Newcastle kicked off the season with a lively 2-2 draw against Southampton. Here’s what we’ve learnt from Steve McClaren’s first game in charge.
Newcastle, United
From the off, St James’ Park was bouncing. “Steve McClaren’s black and white army” boomed around the stadium for much of the 90 minutes. Last season has been written off and both the fans and the players have moved on and are ready for the new campaign. Even when Southampton took an early lead, heads did not drop and neither did the noise. The club has made a concerted effort to improve the communication with the fans and it seems to have paid off. The atmosphere couldn’t have been more different from January’s 2-1 defeat against the same opposition and there was much optimism around the stadium. The players fed off the energy of the supporters and in return gave them something to keep shouting about. If McClaren can keep the fans behind him, then St James’ Park will return to being a ferocious and intimidating place for opposition sides to come and play.
Money well spent
New boys Chancel Mbemba and Gini Wijnaldum were both handed debut starts and impressed immediately. Having arrived in style, Mbemba looked calm, composed and collected from the off. He tackled brilliantly, surged forward on the ball and read the game excellently. He dealt well with the tricky movement of Sadio Mane and showed off his rapid pace on several occasions. There have rightly been some doubts cast upon his potential for an instant impact, but he has shown that he has a real future on Tyneside. He outshone his experienced centre-back partner and was one of the best players on the park.
Wijnaldum oozed class and will give both creativity and goals to the side. He very nearly opened the scoring early on but was denied by Steven Davies’ excellent block. His second half headed goal finished off a brilliant move and was a fantastic start to his career at the club.
Aleksander Mitrovic came on for Cisse with 15 to go and showed his combative style instantly, managing to get himself booked within 11 seconds. A few surging runs as the play got scrappy in the latter stages, gave the Toon Army an indication of what to expect from the Serbian.
Dodgy in defence
Despite an excellent performance from Mbemba, Newcastle looked very fragile at the back and Krul had to make some important saves to deny Soares & Mane and keep Newcastle in the game. A rusty Coloccini had a poor game and struggled with the tempo, he did not communicate well with his junior partner and was regularly out of position. Newcastle were all at sea when defending set pieces and Maya Yoshida should have given the Saints the lead seconds before Wijnaldum popped up at the other end to score. Meanwhile, Haidara looked very good getting forward but gave far too much space to the Southampton wingers and received no help at all from Gabby Obertan; it was no coincidence that both goals from crosses from the Newcastle left-hand side.
Return of the Entertainers?
It is definitely too early to claim that Newcastle could be looking at a return to the thrilling days of the first Keegan regime but there were signs that this team will play with a very different style to the one that limped over the line three months ago. Newcastle were positive out of the traps and looked to play an aggressive, attacking brand of football. Newcastle enjoyed the lion’s share of possession (55%) and completed 384 passes, 82 more than their opposition. Pelle’s goal came against the run of play and Cisse’s fortuitous equaliser was no less than Newcastle deserved. Wijnaldum’s strike came from just one of many counter-attacks that saw Newcastle pile forward, both Haidara and Janmaat have clearly been given licence to roam and several times took up attacking positions in the Saints 18-yard box. With time running out and a draw an excellent start to the season, Newcastle were still throwing men forward searching for the winner. Whilst the goal didn’t come, it was a very positive sign that Newcastle weren’t prepared to settle for just one point and wanted to come away with the three the crowd wanted to see. As promised, this is very much a team that tries and it was great to see.
Strength in attack
Southampton had the second best defence in the league last season, but they never looked settled against the Newcastle front four and were not given much respite throughout the match. Sissoko and Janmaat were superb down the right and gave Saints youngster Matt Targett a thorough examination. Sissoko looked like the player that tore Ashley Cole apart on his debut and his powerful, direct running created space for Wijnaldum to operate in. Perhaps the biggest surprise was the performance of Gabby Obertan. He looked much stronger on the ball and put some teasing deliveries into the box, his superb first-time cross provided the assist for Wijnaldum’s goal. This was one of his best days in a black and white, although that isn’t saying a great deal, and vindicated McClaren’s decision not to give Rolando Aarons the starting role that 99% of Newcastle fans would have rather seen.
All in all, this was a marked improvement on the 4-0 thrashing received at the hands of Man City first game up last year. Before the game, most would have snapped your hand off for a point against a very decent Saints side and there were plenty of positives to take forward to the Swansea game next week. The old defensive issues were plain to see however, and further additions need to made to bolster the back four. McClaren’s side gave the fans something to shout about and this was a totally different side to the end of last season. A thoroughly entertaining first game and hopefully this is a sign of good things to come.
