Bloody hell. Where to begin with this. A state of shock has been mentioned regarding this scoreline. if this were any team but Newcastle United it might just be true. But with us, you almost expect it. And what did happen? The answer to that I feel is far from simple and quite multilayered.
First there is the element of luck, fortune, refereeing, whatever you wish to call it. We might have had a freekick rather than Fulham breaking away to score their opener. We might have had a penalty (though I doubt it). The opposition goalkeeper had a blinder (and this has been over played in my opinion. Yes Crossley had a good game and made some fine saves but just note how many of those were from shots straight at him). We were chasing the game and so left gaps, which Fulham were lucky to exploit before we got back at them. Yeh, right. Underlying it all is the fact that luck and fortune can explain the one goal loss when you might have won, maybe the occasionally two goal defeat, but four? Yes we began to leave gaps at the back in an increasingly desperate search for goals ourselves but we were never going to get back at Fulham. What had we been trying to do most of the first half before their goal?
And there is the source of the much talked of shock. It's felt that it is difficult to understand how we could seem to dominate so much and yet lose so badly. We're us of course. Or, if you prefer a more in depth answer...of course we dominated, that was more or less Fulham's game plan. And frankly we played straight into it. It seems that week in and week out I talk about players out of position but Bellamy's inclusion on the left of midfield is surely going to new lengths of accommodation. If Robert's absence away from home can be justified why isn't he in the team at home? The other major recurring theme of recent games has been our inability to convert dominance of possession and even territory into chances and goals. With Shearer and Kluivert on the pitch one might surmise that crosses into the box might help. So having a striker and central midfielder on the wings is an obvious move of course. This just allowed Fulham to frustrate and wait for us to play ourselves into neatly patterned cul-de-sacs. It doesn't help when your manager is such a disciplinarian that he gets himself dismissed from the touchline.
Things did not become more tactically astute in the second half. From somewhere the brilliant idea of pulling Hughes off for Robert came. Now, putting Robert on, yes (and he had immediate attacking impact). However, it resulted in either three at the back or Jenas at right back. No one, including the players, seemed entirely sure what they were doing. Fulham however knew exactly what they were about and proceeded to take the shambles apart. Somewhere in there the mess of a defensive (and team) formation was increased further by the introduction of Ameobi for Bernard, as if that was likely to help. It wasn't helped either by O'Brien (who had an awful game) being unable to either control a ball or take the simple hoof option.
At four nil down Bellamy eventually conspired with a defender to force the ball into the net, almost as if to prove we could do it after all. It hardly seemed worth mentioning. That's two losses now where the tactical decisions must be questioned. And the defence looks no better (are they not coached?). With a Chelsea cup game, even if they play a "weakened" side, we'll be ripped to shreds playing like this. It's about time we had a team picked, not just a bunch of players. Having said all that there is some hope. It is a tad puzzling how we lost this and perhaps on another day we wouldn't have had such a disaster. But nah, this is Newcastle.
(@00:11)
