Taxi for Obertan

So we lost and lost badly, there it is. 5-0 was not unfair or harsh it was the result our performance deserved and it could easily have been more.

Spurs were imperious in the first 45 and I am sure with that kind of performance they would have beaten most teams in the league especially with them being at White Hart Lane.

Spurs’ performance however, was not the full reason behind the loss. The performance from the lads was at best a 4/10 and not up to usual standards. Pardew clearly agreed in the post match interviews however sensibly stuck it on himself claiming:

‘I blame myself for that defeat. We had too many attacking players on the field. We will bounce back.’

It was an interesting call and might pay off to be a clever one. Much like Mancini did after City lost to Sunderland, by taking the focus off the players and onto himself he was ensuring that the players themselves did not come under pressure and thus hopefully performances in the future will not suffer.

In a way I agree that he did mess up as his tactics were wrong. We had too many attacking players in that team today and to play two up top had trouble written all over it. For a team that has such known strength in midfield his selection seemed a bit naïve, especially with our midfield, at the moment not exactly at its strongest. Tiote was sawly missed because he is someone who gives you the confidence to play more attacking because he gives you the extra cover in midfield and allows other players the confidence to give that extra bit more in attack as they know he will cover. Alan seemed to agree:

"We had three of our first choice midfield out today and that proved too much in the end. Hope Tiote comes back happy with a medal"

It was a gamble and he would have known that and I can see where he was coming from. He wanted us to really impose ourselves on the Champion’s League scene and show everyone that we were serious contenders. At SJP we would have had more of a chance but away from home it was suicidal.

In addition in terms of personnel it was hard to know who to leave out. BA has carried us at times this season and he would have be barking to leave out a player with the second highest goal tally in the league and off the back of a great performance last Sunday against Villa. Similarly with Cisse, he had a great game against Villa and with so much hype about him this week it would have been a bit of a kick in the teeth for us fans to see him on the bench tonight.

The blame cannot however all rest on Pardew. In the end it comes down to the players on the pitch to do a job. Some of them tonight just didn’t do that unfortunately.

To start with, Simpson seemed totally lost today. It is odd because he has been exceptional all season and solid however some of the positions he took up today were a little worrying. He seemed to be at fault for the first four goals. However, to be fair to the lad he was not helped out by the performance of Obertan who was as poor. His passing was atrocious and it appeared he left his vision in the changing room. His failure to support Simpson in defensive efforts was also of huge concern. For example for the first goal he was stood at the top of the box marking no one and left Assou-Ekotto free at the back post to slot home into an empty net.

I know there has been heavy criticism of this kid in recent weeks but I believe that it is totally justified with repeated under par performances. I also agree that the booing he was subject to in the home game against West Brom is ridiculous and senseless as it helps no one and clearly knocked the boy’s confidence.

The fact that Pardew plays him reflects even worse on Ben Arfa. Everyone can see he has immense talent on the ball but the problem lies when we lose the ball and his failure to buy into the strict defensive discipline that Pardew demands.

Similarly other performances from Williamson and Coloccini did not exactly help. We will class this as an off day for them but for Obertan the problems are deeper to the extent that I just don’t believe that he has the raw ability to be a top premier league player. Yes he’s young but the talent still needs to be there to be developed and worked on.

In the grand scheme of things however this is just one game and 3 points that other teams around us dropped as well so there is no need for panic. Take a step back and look at the raw statistics as they make for favourable reading. We are 1 point off 4th with 13 games remaining, seven of which are at home. Still in a phenomenally great position.

Add to that the fact that we haven’t been below seventh all season and it is true to say: Newcastle are having a phenomenal season.


by Giles Harwood ( @gilesharwood001 )