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- The Good, The Bad & Newcastle’s Season According to Bruno 🤔
The Good, The Bad & Newcastle’s Season According to Bruno 🤔
PLUS: How you can get your hands on the brand new NUFC x Adidas product collaboration (if it’s not sold out already) 👟
👋 Frustrating, isn’t it!? While we’ve seen much more positive attacking play from the likes of Isak, defensive lapses have been costing us games. Here’s my take on the highs and lows from recent results.
In this weeks Pitch Notes 👇
📊 A look at the good and the bad from Newcastle’s recent results.
🦊 Key things to know ahead of our must-win game against the foxes.
👟 How you can get your hands on the new NUFC x Adidas collaboration.
🗓️ ON THIS DAY
On this day in 2010 Newcastle secured a thrilling 3-1 victory over Liverpool at St. James’ Park - Kevin Nolan opened the scoring in the 15th minute, coolly finishing after Andy Carroll's assist.
Joey Barton made it 2-1 in the 80th minute, capitalizing on a defensive lapse, and Andy Carroll sealed the win in stoppage time with a spectacular strike from distance!
📣 THE MAIN STORY
The Good & Bad from Newcastle's Recent Results 📊
It’s been an interesting few weeks for Newcastle United - with a brilliant performance against Liverpool, surrounded by very averages displays at Palace, West Ham and Brentford.
On the one hand, we’ve seen some much more positive attacking play, scoring five goals in the last two games.
After struggling to get the ball anywhere near the net throughout many of our games this season, this has been a very welcome change.
That said, we seem to have lost our defensive structure in the process. In those same two matches, we've conceded six goals, many of which came from avoidable mistakes.
There’s no denying the potential in this squad, especially when you look at the impressive wins over teams like Arsenal, as well as the draws against Liverpool and Man City.
Yet, there’s a frustrating inconsistency against opponents we really should be beating.
"This is not a problem about just the defence. It's a problem for the midfield, a problem for the attack. It's the team's problem. We have to stop this. But our season, being honest, has been very, very disappointing."
We saw the best of Newcastle against Liverpool, where the team was full of energy, pressing high and really challenging one of the best sides in the world.
For those 90 minutes, it felt like the top-4 contending Mags were back - but just a few days later, they completely collapsed at Brentford.
Defensive errors, poor decision-making, and a lack of real attacking bite saw us lose 4-2 in a game that was really there for the taking.
The talent is clearly there. Alexander Isak looks like a real threat up top and Bruno Guimaraes is still the pulling the strings in midfield - we’re just not seeing it consistently throughout the squad.
We just can’t seem to put together a solid run of form, and that's what’s so frustrating.
At times we show the quality needed to challenge for European places, only to follow up with disorganized, erratic performances.
This isn’t a team that’s playing badly because they lack ability - it’s more mental lapses, mistakes, and a seeming lack of belief when things aren’t going perfectly.
We’ve shown we can compete with the best, now it’s about turning that potential into regular performances.
Stats from the Last 5 Games 🔢
📊 1 win, 2 draws and 3 losses
📈 9 goals score vs. 4 in the 5 before that (great!)
📉 11 goals conceeded vs. 2 in the 5 before that (not so great…)
🔥 Isak has scored 3 in his last 5 games
🤔 WHO AM I?
“I joined Newcastle in 2014 from Spain and spent several seasons as an integral part of their attack. Know for my creativity around the box, I scored 42 goals over 5 years for the magpies before moving to Leicester City in 2019.”
⏩ THE WEEK AHEAD
The Magpies Take on the Foxes 🦊
We host Leicester this Saturday at 3 pm, aiming to extend our home record against the Foxes to 4 games unbeaten.
The last meeting ended in a 0-0 draw, but a win could push Newcastle back into the top half and keep our European aspirations alive.
It looks likely that Newcastle will be without Joe Willock, due to a "minor hamstring" issue - there are no other new injury concerns that we know of.
Women's League Cup Action 🏆
After securing a 2-0 win over Middlesbrough to reach the 4th round of the FA Women's Cup, the Lasses face a tough test tonight at 7 pm in Manchester against Manchester United in the Women's League Cup group stage.
The Women’s Championship scheduled for Saturday against Blackburn Rovers has been postponed, so only mid-week action to look forward to this week.
📰 IN OTHER NEWS
👟 NUFC x Adidas Gazelle: Get you hands on the new Limited Edition Newcastle United Adidas Gazelle shoes from today (December 11th) at SJP and Metrocentre stores.
🏆 U18s FA Youth Cup: A 2-1 win over Brighton secured a spot for the U18s in the 4th round of the FA Youth Cup, with goals from Joe Brayson and Michael Mills.
📰 Ashworth Leaves Man United – After just five months as Sporting Director, following 5-months on gardening leave at Newcastle, Dan Ashworth has left Manchester United… 🤣
👋 Thanks for reading, thats all for this week - you can catch up on anything you might have missed over on our website.
P.S. The answer to “who am I” is the creative Spaniard, Ayoze Perez.