This Garth Crooks obsession regarding Newcastle United – Simply embarrassing | OneFootball

You have to laugh at this Garth Crooks obsession with Newcastle United.

The BBC Sport pundit thinking that if he keeps repeating something often enough, then it becomes the truth.

Garth Crooks yet again revisiting something he has claimed about Newcastle United a number of times this season.

Garth Crooks talking to BBC Sport after Newcastle’s 4-1 defeat to Arsenal – 26 February 2024:

“If ever Newcastle boss Eddie Howe wants to what effect the demands of the Champions League has had on his team he need look no further than this 4-1 defeat against Arsenal.

This time last year Newcastle went toe-to-toe with Arsenal at the Emirates and looked ready for join the game’s elite. However, their squad was never big or good enough to cope with the demands of hosting Borussia Dortmund, Paris St-Germain and others in pursuit of European success – and then be expected to return to their domestic league and perform.

“Meanwhile, Arsenal are expected to do just that. They returned from a 1-0 loss at Porto in midweek and battered Newcastle, and Brazil centre-back Gabriel was a good as anyone in an Arsenal shirt.

“If the Newcastle hierarchy want what Arsenal have then they are going to have to pay for it. It’s no coincidence that the top three teams in the league have the best squads in the country.”

“The Gunners have been scoring goals almost at will lately and continued in that vein against Newcastle, who, I must say, looked tired.

Eddie Howe cannot be blamed for Newcastle’s lack of staying power. A manager is only has good as his squad and the squad was never big or good enough to cope with those demands.”

This is simply embarrassing from Garth Crooks.

His repeated claim that playing in the Champions League has totally wrecked Newcastle United’s season is simply wrong.

The thing that HAS massively negatively impacted this NUFC season, Garth Crooks doesn’t even mention.

That thing of course is the sheer number of Newcastle United players who have been missing this season, so many of them for lengthy spells.

The number of missing players hasn’t been the only reason that Newcastle haven’t matched last season’s Premier League results BUT it is clearly the overwhelming reason.

Using the Garth Crooks ‘logic’ that it is the extra demands of the Champions League that has been the biggest impact on Newcastle’s results…

Then surely on Saturday, Newcastle United should have been expected to do really well against Arsenal. As it is two and a half months since NUFC’s exit from Europe, for Garth Crooks to be proved correct with his argument, it had to be Eddie Howe’s team far better now they didn’t have those Champions League demands to contend with as well.

It is almost as though that on Saturday, something else might have contributed to the gap in quality / performance on Saturday…

You know, such as the likes of Pope, Joelinton, Tonali, Anderson, Wilson and Targett all missing, whilst the likes of Isak, Barnes, Murphy and Willock were all in Saturday’s matchday squad but none of them 100 per cent as they are only now returning from injury absences and building towards full match fitness. Eddie Howe also making clear that Sven Botman is still taking time to get over his serious knee injury, not back to the levels he was pre-injury.

Back at the start of November, bang in the middle of the very busiest period of matches for Newcastle United, including the Champions League campaign, Eddie Howe’s side met Arsenal. A superb Newcastle performance saw them totally stifle Arsenal who didn’t have a single serious effort on goal, the only ‘shot’ was a weak Havertz effort from distance that was straight at the keeper and the equivalent of a back pass. NUFC deservedly winning that Premier League match, Arsenal’s first PL loss of the season and didn’t we know it! The tears of Arteta and their fans still not dry…

The quality and sheer number of missing players was getting crazy at that point but the likes of Pope, Joelinton, Wilson and Willock all played key roles that day. Even not fully fit we saw the quality of Willock off the bench on Saturday as he at last returned, whilst the likes of Pope and Joelinton were massively missed, amongst many others.

It wasn’t due to any individual that Newcastle lost heavily on Saturday, it was a combination of factors, the main one being that we are still not at the point of Eddie Howe having anything remotely close to a decent level of fully match fit squad to select from.

Instead of Pope we had third choice Karius, whilst instead of Joelinton we have a 17 year old boy who is up against arguably the best midfield in the Premier League and one of the best in Europe for sure.

That Arsenal match back in early November completed a 12 match run for Newcastle of only one defeat and eight wins (and three draws) in all competitions. However, there was then a tipping point came where United lost a number of other key players that really then impacted.

Since the win over Arsenal in November, Newcastle United have played 21 matches and 17 year old Lewis Miley has played in all of them. He has done an incredible unbelievable job at this stage of his development but to play every match (18 starts and 3 off the bench) over the course of coming up to four months, sums up just how stretched Eddie Howe and his squad have been. If Miley hadn’t stepped up so magnificently, I dread to think what would have happened.

Even despite all of the missing players, Newcastle United were only minutes away from Champions League last 16 and a League Cup semi-final against a Championship side, as they led both AC Milan and Chelsea in those December matches BUT with no real positive options to bring off the bench. Due to double figure numbers of missing players.

If Newcastle had been carrying only five or so injuries on average these past four months it would have been a different story I think.

As it is, we just have to deal with it and accept that this has been an unprecedented injury situation in the clubs history.