Why Aye Man - Newcastle H Match Thread 23.12.17 15:00

adecoker

I was really confident about this game being a home win a week ago.

As for the Arsenal game I didn't expect to win and, to be honest, didn't really care that we lost. League survival and all that.

However I am now beginning to suspect that we will lose whatever momentum had been gathering and revert to type. Given Newcastle's recent rotten form, I can now see only the inevitable home defeat.

Cuz1

It’s a 2-0 win for me with Sakho scoring again at some point

welovethehammers

Yeoldhammer said:

A win puts us on 19 games - 20 points. (just about survival status) which overall is disappointing for where we want to be at the half way stage, but is decent in terms of where we was.

Certainly hoping for a x100 better performance here than our last game vs Newcastle....

Lanzini being suspended is a big miss, am hoping Hernandez can fill the void though. Which may mean Antonio being pushed out wide again in favour of Hernandez playing more central.


Adrian

Reid Ogbonna Cresswell

Zab Noble Obiang Masuaku

Antonio Hernandez Arnie

Agreed. And if that's not working we have options from the bench attacking wise. We can easily take off Hernandez for either Sakho or Ayew depending on our tactics and what we are "missing". It all depends on the dynamic of the game as to who we bring on.

The way I see it is playing Antonio Arnie and even Masuaku means we have runners who will get forward and cause the opposition problems. Their only downfall is that they're not out and out goal scorers. That's where Hernandez could come in and shine. With those players making defenders lives hell it's just a case of finishing these chances. Eg you look at the Stoke game we had a ridiculous amount of chances and we could've easily won with more than 3 goals if we could finish our chances better. Hopefully with Hernandez in the right place at the right time he can do that. We should really be getting plenty of chances playing at home against Newcastle imo.

The game tomorrow really does strike me as the sort of match that will have lots of chances for both teams.

He's still coming back from injury so he's unlikely to last the full 90. Therefore as I said Sakho and/or Ayew would be good options to replace him in the second half depending on how the game is going.

Then the final option is Carroll who we can all agree has been very disappointing this season and if it were any other game I'd say not to play him. However since it's against his old club you sort of always fancy him as he'll be up for it. Although him being "up for it" could also be a red card waiting to happen (overexcitement / elbow to the face or another brainless moment).

OldCastleSwift

Anyone else laughing at Liverpool? ;hmm

MrsGrey

Pengeman said:

One of the big mistakes in the alter part of the Bilic era was to play players in positions that they were not really accustomed to, or giving them a role that they could not perform.

Unlike Moyes playing Antonio as a striker or Cresswell as a LCB or RWB?

;hmm

MrsGrey

IronHerb said:

Not sure I understand what you mean by that Mrs G.

Just that I think he always puts in a shift.

He often gets poor service (especially when we haven't had a MF) so he is marginalised or isolated, but lack of effort isn't something I've noticed in the games I've seen him play.

NEoldiron

MrsG, I think playing Cresswell at LCB has been a brilliant idea - or were you being ironic. ;wink

westcoastiron

Quick question to US Irons - is CNBC showing the game tomorrow?

San Francisco Chronicle says it is, but DirecTV, where I get my cable, says it's showing Crystal Palace/Swansea at that time.

Bazshuayi

i think when watching the arsenal game earlier it looked like it was Palace/Swansea

Pearces_Left_Foot

I think it will be a tough game hopefully we will continue our progress think we will get a tight 1-0 win

MrsGrey

NEoldiron said:

MrsG, I think playing Cresswell at LCB has been a brilliant idea - or were you being ironic. ;wink

Kind of ironic ;ok

He has done well there, but wasn't too good as RWB.

I think 'playing players out of position' is a handy stick to beat the manager with.

OldCastleSwift

It is when it doesn't work. And in some instances I think it's fair.

Slav for hammered for persisting with Antonio at right back when a) he was demonstrably rubbish at right back, and b) we had an actual right back available.

I don't think Moyes has been criticised for playing Cresswell at centre back because he did it when we had injuries in that position and, more importantly, it's worked.

It'll be interesting to see what happens now we have three senior centre backs available. I suspect Cresswell will play as LCB today, but if he makes a mistake or two then no doubt Moyes will be taken to task for playing a left back out of position.

It's almost as if football fans are fickle ;hmm

OutcastLondoner

Well, it depends on the case. There's playing a player out of position but in one that suits his attributes and then there's putting a player in where we need to fill a space - which makes us weak in that position and also often cancels out what that player brings to the game.

LCB isn't such a massive shift for Cresswell and compensates for his main weakness (speed) while using his experience as a LB to cover that left defensive area better than Ogbonna. RB is alien to him and accentuates his weakness because he doesn't have the speed to go past people before cutting in on his weak foot.

With Antonio, I think people gave Bilic the benefit of the doubt for a while because it seemed he should be able to fit there. It seemed more about mentality to me – Antonio wasn't in the right frame of mind for the job that needed to be done yet Bilic persisted.

Lukerz

The issue with Antonio is that he actually demonstrated an ability in the RWB role for a consistent period of games (around 12 or so in the second half of the 2015/16 season). He was contributing assists and goals, gave us an extra dimension from the back and other than a couple of days where he did have a bit of a mare, the experiment was working. We only lost 1-2 games with him at RB. He was playing in a back four and a back five.

But the season after he basically single-handedly decided right at the start he didn’t want to play there anymore and forced Slav to move him. Almost like he stopped playing competently and began being reckless.

welovethehammers

Am i the only one who has thought that Antonio was never any good at RB or RWB from day 1? Ok I can see why you'd think he would be good there - he is strong, quick, can get up and down well and good in the air. So I can understand Bilic wanting to test him out there but it was evident (to me anyway) after 1 game there that it won't work. He doesn't know when to get right to the player, when to drop, when to show him outside, when to bomb forward when we have the ball and when not too. We shouldn't have gone more than one game "testing" him there and it was stubborn to try get him used to that position when it's going to cost us points. If he really was that determined to mould Antonio into a defensive player then this should be something that happens during pre season and in training (particular over the summer) when there's less risk involved. It's pretty clear that Antonio plays best when he can simply focus on attacking (ie as a winger or striker).

MarkNobleLocalHero

He certainly didn't string together 12 performances (or even half performances) in that role.

Colchester_Iron

Smash them.

steve

;pray

buffybegood

Adrián
Reid
Ogbonna
Cresswell
Zabaleta
Kouyaté
Obiang
Masuaku
A Ayew
Arnautovic
Antonio

Sub:Carroll, Sakho, Hernández, Collins, Hart, Quina, Rice

So looks like Kouyate in for Noble and Ayew in for Lanzini (pretty much straight swaps). A slightly deeper role for Ayew than he usually plays, a bit more work expected maybe, but with how Arnie played last week you wouldn't really want to swap him in and play Ayew a bit further forward imo, but that is definitely a possibility.

OldCastleSwift

Anyone else think Antonio will go off injured in this one? Seems like a risk to play him if he's been carrying an injury, particularly as we have Sakho and Hernandez on the bench.

steve

where is everyone ;puzzled

imagelost

;wave

steve

;phew

Cuz1

;bowdown

imagelost

;bubbles

imagelost

coyi

EXETERHAMMER

Moyes has helped us turn the corner. This match is one he would have targeted as a must win. We need this one ;scarf

TwistandShout

Disappointed Hernandez doesn't start but ;scarf

imagelost

6 mins to go
Like a coiled spring
coyi

Cuz1

True Exeter think he would have only been hoping something in the last three as we all were including me daft bets.com and then maybe start at stoke and next few for us to kick on so today as you say a must win for us to put a gap between a few below