Bloody Hull

Poor defending was the reason Newcastle didn't win this game, when you score two goals at home, you should be able to win the game.

One of the major components of a successful team is consistency and over the last few weeks NUFC have showed us exactly why we are currently not among st the elite. After a great away win at Villa we faced Hull City expecting them to roll over and give us an easy home victory. The Premier league does not work like that – as the old cliché goes ‘There are no easy games in the Premier league’. 

NUFC tried to just coast through this game in 3^rd gear after a very impressive start. As Pardew stated in his post game interview.

“We started really, really well but then we dropped down a gear after our goal and that caused us problems for the rest of the game. ” “Third gear is not enough in this league against any side,” 

“You look for consistency and this team is a good team but we lack a bit of consistency and that is what gets you results.”   “The Premier League is about momentum and you can fly up the table at this stage of the season. We let ourselves down.”

Newcastle’s players will need to quickly learn that in this league you cannot take your foot off the gas, because if you do you lose your momentum, and sides are not in the Premier League because they are poor sides.

For me our defensive frailties are not just down to our back 4. We win and lose as a team and therefore we need to attack and defend as a team. Our midfield need to offer that protection for our back 4. Tracking you man and sticking with the runners is key. If not our back 4 will be over ran.

Hatem Ben Arfa has been our best attacking player so far this season, however we saw the downside of his game this weekend. I saw two goals come as a result of Hatem not tracking back his man. This cannot happen – either Hatem needs to improve this side of his game or he defensive responsibility need to be passed off to another midfielder – like we saw during David Ginola’s time on Tyneside. Pardew needs to make this call and adapt his tactics accordingly.

I saw a lot of criticism of Debuchys performance on Saturday, however for me this was down to the lack of coverage he had. All three goals came from the Hull’s left wing, and the first and third goals saw Newcastle wide open on the right hand side of defense.

Newcastle looked a very good side in the first half, but some lax defensive play had us concede three goals, and Alan Pardew will need to do a lot more work on the  defense, after this rather shaky display. Though to be fair to Pardew I am not sure what he can do about individual errors – Coloccini losing his man for the second goal is something Pardew has no influence over. Colo has to accept fault on that one.

It was a of a blow yesterday and we lost a game we should have won, but there’s a long way to go in the season, and we showed some excellent attacking play. Remy was obviously the stand out player and his goes bode well for the future – unfortunately for him his 2 goals yesterday count for nothing.

This has taken the wind out of Newcastle’s sails. Pardew and his team need to get that momentum going as soon as possible - hopefully this week when we face Leeds United in a Capital one cup tie.