Newcastle United
2/18 Points - 19th Place
3 goals scored - 9 conceded
Newcastle 2-2 Southampton
Swansea 2-0 Newcastle
Man United 0-0 Newcastle
Newcastle 4-1 Northampton
Newcastle 0-1 Arsenal
West Ham 2-0 Newcastle
Newcastle 1-2 Watford
We start with Newcastle United. When looking at their opening fixtures, you do have to admit that it was a hard start to the 2015/16 campaign but it's not the fact that they had 2 points from 15 that was worrying for me, it was the manor in which they were playing. They started the season so brightly with an impressive 2-2 draw with Southampton with a debut goal from Wijnaldum after an equaliser from Cisse. A good point to start McClaren's reign at Newcastle. Then a poor performance and a red card sentenced Newcastle to a poor 2-0 defeat at Swansea. One of the performances of the season so far was on showcase when Newcastle managed to pick up a well earned point at Old Trafford. Defensively they were outstanding and showed great determination when going forward on counter attacks and if Thauvin got a touch on the ball from Sissoko in the 90th minute then Newcastle could have picked up a vital win but they lacked the clinicalness. The Thauvin show was on as Newcastle eliminated League Two Northampton in an outstanding performance from the little Frenchman as he picked up a goal and three assists. Newcastle forward Mitrovic then continued to show a lack of discipline as he was sent off within 20 minutes as Newcastle lost again despite defending well. The last two defeats is where I've seen a massive problem with Newcastle as they lost 2-0 to West Ham and 2-1 to Watford yesterday.
Georginio Wijnaldum - £14.5million
Florian Thauvin - £13million
Aleksander Mitrovic - £13million
Chancel Mbemba - £8.5million
Ivan Toney - £250,000
Having seen their club spend almost £50million during the transfer window, Newcastle fans would have been hoping to see their big money signings have an instant impact on the Premier League. However, other than a debut goal for Wijnaldum, a great cup game for Thauvin against League Two opposition and a commanding performance against Man United, the new signings have struggled to have a consistent impact on the game. They are young and will get better with age, there is no doubt about that however, these players are not Premier League proven and that could be Newcastle's downfall this year. Why they didn't sign Charlie Austin instead of the hothead Mitrovic confuses me as with Austin, you know you're going to get 15-20 goals a season. There is a good chance that their signings will improve however, you have to question why the scouts weren't looking at more Premier League proven players as we've seen players like Gouffran and Cisse flop so I question why they did not bring in a player like Austin.
In football goals win games so if you can't find the back of the net, you're not going to have a good season. For a side averaging 0.5 goals per game so far this season, alarm bells must have started to ring. Striker Papiss Cisse is yet to score since the opening day of the season and showed his lack of confidence in yesterday's match against Watford as he missed 2 good chance and was subbed off for De Jong at half time, a striker who also has had an awful start to the season. Right-back Daryl Janmaat has ironically been Newcastle's best player going forward in the last two games and almost managed to get a brace yesterday. This is why they needed to bring in QPR forward Charlie Austin. There's no movement up front really and although Austin isn't the quickest, he proved last year he had an eye for goal and maybe Newcastle manager Steve McClaren will sign him in January and hope for a revival in the second half of the season. Unless Perez, Cisse or De Jong can get their shooting boots on then I don't see goals coming any time soon especially with Chelsea and Man City next in the league.
Premier League all time top goalscorer and Newcastle legend Alan Shearer was very critical of Newcastle's defending and I personally think that it all comes down to a lack of leadership. Coloccini, as a captain, has to lead from the back and set an example to his fellow defenders. This season at times and last season he has not been putting in a captain's performance. Similar to John Terry, a lack of pace is the problem with Coloccini however, Terry is a leader of men and you can see this in his play. He'll make sure he has cover from his centre-back partner and will rarely leave himself exposed. In contrast, Coloccini is leaving himself exposed way too much and that comes down to a lack of communication in most parts and what you saw in the Watford second goal yesterday was nothing other than pathetic. Coloccini was backing away from striker Troy Deeney rather than showing the desire to close his man down and stop the ball in behind and to back away 7 yards from Deeney showed no desire, no courage, no work ethic and he set a very bad example for his team. If your captain, your leading centre-back isn't willing to try hard for the team, why should other players feel as though they have to try and that is the attitude which I see from Newcastle.
They brought in a manager in Steve McClaren who lacks Premier League experience however having had 7 jobs in multiple countries and having been England manager, his experience in multiple jobs could prove that he is the right man for the job however, his experience in the Championship could prove more vital to Newcastle because that where they are headed right now with the way they are playing. It is as though the players need to have their wages threatened or something like that as they are showing no desire to play for the shirt and it's a shame to see this happen to a great club like Newcastle and hopefully they can improve.
Sunderland
2/18 Points 20th Place
6 goals scored - 13 conceded
Leicester 4-2 Sunderland
Sunderland 1-3 Norwich
Sunderland 1-1 Swansea
Sunderland 6-3 Exeter
Aston Villa 2-2 Sunderland
Sunderland 0-1 Tottenham
Bournemouth 2-0 Sunderland
Sunderland seem to have their own method of surviving in the Premier League which they've shown in past years : Start off poorly, sack manager, hire new manager, find some form out of nowhere, stay up in the final few games, repeat. You have to feel sorry for Sunderland fans after having to put up with this in recent years and maybe they thought this season would be different....unfortunately not the case. This is the third season in a row that Sunderland haven't won any of their first six and it's not as though they've had as hard of a run as rivals Newcastle either. Leicester showed how good they were and how poor Sunderland are defensively as they put 4 past the North East side. Then a performance which saw some fans boo their own club just two games into the season as they were outplayed by new-boys Norwich. The next 3 games saw Sunderland get their first two points of the season and win the fitness battle against League Two side Exeter City who deserve credit for their battling and for how well they played on that night. However, just as you may have thought Sunderland were improving as they only lost 1-0 to Tottenham, they put in a lifeless performance yesterday against Bournemouth as they suffered a 2-0 defeat.
Jeremain Lens - £12.5million
Fabio Borini - £9.5million
DeAndre Yedlin - Loan
Ola Toivonen - Loan
Yann M'Vila - Loan
Younes Kaboul - £3million
Adam Matthews - £2.2million
Sebastian Coates - £2million
Santiago Vergini - £2million
Sunderland fans saw their club spend just over £30million this summer and they must be thinking: Did we just spend £30million for the sake of it? What has changed for the amount of money that we've spent? The answer, nothing. Nothing at all. Despite spending that much money, Sunderland show no difference in their game. Yes they have goals in them, we all know that, with Defoe, Borini and Lens they will get goals this season, they just lose the midfield battle and they're defenders seem asleep half the time. They bring in Kaboul, who had some great games for Tottenham and Coates, who could be a great defender however, they just seem to have no communication. They've had over a month of games and even more training sessions so there should be no excuse why their is hardly any chemistry between the two. Lens has been good and he showed that in the goal against Villa however, they need him to track back more and help out his defence more. Another worrying thing for Sunderland fans was what manager Dick Advocaat said about transfer deadline day signing DeAndre Yedlin 'I don't know a lot about the player'. This is not what you want to hear from your manager, this gives the impression that the manager has a lack of control over the signings and departures from the club and maybe the hierarchy at Sunderland is what needs to be looked closely at.
You ask people what's important for a football team to have and show on a consistent basis and the majority will say, good teamwork, the desire to win and play for the shirt and showing a good level of discipline. Unfortunately Sunderland are lacking in all of these aspects. This picture sums up the teamwork aspect. After conceding, you need your captain to help rally the side together however in this photo, the captain Lee Cattermole shows a defeatist attitude, an attitude which is clearly contagious at Sunderland as you can see Cattermole's team mate behind him is clearly showing the same attitude. The desire is clearly not their from the majority of the senior players. It must be frustrating to watch as a fan of the club in particular, especially when you can see this lack of desire within the second game of the season when they showed no work ethic in defending or tracking back as it's as though the players think if a player goes past them, it's not their responsibility to get back and work hard for their team. The discipline at Sunderland has been shocking, 2 penalties conceded in the league in 6 games is unacceptable, 19 yellows and 1 red is just as bad. The players don't seem to care, including hothead midfielder and captain Lee Cattermole.
In all honesty, Sunderland may just need to play their younger players in order to teach the more experienced players to up their game. I remember watching the Norwich game, 21 year old Duncan Watmore came on and he showed the desire of a player who wants to wear the shirt and it was infectious on the crowd as it got those remaining in the stadium on their feet applauding and when he scored, it was as though Sunderland realised they can play well. The senior players at the club can learn a thing or two from this young man on how to get the crowd going by showing desire to play for the club. However, like I said with the Newcastle team, the manager should really threaten their wages or something like that because they seem to think they can get away with not trying.
Overall I believe that Sunderland won't have the luck which they've had in recent years which has kept them up and they will go down this season and if Newcastle players don't wake up and start playing football to their maximum potential, the same fate will be met by them. I don't wish relegation on any club, as a football fan that's been through it twice, it's a horrible feeling but if the players think that they can go out and play half-hearted and not give their all for 90 minutes is shocking and they deserve to be relegated if they're not willing to try. People pay a lot of money to watch their team at all levels so for players to think they can go out on the pitch and not show effort is disgraceful. The only positive any of these teams can really take is that Newcastle fans can enjoy being above Sunderland.
It will be interesting to see how these two react to their poor start to the year and when they play on October 25th, it's sure to be an interesting spectacle or if they continue as bad a bore 0-0 draw is probably on the cards.
Thanks for Reading!
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