How To Score Past Newcastle: Part 17 Of A Plausible 38
By A.K. Dholakia On Thu 14 Dec 2006 |
A game that was perhaps ineffable in the truer sense of the term left many feeling confused as to how they should be feeling. Had Newcastle lost valiantly? Had Newcastle expended copious amounts of energy and effort for nothing? It all depends on how you want to look at things. This game evinced enough to both depress the optimistic and elate the cynic concurrently.
On one hand, Newcastle were capable of frustrating a Chelsea side that had precious ground to make up on Manchester United away from home for 74 minutes without resorting to ugly football, with a side that can only aptly be described as second-string. On the other hand, all Newcastle could do was delay the inevitable deathblow that Drogba ultimately delivered after Chelsea had fielded a weakened team. The inevitability of this is very much questionable in the minds of some though.
With a couple of vivacious players returning to the fray in the next week or so, our next meeting with Chelsea in the Carling Cup should provide more insight into the game just passed; is Roeder’s squad capable of more when our supposed big guns return, or is pointing to the youth and inexperience of the side a convenient intrigue that provides relative safety in lauding a result that almost was? Indeed, was that as good as it gets, or will the ever-present potential be fulfilled in any form any time soon?
That isn’t to belittle such an unexpected result and performance, but it would be a sad day when a Newcastle fan no longer wished to push on from a 1-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge, while improvement upon it was still a very realistic possibility. What difference would Kieron Dyer, Nolberto Solano and Emre have made?
Carling Cup: Newcastle United vs Chelsea 20-12-06
Game: Chelsea (a)
Goal: Didier Drogba
Blame: Nicky Butt
Reason: He was just an extra number at the back until the ball was played into Shevchenko - it was only then that he realised that defending is about more than just being in the defensive zone. If more alert, he could have easily been goalside of Shevchenko before Terry had even laid the ball off to Robben.
BLAME COUNT - Season 06/07
Responsible For 4 Goals Conceded
Stephen Carr
Celestine Babayaro
Responsible For 2 Goals Conceded
Scott Parker
Peter Ramage
Steven Taylor
Responsible For 1 Goal Conceded
Titus Bramble
Steve Harper
Craig Moore
Nolberto Solano
Shay Given
Nicky Butt
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Passing on thoughts of a Chelsea season ticket holder I work with: “Yes you fought well but we were there for the taking.” Trepidation all round at Stamford Bridge I gather, whether we can take advantage on Wednesday is very much open to debate,
Sent in on: December 15th, 2006 at 5:40 pm
I would say the difference would be confidence. Granted, I only saw the last 20 minutes of the match, but the lads didn’t seem confident in those twenty minutes (70-93, that is). Of course Drogba had put Chelsea ahead, but still there was a tentative nature about the way the ball was possessed. Everyone knew coming into this match that we were at a severe disadvantage and I think that that contributed quite a bit to the mentality on the pitch. Having the likes of Dyer, Solano, and Emre (let alone the rest of the first team injuries) around would have had an impact, both psychologically and with respect to time of possession. I’m sure that we could have mounted more coordinated attacks and applied more pressure with a more seasoned team. I think that we did pretty well given the circumstances. We just need to take stock, sort ourselves out and continue the recent success.
Sent in on: December 15th, 2006 at 5:59 am
“What difference would Kieron Dyer, Nolberto Solano and Emre have made?”
Interesting question. We’ve come to this ground with better teams and have come away with a thrashing, but if Roeder would’ve gotten the tactics right with all our players available — tactics meaning, keeping tight and hoping that a breakaway or two might give us a sneaky win at Stamford bridge, our first in 23 years or so — we might’ve stood a chance at least.
What happened in this case was that we went in expecting nothing more than a loss (most of us, anyways), a draw seemingly the best result we could’ve hoped to come back with, and got a gritty hard-fought loss that felt like a draw that wasn’t. The kids did well, the defence held well until the final moment, and Martins made a foray or two in their half when we did hold possession or rob the blue boys of theirs.
Regarding to this column, what’s in store for the winner? Do we send a giftcard for Penis Piercers to the player with the most number of mistakes at the end of the season?
I’d put a quid in the jar.
Sent in on: December 15th, 2006 at 3:22 am