It doesn't seem like too long ago that Newcastle were exciting Premier League fans, pushing for the top four with exciting young players guiding them to six consecutive wins. Even after their win streak was snapped, they managed a huge upset win over Chelsea before getting buzzsawed by Arsenal in their next match. It seemed that they had positioned themselves well to be a factor down the stretch.
Alan Pardew’s departure broke Newcastle
Saturday’s thrashing at the hands of Manchester City only further proved something many have thought for awhile.
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Then Alan Pardew left for Crystal Palace just before the new year, and many fans celebrated the departure of a manager that Newcastle had frequently struggled under. Since he left, though, everything has gone straight to hell.
In seven league matches since Pardew's departure under caretaker John Carver, Newcastle have just one win, a 3-0 victory over a very poor Hull City side who had already dropped two straight heading in to that match. Newcastle have lost three of their matches under Carver, including Saturday's humbling 5-0 drubbing courtesy of Manchester City. In all, Newcastle have picked up just six points and scored nine goals since Pardew ran away from the club, giving up 14 goals in the process.
It's almost as though everything that was working under Pardew has evaporated since his departure. Perhaps there's some merit to more of Newcastle's successes this season being down to Pardew than the squad, given that he's lifted Crystal Palace to three wins in six, including a win over Tottenham Hotspur in his first match -- though Pardew could only manage a draw at home when his new side faced off against Newcastle two weeks ago.
What's happened to Newcastle since Pardew left, though? Despite Carver's efforts to play more organized football and hit hard on the counter, a tactic that suits his squad in theory, Newcastle have often been too easy for opponents to pick apart in the last two months, with Vurnon Anita or Jack Colback too often far out of position in midfield, or fullbacks Daryl Janmaat and Massadio Haïdara too high up the pitch and unable to help when Newcastle lose possession. Without support from the midfield pivot and fullbacks, Fabricio Coloccini and Michael Williamson wind up exposed and overwhelmed in central defense.
Even when Newcastle’s players are in position to help, it’s seemed like they too often go to sleep or shut down in the middle of a run of play, getting bypassed entirely or, worse, getting sucked to the ball and not tracking the real danger of a run in behind. It’s not something all of their opponents have been able to exploit lately, but Manchester City’s talented attack ruthlessly exposed the flaw time and time again on Saturday.
If Newcastle’s attack was playing effectively, those issues might not matter quite so much, but it really hasn’t been. Despite a passable nine goals in seven matches under Carver, six of those goals were scored in two matches. Leading scorer Papiss Cisse has scored just once in four league matches since returning from Africa Cup of Nations, and has provided little in the way of attacking influence outside of that goal.
The rest of the Magpies’ attacking core hasn’t really fared any better. Ayoze Perez has cooled off significantly from his hot spell earlier in the season, and has frequently been isolated and uninvolved of late. The same goes for Remy Cabella, though not for lack of effort on his part; Cabella has repeatedly been able to make good runs in to the final third, but no one on the ball has picked up their head to find him with a pass in behind the defense. The culprit in that has too often been Yoan Gouffran, who outside of two goals scored in January has been very poor under Carver.
Newcastle are still in a decent position in the league despite their struggles, sitting in 11th place with a four-point cushion on Everton after the weekend’s results. Should their problems continue, that could quickly change -- the gap between Everton in 12th and Sunderland in 16th is only three points. The difference between comfortably mid-table and “oh my god we’re only a few points clear of the relegation zone” is very narrow right now, and Newcastle fans could be sweating bullets by the end of March thanks to a tough run of matches coming up that includes visits from Manchester United and Arsenal.
If Newcastle can’t find whatever it was that had them playing well under Alan Pardew earlier this season, they could soon be looking at his departure and wondering why they felt they could be happy with his departure. If anything, Pardew jumping ship was a sign of impending doom, a doom that’s looking harder to avoid by the week.
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