Newcastle United Still Need to Mesh Together?
When Newcastle United’s Championship season got off to a rough start, it was easy to cringe. But it seems that the club has found the right footing and has started to win games.
According to Reading boss Jaap Stam, Newcastle United still need time to gel before they can dominate the Championship. Is he giving advice, or is he just salty that Newcastle United defeated his club 4-1?
Newcastle United came up big in the last 20 minutes of the match to clinch their first victory of the season, and as spectacular as it was, the 70 minutes of the match beforehand had many fans on edge.
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Jaap Stam is Salty
Let’s face it when your club loses in the last 20 minutes of a match, you get furious. I’d be highly disappointed if I managed a club that came up short in the dying embers of a match. But Stam continues to believe that it was a fluke.
“Well, when we played them, no I didn’t think at that time they played particularly well,” said Stam.
By the same token, neither did Reading. Giving up three goals to set-pieces is a blunder. Is it that Newcastle’s set-piece game is strong? I think it’s more because Reading’s defense of those set-pieces was just really weak.
Reading dominated possession, and while I’m an advocate of possessing the ball more than 50% of the time, it’s what you do with the possession that matters. Sure Reading dominated possession, but they never really thrived with it. Newcastle United could draw fouls, and get to the net to score or create chances.
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Overall, Newcastle United just had a better game.
Excuses, Excuses
To create an excuse for his criticism of Newcastle, he said that because Newcastle has brought in a lot of new players, they need time to gel together. So it’s more embarrassing that a club that isn’t fully in sync defeated your club 4-1? I think yes.
Not to knock Jaap Stam down. He’s a manager who has worked his way up to where he is today. But quickly, he’ll learn that sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. The more you look back on it and complain, the more we know what gets to you.
You can’t let a loss get to you like that. Newcastle United didn’t complain after their first two losses — the fans did of course — and they’re now on a four-match winning streak. Maybe you can learn something from that Jaap.