that they just don’t have (and in Jaissle’s system, the “10” is key, and we just don’t have one). When they go missing tactically in matches, as they did on Thursday night, we suffer for it and lose to deeply average sides that just have to be well-organised and wait for us to make mistakes, which we are doing hand over fist at the minute.

Oh well, just Everton again on Monday…

Keep the faith. HWTL.