21-06-2020, 10:55 PM
I think this is the sharpest I've seen us for years. Every player looked like they wanted to prove something. Maximin was immense. He was a proper thorn in their side. Even doubling up on him wasn't enough. The Blades were a bit sluggish and their pressing was nowhere near effective as it was earlier in the season 25 years ago. It was nice to see us being the first to react most of the time. The players seem to have benefited from a spell training on their own.
Hayden was solid. Fernandez was really focused and read quite a lot of threats well, especially in the early stages when we seemed to be sitting back a bit. I thought Rose looked like a weak link early on but when Almiron came to the left and Maximin went on the right he seemed more comfortable. He played a good part in Ritchie's goal, running alongside, offering an option and making their defender uncertain on who to cover. He made the extra man count. I felt Shelvey made some daft decisions and we could have been ahead earlier. It's academic now but I was getting a bit pissed off with him during the game.
I was actually wondering what Joelinton's yellow card event was all about. It just seemed totally pointless. It turned out to be a crucial part of the match in our favour. Already on a yellow Egan had to walk for pulling back Joelinton. That gave us the advantage but we still had to earn it. Maximin had the awareness to hang around for an off chance that actually paid off.
I got a bit frustrated after that as we were tapping it about at the back, inviting them forward, and so many times I've seen us come a cropper from that. That only works when the team is adept at keeping the ball. We're not exactly known for that so I always find it a bit dangerous, but they didn't look anywhere near sharp enough to pounce, even when wayward passes were made. As I said earlier we looked far sharper.
I was glad Joelinton got his goal. I actually think he works hard for the team but is a jigsaw. We saw that in the first half when he was in 3 minds and ended up scuffing his chance. In the end he only had to tap it in for his goal, just before he was hooked, and he managed that pretty well.
All day the media assumptions were Sheffield United would come and take 3 points to get into 5th. At the very least they were expected to get a point. The thing you can rely on with Newcastle, though, is we don't follow scripts. Both for and against our own benefit. Today we once again rewrote the script and picked up the three points that most likely guarantees our top flight survival. And the vicar from Bread didn't have a single say in the matter.
Hayden was solid. Fernandez was really focused and read quite a lot of threats well, especially in the early stages when we seemed to be sitting back a bit. I thought Rose looked like a weak link early on but when Almiron came to the left and Maximin went on the right he seemed more comfortable. He played a good part in Ritchie's goal, running alongside, offering an option and making their defender uncertain on who to cover. He made the extra man count. I felt Shelvey made some daft decisions and we could have been ahead earlier. It's academic now but I was getting a bit pissed off with him during the game.
I was actually wondering what Joelinton's yellow card event was all about. It just seemed totally pointless. It turned out to be a crucial part of the match in our favour. Already on a yellow Egan had to walk for pulling back Joelinton. That gave us the advantage but we still had to earn it. Maximin had the awareness to hang around for an off chance that actually paid off.
I got a bit frustrated after that as we were tapping it about at the back, inviting them forward, and so many times I've seen us come a cropper from that. That only works when the team is adept at keeping the ball. We're not exactly known for that so I always find it a bit dangerous, but they didn't look anywhere near sharp enough to pounce, even when wayward passes were made. As I said earlier we looked far sharper.
I was glad Joelinton got his goal. I actually think he works hard for the team but is a jigsaw. We saw that in the first half when he was in 3 minds and ended up scuffing his chance. In the end he only had to tap it in for his goal, just before he was hooked, and he managed that pretty well.
All day the media assumptions were Sheffield United would come and take 3 points to get into 5th. At the very least they were expected to get a point. The thing you can rely on with Newcastle, though, is we don't follow scripts. Both for and against our own benefit. Today we once again rewrote the script and picked up the three points that most likely guarantees our top flight survival. And the vicar from Bread didn't have a single say in the matter.
