Swansea 2-0 Newcastle

‘I’m going defeat by one goal, sorry’. This was my tweet 15 minutes before kick off yesterday. A prediction based on what I thought was going to be quite a close and well-fought encounter!

Well, it wasn’t. Newcastle succumbed to their 7th straight away defeat in the Premier League and further highlighted how imperative it is that they strengthen the squad before the summer transfer window closes.

Swansea dominated from start to finish in a game where NUFC barely left their own half. Lots of blame will be thrown in Daryl Janmaat’s direction, but the signs were there before his idiocy that Swansea were by far a better equipped outfit than we were!

The Swans had 66% possession, 19 shots to our 4 and managed to carve out 18 chances compared to our miserly 2, one of which was from a set play.

As Steve said, very much a ‘wasted game’ as 'we learnt nothing' and certainly one to forget. Here’s 10 things I picked up…

Mbemba is a class act…. But is still acclimatising to the league.

We all know Chancel has the support of the entire fanbase and the early signals are that we have a real player on our hands. Most on Twitter yesterday agreed that Mbemba was our best player, which isn’t the best accolade after a performance of such ilk. But the Congolese international showed flashes of brilliance again, especially when moved to unfamiliar territory at full back and dealing (better) with the threat of the excellent Jefferson Montero.

Mbemba won all 8 of his tackles, at least double that of any other player. And, while his passing wasn’t great (only 77% completed), he was always looking to retain possession and keep our play calm; only 2 of his 30 passes were ‘long’.

Having said all of that, the young defender had his share of blame in both goals. He was out of position and failed to cut out Shelvey’s through ball for the first goal and, as with all of our full backs, he could have done a lot better in stopping Montero’s cross for the second.

Janmaat IS NOT captain material.

Don’t bother hunting for where/when I said I would like him as captain, I hold my hands up. In fact, 51% of over 1000 Newcastle fans said they would prefer him as the new club captain, but yesterday highlighted how naïve a player he still is!

He was tortured from the first minute by Montero and simply wasn’t good enough to handle the left winger. Some have pointed the finger at McClaren for not subbing him, but who would have replaced him? We have no recognised right back as cover. Also, what attitude and philosophy does that promote; replacing players as soon as they get a yellow card. Where was Janmmat’s professionalism? Pulling Montero back for the second yellow was imbecilic – surely he knew what his fate would be, he’d already made 3 fouls prior to this.

7 yellow cards last season, a red in our 3-0 defeat away to Leicester, a ‘karate kick’ for Mario Balotelli and now this. Mr Janmaat has some growing up to do before he is considered for positions like club captain. More worrying though is how very average the Dutchman looked yesterday, after a quite underwhelming performance last week as well. Lets hope the match he misses comes as a bit of a wake up call for him!

When will things change, aerially?

It’s now 3 goals in 2 games we’ve conceded from crosses and could easily have been 4 had Ayew managed to steer his second header on target; this off the back of a season in the Premier League where only Burnley conceded more headed goals!

Already, teams are showing just how easy it is to get the ball wide, get a cross into our box and win the aerial battle for a chance at goal. Look at this…

Ok, as aforementioned Mbemba should do better to stop the cross, but crosses are always going to come in. Coloccini’s position is ok; it’s not perfect as he’s running towards his own goal, but at least his marking distance is good and he can see Ayew. And ok, Ayew has a reputation for being good aerially, but I would still expect our lead centre back, OUR CAPTAIN, to be more commanding in these situations.

It was another very suspect performance from the Argentinian. Many are saying that we need to purchase a new centre half and considering the partnership that ended the game yesterday is the same partnership that started the 09/10 Championship season, I couldn’t agree more. But we won’t. Why would the club spend money on a top centre back when they won’t play? Mbemba is now our best defender and Coloccini won’t be dropped.

We need some stringent coaching and practise on defending from the flanks – working harder to stop crosses coming in and being more commanding and aggressive aerially, especially in our own box!

Our centre midfield is concerning.

Did you know our centre midfield trio of Colback, Anita and Wijnaldum are yet to create a single chance from open play this season?!

It wasn’t a great game to be involved in for a player like Wijnaldum in the no.10 role yesterday, especially with no forward to play with or off for half an hour, but mainly because we hardly saw the ball. But further back, in central midfield, Jonjo Shelvey put on yet another dominating show against us.

We lack invention from the positions played by Anita and Colback. They both play the game very deep and next to nothing went forward in terms of passing against Swansea from the midfield pair. Anita played on the edge of our box (see below) and Colback hasn’t got the range and finesse in passing to 'unlock' teams or play balls cleverly through the their lines. While his passing success is good (91% v Swansea), only 8 of his 35 were in the attacking third and only 14 went forward, failing to create a single chance all game.

Defensively, Anita reverted to type after a scintilating performance last week. Chasing shadows for long periods and really not aggressive enough or witholding anywhere near enough stature to ‘boss’ midfield like Shelvey does. Just one tackle won all game and not a single foul committed. Now, I’m not saying we should be telling our players to foul (although John Carver thinks we want them to!), especially like Janmaat, but where is his battling, passion and anger to truly perform well in one of the most important areas of the pitch? I think NUFC would be better off going into the transfer market for a top defensive midfielder before a centre half, based on what we've seen so far. 'Tiote' you say...

Papiss Cisse.

In the same fashion as the Coloccini point last week, more food for thought than hammering the player here, but I have to ask, what does Papiss Cisse offer outside of his goal contribution?

Now, you may say, ‘who cares if he’s scoring goals!’ and his ‘1 in 2’ record last season was exceptional; only Sergio Aguero had a better mins/goals ratio than Papiss, but yesterday he was completely anonymous. Far too often, just like last week, he roamed across the line or continued to come too deep, meaning we have no focal point for our attack. His first touch is extremely poor at times and he seldom holds onto the ball and brings others into play. None of his 26 touches (6 fewer than Mitrovic, by the way!) were central around the Swansea box and only once did he touch the ball in their penalty area.

Cisse wasn’t exactly prolific the two full seasons prior (17 goals in 73 games) to last and when was the last time you saw him score a goal that wasn’t from close range? Is it time to move that no.9 shirt on?

Aleksandar Mitrovic is a nutter!

Yep, cut and paste from last week’s post! It took Mitro little under 2 minutes this time to pick up a yellow card after another pretty reckless challenge. Some say passion, some say stupidity, but few would argue that this lad needs to be given more than 10 minutes to make an impact.

He gave us fresh impetus up front, challenging every ball and striking fear into the Swansea players! He won more attacking aerial duels than anyone else involved in the game (2/2) and managed more touches in his 13 minutes than Cisse did in nearly an hour!

Mitrovic IS a nutter, but he is the strong, aggressive and fearless presence we need up front at the moment.

Time for Ayoze and Aarons?!

A quick one this one. These two are arguably two of our most creative players. Ayoze was a standout player last season in a campaign of misery elsewhere and although Aarons has barely played and is still very young, his contribution when he has played, particularly pre season this year, suggests he can at least give us more consistency than Gabriel Obertan, another who was pretty ineffective against Swansea.

How and where they go; I’m unsure of the answer, but I think it is time we find places in the team for the energy, pace and invention of these lads.

Playing out from the back isn’t working!

‘Isn’t’, not ‘won’t’. A new style and philosophy will take time to embed. The concern I have is that we might not have the players in the squad to play this style effectively.

Firstly, Tim Krul’s kicking and passing has always been suspect. Does he possess the competence to play calm around his own penalty area? I saw him stitch Steven Taylor up on at least two occasions yesterday – how long before one of them costs us a goal?

Then there’s Anita, or whoever plays that holding role. It’s all very well, popping in between our centre halves to get on the ball in midfield but in the two games we’ve played so far, the whole team has been too deep, meaning we play a lot of football and have a lot of possession in our own half. Add a pass success rate of 77% to mix and again, something is going to give sooner or later!

No forward?!

I just didn’t get it. What was the purpose of substituting Cisse for Aarons? The ball wasn’t sticking, ANYWHERE. We needed something to aim for, someone to hit to take the pressure off the team in the defensive third. Surely that was the time for Mitrovic? Why on earth were we left without a forward on for half an hour and then one brought on for 10 minutes?

Was it just a blatant acceptance of defeat and a ‘pack the middle’ attitude in hope of stifling any more of their attacks? Keep morale high with just a 2-0 defeat? If so, it didn’t work! That ball just kept on coming back every time we seemed to clear the danger.

An odd decision indeed.

Siem de Jong.

Another week, another de Jong absence. The injury status of the Dutchman is becoming quite a concern and I’m beginning to think we’re never going to see the best of the former Ajax captain. It’s now just 224 minutes of competitive football played by Siem de Jong for Newcastle United in 15 months since his transfer.

It’s very much a case of ‘back to Earth’ after some real positive signs last week and apologies if this has come across as a bit of a whine. We are only two games into a long season and we have as difficult a start in the league as any, whilst our new manager finds his way around the club and his players. Lets hope we have a lot better than yesterday to look forward to!