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Dundee United 3 Newcastle United 1report by Macbeth and his son Ben.
Starting formation was 4-4-2 Perez (oh no says Ben !!) Charvet ..............Dabizas ................ Goma ...................Domi Kerr.............. McClen............ Speed ..................Serrant Maric........... Kets. Dabizas left after 23 minutes ot be replaced by Hughes, McClen went off at half time after a knock to be replaced by Barton. Kerr and Serrant were replaced by Beherall and Robinson which meant we played the last 30 minutes in 3-4-2-1, or something like that Perez Beherall .................Hughes ................. Goma Charvet ............... Barton............ Speed............. Domi Maric .................Kets Robinson
Elsewhere you have the details of the goalscoring sequence, a bit of padding is as follows. Dabizas has learnt not to knock the ball 20 yads out of the centre of defence to one of their players, he's progressed to a short passing game which gives them far more opportunity to score from his mistakes. A real disaster goal after less than 10 minutes. Second came from centre wide on the right that went across evverybody to be headed in at the back post. Difficult to apportion blame on an individual, but Gullit clearly did as he dragged Dabizas off to bring on Hughes. Has to be said Hughes looks the best of the central defenders we've see this week. Third goal was from a corner. They had some bloody great players on by this time and the Scandinavian / Icelandic giant headed in from near the edge of the box. At 6'4" he was dwarfed by their second half sub who must have been 6'8" at least. Our goal came from Robinson when he came on. He got the ball in the D stepped back a yard to make some space and curled it in far post. Amazingly good goal.
Both Maric and Kets were playing out of position but I don't know anymore what their positions are supposed to be. Maric had a one against one that he just plain wimped out of. So maybe it's a confidence thing. Domi isn't a wingback which is sad if we're going to play with only three at the back as he's good defensively. Charvet looked solid at right back, strong and keen to get forward, where is Andy Griffin, anyone ? Serrant looked the player we saw a couple of times last season. Hopeless. Robinson came on for half an hour and tried, looked better at this stage than Coppinger, his goal was good. We did make chances tonight which was a mega improvement on Livingston and I feel more positive because of that. Our inability to convert any of the chances (Robinson made the goal for himself) was hugely worrying. For us to have reached this stage and not got cover for Shearer and Ferguson is unacceptable. We haven't had two fit forwards at the same time for nearly two years since Sir Les left and Shearer's ankle died. It's too long. At this moment I see the team for the Villa game, with Shearer fit and Ferguson not as Harper / Given / Ben / Perez Marcelino................ Dumas ..................Goma Charvet............... Speed .............McClen ........................Domi Dyer Shearer.............................. Kets
and that is just not good enough.
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Well
what of the general game ? I have to say it was far better than
Livingston in that we got the ball forward more, there looked more
urgency in the midfield rather than the passing for passing sakes
bollox on Tuesday. The main reason for this has to be put down to
Jamie McClen. I haven't fallen for this 11 Geordies, or 11
Englishmen, being best argument, but Jamie McClen makes you think.
He's constant action, he wants the ball, he goes looking for it, he
carries it forward, he really has that urgency that the rest of the
team seem to lack. Sadly he doesn't look to be really good enough in
what he does, but maybe that'll come. HE could very well be the
Hamann replacemnt not Dyer, as Dyer is a different type of player
altogether. Of the other two unusual starters Kerr was anonymous but
tried, Serrant was more visible but that's partly because if you
stick a centre on to the roof of the stand people notice you. Defence
was awful while Dabizas was on, but tightened up noticably with
Hughes. At the end the 3 at the back formation worked with Beherall,
Hughes and Goma. If we are to play 3 then they have to be solid
defenders with no ambition to be midfield or forwards. Hughes fits
that bill, his pace makes up for his size and I expect him to be
genuinely pushing for a place. Gary Speed just isn't up to it at the
moment, put it down to pre-season rather than incompetence, but some
of his passing is appalling. Which neatly links with Barton. Run,
Warren, run, Warren, run, run, run. But don't try and pass it. Maric
is really pushing his luck with me. I was ecstatic when we bought
him, this week he has looked like Andersson, sorry if that sounds
harsh but it's true.
