(10-12-2012 21:53 )LODOS Wrote: Bad night for newcastle, there players are not preforming like they were last seaseon.
A bad result, but not an unexpected one.
I actually think this was our best performance of the season so far, but unfortunately we got sucker punched by a set piece.
Like against Wigan, we created lots of chances to score and passed the ball well, which gives me confidence that we won't get sucked into a relegation battle, but will have to settle for a lower midtable finish.
We have played 4-3-3 in our last 3 games and its showing in our performances of late that its working. The main problem we have two similar players in Ba and Cisse and can sometimes get in the way of each other. I was hoping Marveaux and Ben Arfa would play on the wings with Ba in the middle, as I think we would be more effective playing with two pacey wingers, who have a bit of trickery about them.
I think we need to drop Gutierrez, as he doesn't get past people, loses the ball too easily and its not a great passer of the ball. He is just a work horse in midfield in my opinion. Even Santon was getting further up the pitch than Gutierrez and as Gary Neville rightfully pointed out that it left a gap on our left hand side, which gave Fulham the opening goal in the match because Santon had to take up attacking duties on the left hand side. Our marking as well for the second goal for Fulham, as Gary Neville again accurately pointed out was poor and its things like that we need to iron out to motor up the table.
Pardew got his substitutions wrong. My heart sank when Ben Arfa came off for Ameobi, as he was making things happening for us. Pardew like I said above should taken off Ba or Cisse and put Marveaux on one of the wings and put on Bigiriama for Gutierrez. Back to the moment when Ameobi came on, I don't understand that change and it still puzzles me, it just gave Krul more licence to boot it up the pitch even though we were doing fine keeping the ball on the ground and passing it smoothly.
Fair play to Fulham though, as it was an entertaining game and could of gone either way at the end of the game. Berbatov, Rodaledga and Hangeland were great for Fulham and they especially need to keep Berbatov fit because if gets injured for a lengthy period then they might go on another bad run of form.
We have another tough fixture coming up next weekend against Man City and todays performance gave me hope that we can give them a proper game, but we need to change these recent decent performances into wins now.