Newcastle were held to another 0-0 draw last night at Selhurst Park as Crystal Palace’s defence could not be breached by Eddie Howe’s men.
It’s a worrying trend with only one goal in the last four league games, with that goal coming in the dying embers of a match. It’s becoming a concern that Newcastle’s attack is being blunted. Whether it’s our own decision-making or cutting edge in the final third, or whether teams are setting up to stop us and we haven’t figured out how to get around that yet. Whatever it is, it needs addressing sooner rather than later.
Speaking to NUFC TV after the game Eddie Howe said: “I thought we did most things right. I thought we played very well, controlled the game, had chances.
“Maybe not absolute must-score moments but a lot of chances you’d like to be able to do better with if they happened again. A lot of good ball around their box, a lot of really good build-up play, we just couldn’t score a goal.
“Whenever you’re not scoring it’s a concern, you’re not scoring in the numbers that maybe we would want to, but I don’t think there’s any concern about our style of play or how we’re trying to approach the games.”
There are nine days left of the January transfer window and so far, our only two bits of business have been letting attacking players leave on loan in Garang Kuol and Chris Wood.
We have two excellent strikers on the books. Callum Wilson has proven time and time again that he is deadly in front of goal, but he’s in a drought right now and it seems to be starting to affect his performances. Meanwhile, Alexander Isak is fresh off the back of a long-term injury so isn’t 100% match-fit.
It’s probably not so much the strikers’ fault anyway, as the lack of a final ball into them that’s the problem. Many times in the last few games we’ve tried to walk the ball over the line instead of firing in that first-time shot or fizzing in one of those “all it needs is a touch from anyone” type crosses. I know it’s not pretty, and can sometimes come across as desperate, but we are desperate.
I’m not suggesting we return to hit-and-hope football, but maybe just take a couple of chances like that to get the confidence back up while Dan Ashworth works on bringing in more creativity. *cough*JAMES MADDISON*cough*