This will be a blueprint for opposition teams visiting St James’ Park | OneFootball

There is often no middle ground when it comes to the emotions of a Newcastle United fan.

This 2024/25 season a prime example, a season peppered by inconsistency.

The lows of defeats against Brentford, West Ham and Brighton, juxtaposed with the extraordinary high of a nine match winning run during December and January.

I’m no club historian, but consecutive away victories against Manchester United, Tottenham and Arsenal must represent one of the best three match runs in the club’s history.

Even in the heydays of Keegan and Robson, Newcastle were never particularly good travellers.

I’m not old enough as a Newcastle United fan to have personally experienced the golden spells in the 50s or the noughties (1900), yet one thing is for sure, that’s that away wins at the so-called big boys don’t come along very often for Newcastle United.

As such, three in the space of eight days was extraordinary, especially over the Christmas and new year period when the fixture programme has historically separated the men from the boys.

Much of the positivity however, and surely the players’ confidence, was undone at a stroke during the dreadful 4-1 hammering by Bournemouth at St’ James’ Park on Saturday 18 January.

In the light of this, in the way that football fans do, I find myself reappraising the nine match winning run.

You can only beat what’s in front of you or so the old adage goes, but Leicester, Ipswich and Wolves are all at the foot of the league and all looked like sides who didn’t know how to win a game of football, Bromley (FA Cup) are a fourth tier team, Tottenham and Manchester United were battling unprecedented injury problems meaning that departments of their sides were well below Premier League standard.

Add in that we got a huge helping hand against Aston Villa with a red card in the 32nd minute for Jhon Duran. The 2-0 Carabao Cup win at Arsenal, though a great performance and certainly the best of the nine game streak, did rather flatter Newcastle in terms of the scoreline. Kai Havertz missed a sitter and Arsenal had several other good chances to score. On another day they would have scored one or two, putting a different complexion on things.

Newcastle United have indisputably done well during their nine match streak and importantly controlled games in terms of being ahead on the scoreboard, but we were never world beaters, despite the results. Deficiencies were there to see. For example, Manchester United and Tottenham would surely have been taken apart by top sides.

So back to Bournemouth.

Overreaction is not in this writer’s nature however it was a truly terrible defeat. This was a performance to which just about every negative football-related adjective can be applied. I won’t list more than a trio of them however – complacent, lazy and inept are just the first three that spring to mind.

Despite two of Bournemouth’s goals coming during time added on for stoppages, the scoreline did not flatter Bournemouth. They bossed the game from beginning to end and were far superior in every regard.

I genuinely believe that Newcastle United can beat any football team that visits St. James’ Park. That’s why this defeat was so disappointing.

Newcastle mauled Paris Saint-Germain at St. James’ Park in the recent past, a team that subsequently reached the semi-finals of the same Champions League competition. Arsenal, one of the best teams in England and Europe, have returned to London pointless in recent seasons having had their backsides handed to them. If we hosted a Barcelona or a Bayern Munich in the near future, I would see no reason why we can’t beat them. So why and how on earth, were we so comprehensively dismantled by Bournemouth. I don’t buy the ‘fatigue’ argument for a minute. We have no European football and were able to rest players during a ‘gimme’ of an FA Cup tie versus Bromley. Bournemouth had a genuine injury crisis with two goalkeepers and academy players on the bench.

Prior to the game, Newcastle supporters would not have taken a single player from the Bournemouth XI over one of our own.

Over the years, I have seen Newcastle United comprehensively outplayed many times, however, I can’t recall too many occasions* on which we were so embarrassed at home, by a team which it is entirely fair to say was inferior to us and additionally had so many deficiencies and problems (*For some reason the 5-1 home defeat to Birmingham City in a third round FA Cup replay in January 2007 springs to mind as an inexplicably bad performance which could be put down to a manager sending the wrong signals to his players about how to approach a match).

The home defeats this season to West Ham and Brighton could both easily have resulted in a point, or even three, had a few small things gone the other way. Bournemouth was different. There were red lights flashing everywhere, off the pitch as well as on. Eddie Howe and his team in particular had a stinker.

A Bournemouth supporter I chatted to in the Grainger Market the day before, was wary of a thumping at the hands of Newcastle. Bournemouth were down to 11 fit players with no recognised strikers and several players playing out of position, in particular Lewis Cook, a midfielder filling in at right back. He was up against the in-form Anthony Gordon. Dean Huijsen, a nineteen-year-old at centre back was having to assume far more responsibility than his tender years and lack of experience ought to have had placed on him. He was facing the so-called best striker in Europe in Alexander Isak.

There were fitness worries over others. Bournemouth’s was an XI that was truly cobbled together. Yet they were magnificent. At a hostile away ground, they seemed to win every duel and second ball. They passed and moved around Newcastle players as though they weren’t there. Every single one of the Newcastle back four must have been having nightmares. Hall and Livramento were taken to the cleaners. The lack of pace of Burn and Botman was exposed. Elsewhere, Bruno Guimaraes was sloppy. Murphy and Gordon failed to show for the ball or work back. Isak was anonymous and in the pocket of his 19-year-old opponent, playing in his first Premier League season.

Of the three adjectives used above, complacent. lazy and inept, I do believe that the overriding issue was one of complacency. When Newcastle United play one of the so called ‘big teams’ the players fight like tigers to deprive the opposition of the ball. On this occasion there seemed an arrogance that Bournemouth couldn’t hurt us. By the time it was clear that they could, we were behind in the match and the mindset couldn’t be shifted.

It can’t be a mere coincidence that Newcastle’s “up and at ‘em” attitude on show against Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester City is sorely missing against the mid-table sides. When it comes to the true relegation battlers, such as Wolves, Leicester, Ipswich it doesn’t seem to matter, we have too much for them even if we not our best, but teams placed from 7 to 13 in this division seem to represent a particular danger.

Few losses can have brought more professional embarrassment to a manager as this performance and defeat brought to Eddie Howe. As a former Bournemouth manager, surely the greatest in their history, this defeat will hurt. It may seem harsh, but the charge of complacency is as applicable to Eddie Howe as it is to his team, in regard to this Bournemouth defeat.

It was a tactical masterclass from Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola to which Eddie Howe failed to prepare or produce an in-game response. Knowing that Newcastle like to press high, nearly every Bournemouth goal-kick was launched up the park, evading the press and creating a four on four in the Newcastle half. Incredibly, Bournemouth won many of the aerial duels and picked up the second balls. Our full-backs were badly isolated and exposed.

On one occasion, Tino Livramento allowed his direct opponent to pull a long ball out of the air, control it and turn with barely a challenge. I couldn’t believe my eyes. As a former junior football coach, I wouldn’t have accepted a teenage full-back playing at a mid-level in the Northumbria football league to allow such a scenario to unfold.

Had Eddie just told the lads to take it easy and that Bournemouth would wilt. I do genuinely wonder! I certainly suspect he had urged the players to be calm and patient and that manifested itself as a certain casualness and allowing Bournemouth to take the initiative.

It was a losing mentality that applied across the team.

Meanwhile, in contrast to Bournemouth, like suckers, Newcastle United played out casually from the back and their opponents swarmed all over them. The lack of a response from the bench, adjusting team shape or tactics in any meaningful way, was perplexing to the watcher, especially taking into consideration Bournemouth’s lack of playing resources. Surely, up the tempo, keep the ball in play, take corners, throw-ins and free kicks quickly. Build momentum.

As it was, Newcastle United failed to generate any momentum, notably taking an age over a free-kick which Alexander Isak then gently struck into the defensive wall. Bournemouth ran the clock down, fouled and spoiled as the second half went on. The referee had let Bournemouth get away with a lot of dark arts, especially in the first half when he showed no inclination to brandish yellow cards no matter what the sin. Although his attitude changed second-half, the steady flow of cards to Bournemouth players was too little and too late to impact the result.

Most defeats raise questions for the manager, but on the back of this one, expect away teams visiting St James’ Park to treat Bournemouth’s tactics as a blueprint. Eddie Howe and his players need to be ready, and more importantly to appreciate that they need to be prepared to fight like tigers in every game, not just when the league’s big boys roll into town.