As many have said the first half was poor all round. Once the subs were made and the formation changed it was a completely different game. Suddenly everyone looked more confident on and off the ball. In the end Newcastle the team that will 'walk' this league, were hanging on. I'm hoping this will give the team the confidence for the next two away games.
I do find it remarkable that in a game where there were 3-4 players who comfortably had worse games than him that Westwood still gets singled out by some people. He's not great, but he's also nowhere near as bad as he's made out to be.
I'd like to give Albert a bit of credit yesterday. A couple of balls coming into the box from the left 1st half that he was breaking his balls to convert at the far post, like a good winger should. He played Codger in for his early effort but didn't admire his handiwork, rather was right behind him in the 18yd box almost picking up the rebound.
I think the view that we've seen a lot of Westwood so know what he's about, but not need to give Jedinak more time, is rightBut people on this thread and on the evening mail site are suggesting Westwood was the worse of the two yday. They must just see the game differently from me. Westwood was only mildly effective and sometimes a liability. Jedinak was almost as much of a liability as elphick
Roberto Di Matteo spoke to the press following the 1-1 draw with Newcastle.His views are below.On the draw…I think certainly the second half was very good. We really put them under pressure, especially the last half an hour. We created a lot of good opportunities and got ourselves into very good positions but just missed that man at the end of a cross or pass or pull-back. We controlled the second half much, much better. We were more positive with the ball. We showed that we can turn a game around, even though we didn’t win it. We had plenty of chances to win it.On maintaining momentum…Our challenge is to turn the draws into wins. We have drawn games and that’s what the table reflects. This is our challenge.On getting closer…We have got close a few times. It was great to see the spirit from the team today – coming back from one-down to earn a draw against a very good Newcastle team that is defensively very solid.We managed to create some good chances, equalised and tried to go on and win the game as well. On the late leveller changing the mentality…I hope so. Against Forest, we turned the game around too.Unfortunately we conceded the equaliser in that one.Today we were 1-0 down and got it back. We pushed on to really get the second goal too.There’s a degree of belief that if we concede a goal the game is not over.On Aaron Tshibola’s contribution…We know his qualities. Luckily he got the equaliser. Hopefully he can get a bit of continuity into his game now. He missed out a while with injury.He is certainly a player we have faith in.On integrating new players…Every week that goes past helps us in those terms.We had another debut from the start again with Albert Adomah. In the last three or four games it’s been a little bit like that, with players getting debuts.The time going by will certainly be in our favour.On Albert Adomah performance…He started as a wing back.Then we changed our formation and he was a little bit further forward as a winger.He obviously hasn’t played a full game for a long time. You could see that a little bit in the second half.On Jack Grealish’s absence…We have fined the boy and he was suspended for today’s game.Tomorrow he will be back with the group, available for selection and we will move on.
Apart from the obvious dire 60-70mins I still can't understand what jedinak gives us that joe Lyden couldn't he was so much off the pace and caught out many times yesterday that it became embarrassingAs for Westwood well it's been so long now that everyone except the manager can see he just isn't up to it even though we have dropped a division.If Newcastle had played a midfield of Ellie Simmonds hannah Cockcroft and and peppa pig he would of still been caught out out
I'll probably get stick for saying it but Amavi is just not up to the job