Black and white flags versus white flags: Newcastle United 2 Leicester City 0 (10 January 2023)
If it wasn’t abundantly obvious already, the atmosphere generated prior to kickoff at St James’s Park as Newcastle attempted to reach their first League Cup semi-final for 47 years made it crystal clear - this meant more to the home side.
Yes, it’s three games from Wembley and the chance for more silverware - but it’s easy to foresee reaching a cup quarter-final being dredged up as a reason for positivity in the coming months in the same way last season’s ‘European semi-final’ has been quoted endlessly, while the club continues to drift.
There’s an argument this was a game Leicester City could do without.
After a slog on a bobbly pitch at Gillingham on Saturday, a week of tactical preparation for one of the biggest games of the season on Saturday, rest for some tired bodies and training for a few out-of-form players feels like it would put the club in a better position than heaving themselves up to Newcastle only to make a valiant exit from a secondary domestic cup competition.
That attitude will get us nowhere though and the fans have a role to play in helping to drag the club out of its current malaise. Nearly 1,000 fans travelled to Newcastle and climbed into the clouds to pray for a surprise result. We’d won 6 of our previous 7 visits. But how quickly things have changed. At least they didn’t have to listen to Andy Hinchcliffe for 90 minutes - the kind of thing that makes you beg for a cup exit.
We were always, always, always going to lose this game.
It was just a matter of how.
Quick start mode
It was inevitable the lineup would see the reintroduction of a few players rested for FA Cup duty.
Unfortunately our annual injury crisis, threatened for a while with the loss of our star performer and two full-backs, has developed quickly with a decimated central midfield particular cause for concern.
Eddie Howe used his pre-match press conference to say his team needed to be more clinical. Leicester’s aim was simpler - start better than on Boxing Day when we conceded after two minutes. Here, Newcastle really should have scored in the first and third minutes.
Sean Longstaff scuffed a shot off target after 43 seconds following a quick break from Miguel Almiron. Then a loose pass from Daniel Amartey led to a long shot from Bruno Guimaraes which flashed just wide.
Callum Wilson was the next to go close after another Almiron break and Bruno Guimaraes sent another shot narrowly wide from the edge of the box after 15 minutes.
Newcastle’s period of dominance lasted around 25 minutes but, more by luck than judgment, Leicester weathered the storm and we had chances of our own. Most notably, Daka should have shot when he opted to try a pass to Barnes instead. We survived until half time, but there was still little hope of victory.
Deja vu all over again
The second half started similarly to the first. Joelinton should have scored just seconds after the interval, finding himself in acres of space down the left and cutting inside Castagne. Albrighton got a toe in and Ward tipped the deflected effort onto the post. A few minutes later Dan Burn put a header over the bar before Longstaff forced another good save from Ward.
It began to feel like a matter of time before the hosts took the lead. The crowd was up, the tempo was up and there was no out ball for Leicester.
In what was almost a repeat of the Wout Faes finishing masterclass at Anfield, Castagne went close for the home side when he deflected a Willock cross narrowly over Ward’s crossbar.
In fact, one of our best moves of the game just before the hour mark involved a series of desperate lunges from a variety of players which nearly set Daka clear.
Newcastle had created plenty when we decided to create something for them, Castagne inexplicably giving the ball away deep inside his own half - a few seconds later Burn had galloped through like the big footballing horse he is to find the net.
It’s one thing to concede a goal away from home to a team high on confidence pumped full of Saudi money. It’s quite another to concede one from open play to Dan Burn. But such is life these days. We used to be quite good.
Raising the white flag
We needed something. So we threw on Jamie Vardy and Kelechi Iheanacho, and went to three at the back. This meant Harvey Barnes playing at left wing-back. Up against Trippier and Almiron. It also meant Amartey in the middle of a back three. You have to wonder whether Rodgers does things like this sometimes purely to flag up exactly how unbalanced and threadbare our squad is. Alternatively, there just isn’t any other possible plan B.
The defensive personnel was a disaster waiting to happen, particularly down the flanks. Joelinton soon added a second and that was that.
There was a route back into the game, but it involved Vardy not skewing the ball wide when it would have been easier to score. He got another chance moments later. Sadly, as we covered yesterday, vintage Vardy is a thing of the past and this one went wide of the other post.
As much as conceding goals to people like Dan Burn and Joelinton would have seemed laughable a couple of seasons ago and Eddie Howe’s clearly done a job and a half with the £40million Brazilian and the likes of Almiron, there’s still a huge gulf between being able to sign Kieran Trippier and Bruno Guimaraes and being able to sign Alex Smithies.
We’re being left behind and there doesn’t seem to be much the club can or will do about it. Given where we’ve been up until recently, it’s painful to sit through.
What makes it worse is that players we have previously been able to rely on, particularly Vardy and Barnes, look entirely bereft of confidence.
Our prospects for Saturday look desperate. Like this one, it’s another game we could do without at the moment. Like this one, it’s another game we look destined to lose. Unlike this one, that would really, really hurt.
