The duels that won the day for Newcastle United and almost the match | OneFootball

I thought all 14 Newcastle United players contributed to that performance on Saturday and the positive result.

You don’t stand a chance of getting anything off Manchester City unless you play really well.

The fact that Newcastle United were well worth the point they got from the game and nobody would have said it was lucky, if indeed they’d managed to grab all three, shows just what a great team effort it was, from the starting eleven and three subs.

As well as having been a great team effort, within that there were a number of massive duels, these were especially key to me in producing that overall display. I would like to highlight some of them.

Anthony Gordon v Ederson and the Man City back four

This was arguably by far the biggest of all.

For me, anybody who thinks that Anthony Gordon playing through the middle on Saturday was a weakness, well all I can say is that you were watching a different match to myself.

Gordon was superb. He was the biggest cog in Eddie Howe’s quite brilliant plan, that totally unsettled Man City. When was the last time they were forced into giving the ball away so many times?

Anthony Gordon ran his heart out and by doing so, he forced Ederson into rushing his passes/kicks out so many times. Gordon then often backed up by teammates following his high press but at other times not, so the striker was pressuring Ederson, then the defender he passed to, then the next, then the next…

There was some great analysis from Micah Richards on MOTD, where he pinpointed how brilliant Eddie Howe’s tactics had been and Anthony Gordon’s role in particular within that. Richards quoted a stat that during the match, Gordon made a massive 33 sprints in total.

Not only did Anthony Gordon keep Man City occupied when the away side were in possession, he was also a real handful for the visiting defence when Newcastle had their 40 percent or so of possession. That of course topped off when Bruno’s brilliant ball saw Gordon leave the Man City for dead when it came to pace, brought down by Ederson and scored the resultant penalty.

Anthony Gordon was a 10 out of 10 for me.

Then not far behind him we have…

Lewis Hall v Bernardo Silva AND Savinho

The lifelong Newcastle United fan is still a very young defender learning his role. Saturday was only his 19th Premier League start of his entire career.

At times he will make mistakes and not always play to his best ability, all young players are like that.

However, on Saturday, Lewis Hall was good going forward as we have come to expect, but he was brilliant in defence.

Bernardo Silva got nothing out of him.

Then Savinho came on, he was exceptional in the first half for Man City the previous weekend when Arsenal had no answer to him. Lewis Hall did though, handling the sub just as well when Savinho came on to have a go at him on Newcastle’s left.

I have seen some people want to blame Trippier for the Man City goal but that for me is as daft as those blaming Sean Longstaff when his pass on the edge of the Wolves penalty area was intercepted. Wolves still having the length of the pitch to go and a number of Newcastle players to bypass, before scoring.

In this instance, if you look at the TV replays, you will see that yes, Kieran Trippier does dive in on Grealish on the Newcastle right. However, it is right on the touchline and Trippier sees the chance of a free hit, which Grealish evades with some great skill. On those TV replays the important bit is that for whatever reason, Jacob Murphy has ended up behind Trippier, so the Newcastle defender knows he has plenty cover. Murphy should have been closer to back up Trippier as well, in the event of Grealish going past the right-back.

Newcastle had plenty people back overall and it was really good play by Grealish and Gvardiol that scored the goal via a cruel deflection off Tonali that gave Pope no chance. I think it was more a good Man City goal than especially poor Newcastle defending. If you do want to make it a blame game, then I think Trippier shared that blame with a few others who were still in the way of Man City before the ball ended up in the net.

Anyway, overall I thought Kieran Trippier was class in how he dealt with Jack Grealish.

Another key duel that Newcastle United very much won.

Tino Livramento v Jeremy Doku

Tino replaced Trippier on 78 minutes and it was pretty much perfect timing, as Doku replaced Grealish three minutes later.

I was really pleased to see Doku missing from the starting eleven as I think he is Man City’s most dangerous player after Haaland.

The speedster has pace to burn and just how good it was to see him try to do it to Tino, with us knowing full well that whe it comes to pace, he was never going to ‘do’ the United sub.

This was probably the closest in terms of importance to the Anthony Gordon duel at the other end.

Eddie Howe’s brave tactics and high press, meant there was then left a massive gap in the middle of the pitch, when Ederson and his defenders regularly had to hit it long.

It also meant there was a lot of space for Erling Haaland with Eddie Howe’s tactics meant he was relying so often on Dan Burn handling the world’s best striker, on his own. With big distances to the next NUFC defender.

Burn was absolutely magnificent and made Haaland look very ordinary, due to how well he played him.

Naturally, when up against Man City and the Norwegian, he will always get at least some joy. However, that was restricted to only a couple of half chances which Pope dealt with.

Newcastle 1 Manchester City 1 – Saturday 28 September 12.30pm

Goals:

Newcastle United:

Gordon 58 pen

Man City:

Gvardiol 35

Possession was Newcastle 38% Man City 62%

Total shots were Newcastle 11 Man City 16

Shots on target were Newcastle 4 Man City 6

Corners were Newcastle 5 Man City 6

Touches in the box Newcastle 25 Man City 39

Newcastle United team v Man City:

Pope, Trippier (Livramento 78), Schar, Burn, Hall, Joelinton, Bruno, Tonali (Longstaff 77), Barnes (Willock 76), Gordon, Jacob Murphy

Dubravka, Krafth, Osula, Almiron, Kelly, Alex Murphy

(BBC Sport comments from ‘neutrals’ – Interesting on Newcastle United after Manchester City draw – Read HERE)

(Anthony Gordon gets very emotional about support shown to him by Newcastle United fans – Read HERE)

(Newcastle 1 Manchester City 1 – Newcastle United fan / writer reaction – Read HERE)

(Newcastle 1 Manchester City 1 – Honours even, a fair result and this was my man of the match – Read HERE)

Newcastle United upcoming match schedule, confirmed so far to end of November:

Tuesday 1 October 2024 – AFC Wimbledon v Newcastle (7.45pm) Sky Sports+ (To be played at St James’ Park)

Saturday 5 October – Everton v Newcastle (5.30pm) Sky Sports

Saturday 19 October – Newcastle v Brighton (3pm)

Sunday 27 October – Chelsea v Newcastle (2pm) Sky Sports

W/C Monday 28 October – AFC Wimbledon or Newcastle v Chelsea

Saturday 2 November – Newcastle v Arsenal (12.30pm) TNT Sports