Home form burning issue which needs to be resolved quickly
Newcastle 0 Fulham 0
NEWCASTLE United’s woeful run at St James’ Park continued as the Magpies were held to a goalless draw by bottom-of-the-table Fulham.
In their final match before Christmas, Newcastle failed to muster a single shot on target and were toothless in attack.
Aleksandar Mitrovic and substitute Aboubakar Kamara came close to nicking it at the end for the Cottagers, who are seven points behind the Magpies.
Rafa Benitez’s side drop a place to 15th in the table and, although they are five points clear of the drop zone, they squandered an excellent opportunity to increase that gap further.
Here, NUFC Writer Chris Waugh takes us through what we learned from a desperate display...
1. Mitrovic and Rondon are mere passengers in a woeful encounter
It was inevitable that the build-up to the game was going to be dominated by Mitrovic, given that the Serbian was returning to St James’ Park for the first time since departing permanently for Fulham in a £22million deal during the summer.
At his pre-match Press conference, Benitez discussed at length his reasoning for allowing Mitrovic to leave - and why he believed Salomon Rondon was better suited to playing in this United side.
While Mitrovic is an out-and-out goal-scorer, Rondon offers a focal point as a striker and helps bring his team-mates into play.
Essentially workrate is a characteristic Benitez desires from his centre-forward - and, undoubtedly, Rondon’s selflessness is valued by the Spaniard.
During the first half of this encounter, neither striker received much service from their team-mates - even if Mitrovic did force a save from Marinside tin Dubravka the opening couple of minutes.
Interestingly, Magpies fans booed the Serbian
IF there’s a small mercy to take from this game, it’s that Newcastle United fans can forget about football and concentrate on the festivities.
Rafa Benitez’s side face two difficult trips to Anfield and Vicarage Road before the week is out – but, given that the Magpies look more comfortable playing just about anywhere other than St James’ Park at the moment, that should be welcomed.
Even by Newcastle’s depressingly poor standards on Tyneside this season, this limp performance bordered upon the desperate.
The Magpies’ failure to even muster a shot on target against the side during the early stages of the game, but the home supporters soon quietened down as their team simply failed to keep hold of the ball.
It was a desperately frustrating opening 45 minutes for Rondon in particular. He ran himself into the ground, but to no avail, given that his team-mates were unable to create any real opportunities of note for the Venezuelan.
In fact, it was a frustrating afternoon for both strikers, who received littleto-no service from their respective sides.
After all the build-up had focused so heavily on the two forwards, they both barely got a kick in the opposition half - until Mitrovic was presented with two gilt-edged opportunities late on by who are bottom of the table, have shipped a Premier League-high 42 goals this term and had failed to keep a clean sheet before this match, is alarming.
As soon as teams sit back against Newcastle on Tyneside, United are simply clueless when it comes to breaking them down.
The great irony is that visiting sides are doing to Newcastle precisely what the Magpies do to their opponents so frequently on their travels.
Fulham may not have left with all three points but, having frustrated United for 90 minutes, they had three excellent opportunities to win the game during injury time.
When Newcastle have space in which to counter-attack, they are so well programmed that they can stifle the opposition before catching them on the break.
Unfortunately, teams have worked out they can do precisely that to Newcastle themselves United, that is - and neither will feature prominently in the post-game narrative.
2. Ki will be a huge miss - even if this was his worst game in a long while
With the Asian Cup beginning in little more than a fortnight, Ki Sungyueng has been ordered to report to the United Arab Emirates for a pretournament South Korea training camp.
With the Asian Cup final not taking place until February 1, Ki could miss up to eight Premier League matches plus the FA Cup third-round tie with Blackburn Rovers if South Korea go the distance.
Having started just two matches during the opening three months of the campaign, Ki has been an everpresent in the side over the past six weeks and has been influential in aiding Newcastle’s rise up the Premier League table.
During the first half against Fulham, Ki was the one Magpie who looked like he could make something happen whenever he received possession; the problem was, Newcastle failed to get him on the ball often enough.
Benitez even called Ki over to the touchline during a stoppage in play to encourage the South Korean to demand possession from his teammates, so poor were the back three when trying to play it out from defence.
But, during the second half, Ki was just as ineffective as the rest of his Magpies team-mates - and this was not quite the send-off he promised supporters.
at St James’ Park – and the Magpies simply do not have the key to unlock the door. Greater creativity is a must in January – an attacking-midfielder, such as Miguel Almiron, must be the bare minimum, although another winger and a