United have taken foot off pedal and slammed right into a brick wall
ALL right, let’s get one or two things right straight off.
An indisciplined Islam Slimani is not the answer to United’s crucial search for a goalscorer. Neither is fellow sub Joselu. Nor Fulham hero Aleksandar Mitrovic who is destined for pastures new far afield.
Newcastle possess pea shooters rather than heavy artillery.
What Slimani brought to the party wasn’t memorable – apart from a wild, petulant kick from behind on Craig Dawson that was missed by the officials but not by the prying eye of the TV cameras. Almost inevitably a three-match ban will follow which would mark the end of his ineffectual loan period up here.
Slimani appears to have nothing better to offer in his play than Mitro when he was among us and judged by Rafa to be short of requirements. A similar short fuse doesn’t help. It’s difficult to believe that Leicester willingly forked out £28m for him.
However let’s plough on. We may well have seen the last of Kenedy at SJP, a talent sadly reduced in the end to hobbling in the left-back position. And we’ve certainly witnessed a significant dip in form from one-time star performers like Jonjo Shelvey, Ayoze Perez, Paul Dummett, and Kenedy himself.
We cannot get away from the fact that safety has brought a massive belly flop to Newcastle’s strutters clouding a glorious finale to an eventful season.
Four victories on the spin shot United above the treasured 40-point target with five games to go. An early reassurance of continued Premier League membership.
With it, however, has come a total reversal of fortunes – two successive defeats, not a goal scored, and two away matches to come at Watford and Spurs.
It’s as though relief has resulted in the foot lifting from the accelerator and this Magpie side isn’t good enough to survive that. They must play at full throttle to collect points.
If Everton was frustrating, this was more so, played out as it was in front of 50,000 Geordies against a team rock bottom of the division despite a recent upturn in fortunes since the sacking of an unconvincing Alan Pardew. Rafa Benitez must be as annoyed and baffled as every one of his loyal supporters having reverted as he did to the exact 11 players who drove the fourmatch winning sprint to safety. Now he’ll no doubt freshen up his starting XI, giving fringe players the late opportunity to flourish and remind him of their worth. Benitez has already been reminded that he needs Mike Ashley to go against nature and be generous this summer, otherwise what lies ahead will be a battle as big as the one he has just won.
Instead of cementing the feelgood factor and building hope for next season, United reverted to bad habits – sloppy passing under no pressure, little movement up top for ball holders to hit, and a total lack of ideas.
Individual reputations which had soared, ebbed away in a wave of mediocrity. It’s all such a pity.
Players who were running on adrenalin and enthusiasm chasing a target have become mentally jaded with the job done and slammed into a brick wall.
United were as open as a barn door for West Brom’s winner. When Jake Livermore hoofed the ball into acres of space from a deep position, Matt Phillips was lurking without his minder Paul Dummett anywhere to be seen and ran on to slam a shot past Martin Dubravka.
The Mags had two great opportunities to retaliate before half-time.
First, Kenedy probably felt he was offside when unmarked, he stabbed the ball with the outside of his left boot on to the far post. Then, in the final gesture of the half, Florian Lejeune met a Shelvey corner with a bullet header that Gayle, close in, twisted to divert towards the opposite corner of the net, only for Ben Foster to produce a stunning onehanded save.
Now the task ahead for Newcastle is crystal clear.
Having won four matches on the bounce, they must at Watford and Spurs make certain it isn’t four defeats in succession.
That would be a real shame.