When I was at secondary school, we had a very sadistic PE teacher.
Think Brian Glover in the brilliant classic film Kes (ask your dad, grandad etc).
One of our PE teacher’s very favourite things, was to declare we would be having a game of football (everybody happy, not having to play rugby or do gymnastics etc), BUT before we could kick-off, everybody had to do a cross country run first (everybody not happy).
Our sadistic PE teacher would often have spotters out, so you couldn’t just hide around the corner and then jog back later, pretending you had done the run.
We were counted out and we were counted back in, only then, once everybody had finished the run, could we play football.
Which brings me to Newcastle United 1 Manchester City 3.
I am seeing Newcastle United fans who are bewildered as to how this happened, why start so well and take the lead, then fade so badly and be comprehensively beaten by the final whistle.
I am seeing Newcastle United fans furious at the team selection, demanding to know why certain players weren’t playing.
I am seeing Newcastle United fans unable to comprehend how the excellent victory over Manchester United could be so quickly followed by this defeat to Manchester City.
My first thought….
My immediate thought when seeing what some Newcastle United fans are saying after the Man City match, is to question whether they are actually as clueless as they come across, or whether they are just pretending to be ignorant of the reality in order to feed/justify their negativity.
Coming back to my schooldays PE teacher story, on Saturday night the reality was that the vast majority of the key Newcastle United players approached this FA Cup match, having had to do the equivalent of a marathon (never mind a cross country) ahead of kick-off against Man City.
In contrast, Pep Guardiola was able to bring in ten fresh quality players who hadn’t started on Wednesday against Forest in the Premier League, as he takes into consideration Real Madrid in the Champions League this coming Wednesday.
Eddie Howe had no option but to drastically lower the quality in the team, whilst at the same time having to still play certain players who were clearly knackered and in other circumstances, the NUFC boss would never have started them if he’d had the choice.
A stat ahead of this Man City match, was that Newcastle United have played more matches this season than any other club in the top five European leagues (Premier League, Serie A, Ligue 1, Bundesliga, La Liga).
How can any Newcastle United fans not accept that this has made the season incredibly difficult.
On top of that, Newcastle United first team squad players have lost far more days to injury this season than any other Premier League club.
Never mind the entire season so far, just take the last two Newcastle United matches ahead of Man City, against Everton and Man U. The likes of Trippier, Hall, Thiaw, Tonali, Joelinton, Burn, Gordon and Elanga starting both of them.
Eddie Howe has came out after the defeat to Man City and stated surely what was obvious, he had to protect certain players. Ramsey was suspended and also dropping out last night were Burn, Joelinton and Gordon. Howe also saying that Gordon had picked up a minor ankle issue against Man U.
The idea that you should play all of your players all of the time is just crazy. When you are playing so many matches in so many competitions it is just mad to think that is an option, unless you literally have no option to do so. After what they had put into the Everton one and especially Man U when playing with 10 men for so long, does anybody really think that both Joelinton and Gordon could have started both Man City and Barcelona games without serious risk of inviting injury?
The two I felt most sorry for on Saturday night were Kieran Trippier and Lewis Hall, I felt shattered just watching them. They have had to play pretty much every single match because all the other full-back options have been unavailable. The idea of throwing Alex Murphy and Leo Shahar in the deep end against Man City is just beyond belief.
Pep Guardiola absolutely understood all of this and instead of playing Foden or others on the wings who constantly check back, he played the pace and directness of Doku and Savinho and what a tough impossible task that ended up, as Hall and Trippier’s energy levels plummeted as the game went on.
Elanga had started well going forward and getting forward but very quickly he was having to drop deep and help Trippier against Doku.
Tino Livarmento was superb against Doku in the win over Man City in November, if only he had been back fully fit…instead only able to play the final minutes.
Eddie Howe and Newcastle United faced a near impossible task on Saturday night and needed to start well and then carry all the luck and fine margins.
They managed that first bit but then after that it simply became…impossible.