At some point you need to believe what your eyes are telling you and not listen to your heart. My eyes are telling me that this team doesn’t have what it takes to stay up this year. Since the first game this team has looked disjointed and unable to put together a full game of football. I continue to look for that extra something that a team needs to play above the sum of it’s players but I haven’t seen it. Our defense is bad, our midfield is mediocre and our strikers are struggling with no service. Worst of all is I think the mentality of this team is a defeatist attitude. They are not looking to win games but rather not to lose games. I think that is the biggest reason that we have lost 20+ points from winning positions. The game against Watford was the perfect example. While the game was 0-0 the team pressed and put pressure on Watford. This reulted is us creating shots and I think the team looked the better squad. I think we actually had more possession than Watford during the first half. We continued to struggle in the final third even with all of the possession but we were the better team. I believe that St. Maximin has lost faith in the team. It is evident in his play and with the exception of his goal his performance was poor. He was constantly running himself into trouble and trying to do everything by himself. I wonder if ASM actually made the correct play the dozen times he lost the ball would we have had better opportunities to score. The answer is yes, but would we have scored? That is the problem. I think having him score may have been the worst thing for this team in the long run. His antics will continue and there will be a bunch of dead end runs in his future. It is a love/hate relationship with him for me right now. I would like to mention that it was nice seeing Dummett make it back into the squad. I would also like to mention that I don’t understand how our left backs don’t know how to cover their area. There were multiple times when a Watford player was out on the wing uncovered. The collapsing of the fullbacks into the box is my biggest pet peave this season.
Why is it that I am more worried when we take the lead than any other time during a game? Is it because the team turtles up quicker than George taking a swim in cold water? Yep. That’s it. Why does our team think that we can park the bus and protect a win? We can’t! It just baffles me that the team decides to take on more pressure to hold a 1 goal lead. Why has nobody on this team heard of getting another goal? It comes back to the mentality that they don’t want to lose. Who can change this mentality?
Does bringing in better players help change the mentality of this team? We have brought in two and so far the answer is no. I love that Trippier got signed but he can’t influence games from the fullback position. We need somebody in a central role to provide that influence and mentality. Look at how much Liverpool changed once they got Van Dijk. They skyrocketed to the top because he anchored the defense. We have no anchor, we have no defense, we have no chance. Will bringing in two more CBs into the team help? It sure couldn’t hurt. The league is pulling away from us and it is turning into a 4 team fight to stay in the Premier League which made the Watford game so harsh and Burnley has 3 games in hand for a chance for 9 points. (The only saving grace is that they are against Tott, AV, LC and Everton) Above the futile four is Everton which is 8 points above us. It is looking very bleak. Here is hoping for a 7 game winning streak. At this point all we have is hope.
The Newcastle Review 