Paul Merson verdict on Newcastle United fifteen weeks into the season… | OneFootball

Paul Merson speaking about Newcastle United.

NUFC with fifteen weeks of the new season having gone by.

A very intense period of time with Newcastle playing every midweek, due to Champions League and Carabao Cup.

Eddie Howe and team now preparing for their next match.

A 5.30pm kick-off on Saturday, away at Everton.

Paul Merson discussing how things now stand for Newcastle United as they prepare for this Hill Dickenson Stadium clash.

Paul Merson talking to Sportskeeda ahead of Everton v Newcastle:

“I don’t know what’s up with Newcastle.

“They play like they did against Manchester City and in the next game they lose to Marseille, despite taking the lead!

“Newcastle’s away form in the Premier League has been quite poor and they next face Everton on Merseyside. This is a tough game coming up for Newcastle, no doubt about it.

“Everton were outstanding against Manchester United. I know Man U produced a rotten display, but you have to tip your hat to Everton for scoring with 10 men and securing that win away from home. David Moyes won’t be too worried about the Idrissa Gueye incident with Michael Keane, which led to the midfielder’s red card. As a manager, you secretly want that fight between players. When I was playing, these fights used to happen in every training session! If I were a manager, I wouldn’t mind my players pushing each other like that.

“But it was still the right decision to send Gueye off. These players are huge role models to kids across the world. If he walked away without any punishment, then kids would start doing the same in their games on Sunday mornings. That’s why it was important to set an example by taking action against Gueye.

“Everton look like a much-improved side and don’t sit back and play defensive football anymore. Newcastle have won just one game away from home this season and I don’t know how I can back them in this game.

“Prediction: Everton 2 Newcastle 1”

My thoughts

Unlike pretty much all the other pundits last weekend, Paul Merson didn’t predict defeat for Newcastle United against Manchester City. He didn’t forecast a win for United but came close with a 1-1 prediction.

In the event, that game had loads of great chances and Newcastle United with the lion’s share of them. A 4-2 or 5-3 victory over Manchester City could well have been on the cards, as for Newcastle United alone, Nick Woltemade might have got a hat-trick and Harvey Barnes had two better opportunities than the couple he actually scored.

It is a bit simplistic from Paul Merson to just talk about losing in Marseille without giving some background. A very tough place to go, where for over a year Marseille had only lost twice in Ligue 1 and the Champions League. In Tuesday’s match, Newcastle didn’t play badly overall, they competed well and in the end the defeat came due to five minutes of poor defending straight after the break.

In that defeat, Eddie Howe had felt the need to rest Joelinton and Woltemade, whilst with Hall and Livramento having made their first starts in a good while when facing Man City, the Newcastle boss knew he could only risk using them for a limited time in France.

If Newcastle can play to a level (and create similar number of great chances) that is somewhere in between how they performed against Man City and Marseille, then I think it will be a draw at worst today, hopefully the win.

The last 13 games, home and away, in all competitions have seen Newcastle score at least once in every match. Scoring 26 goals in total in these last 13 matches.

Whilst Everton have scored only eight goals in their last ten matches in all competition, only two of those ten games seeing them score more than one goal.

So taking all of that into consideration, I can’t see Newcastle United not scoring today and I would be surprised if Everton manage to score more than once, unless a similar five minute meltdown as we saw in defence in Marseille. As I said above, I reckon a draw at worst but if creating the chances and decent at the back as well, I can see Newcastle winning today.