Newcastle United failed to please their supporters at St. James’ Park once again as they drew 0-0 with Fulham.
Some boos could be heard trickling down the stands of St. James’ Park as Newcastle United only managed to secure a single point against 20th-placed Fulham, gifting the visitors their first clean sheet of the season. The Magpies were expected to expose the Cottagers’ fragile defense, but that never happened.
It is hard to find some positives in this match since the team dropped crucial points before playing a nightmare of a schedule against elite clubs, starting with Liverpool on the road. Before jumping ahead to Wednesday’s match, though, here are three things we learned from yesterday’s frustrating draw.
Too Much Hesitation
Newcastle’s players seemed rather indecisive yesterday when they were either trying to make a clearance from the back or build up an attack in the final third. The Magpies are usually good at stringing together some quick passes and knowing when to shoot the ball, but that was not the case against Fulham.
Multiple players held on to the ball for far too long and then would pass it to the wrong player leading to a poor shot from a difficult angle. Moreover, some players made the mistake of crossing the ball when they should have kept the ball low and vice-versa. Newcastle must have a game plan against Liverpool, because this type of hesitation will hurt even more against a big club.
The Captain Saves the Day
Jamaal Lascelles has not been playing well this season and he got off to a shaky start in the first half against Fulham, but he transformed into a true leader when the team needed him most. The match really opened up for both sides in the final ten minutes and Fulham utilized their pace to form some dangerous counter-attacks. While other defenders looked on, Lascelles made his presence known as he covered a lot of ground in a matter of seconds and made some crucial stops.
The two game-saving blocks and tackles he made all came on the cusp of the final whistle. The first big moment was when he blocked Aleksandar Mitrovic’s shot in front of goal, a shot that would have gone right past Dubravka. The second big stop came in the 92nd minute when Lascelles tackled Aboubakar Kamara in the box right before he shot the ball.
Poor Field Spacing
Newcastle looked awful on the ball yesterday. Dreadful is another way of describing it, but I will stick with saying awful. A major reason why so many of Newcastle’s passes were being intercepted was because of poor field spacing. Mohamed Diame and Ki Sung-yueng did their best to spread the ball around and switch the field of play, but too many players were standing in the same area and that it made it easy for Fulham to recover the ball. Field spacing and accurate passing will be important against Liverpool next week.