Newcastle 4 Leicester City 0: The Nightmare Before Christmas
Put down your mince pies and maybe pour a slightly bigger than recommended glass of mulled wine to process what we just watched. This was a Leicester City away day at Newcastle, less about spreading festive joy and more delivering the nightmare before Christmas.
No, you're not just dizzy from climbing and descending a mountainous amount of stairs at Newcastle, this was a collapse and shipping of goals that felt like it had been on the cards for a while.
Commentary at kick off stated that generally the better the opponents, the more Newcastle have struggled. Couple that with an unfortunate injury in training to Nick Pope, Ruud van Nistelrooy’s good start at Leicester and you could have been lured into thinking the away side had a chance.
Before Ruud van Nistelrooy, away days were treated with general trepidation and zero expectations. On paper, this game looked like a 50/50 coin toss as to what could happen. We’ve started to look more organised, Newcastle have been patchy. The word vibes has been used a lot in the first two weeks of life under Ruud. From kick-off, the vibes were not good.
The lineup had a bit of a makeshift look at the heart of the team. Ruud was forced into selecting a starting central midfield of Hamza Choudhury and Oliver Skipp. The only other change from the Brighton eleven was Stephy Mavididi coming in for Jordan Ayew. Facundo Buonanotte, available again, remained on the bench. Ruud kept the faith with the same back line.
Henry Cartwright made the bench, a first in his young career, but from the second half start, the time was never right (or fair) to introduce him.
It took Newcastle 30 minutes to get a goal but it had been building. Murphy with a lovely shot from a well-worked set piece where we weren’t alert to the key players and didn’t close any of them down. We’d been under a barrage of attacks, Anthony Gordon carving us apart down our right flank and the duo of Kasey McAteer and James Justin struggling. Newcastle looked likely to score every time they wandered into the box.
We were our worst enemy, wayward passing and sloppy decisions led by the midfield pair. We didn’t give El Khannouss or Jamie Vardy enough to do and our sparse forays into the Newcastle box barely yielded an xG of 0.2 by half time. For the travelling fans, if only a time traveller could have appeared and told them what was to come, it would have been back to the lovely looking fan village to drown the sorrows.
Newcastle finished the game with an xG of 3.78 and 27 goal attempts. This result is what could have happened in the West Ham game had they taken their chances and not come up against a super Mads Hermansen. We weathered that storm but the combination of Anthony Gordon, Alexander Isak and Jacob Murphy proved to be a far more ruthless opponent.
This isn't honeymoon over for Ruud but it is a reality check for all of us. A reminder that even if we have a manager who can motivate the squad more and say the right things, that a lot of that squad just isn't good enough at this level.
The home side putting on former academy product Harvey Barnes at 4-0 and just allowing him to take shots for fun was an insult to add to major injury. Or two.
Mayday, mayday, Mads Hermansen injured
Where we hoped we might be sounding a Will Alves klaxon, instead it was more an urgent mayday call as we waited for Leicester to come back out for the second half only to see Danny Ward coming on to replace Mads Hermansen.
Post-match van Nistelrooy confirmed our fears:
“When Mads comes off, then it’s an injury. He felt a pain in the groin, so he couldn’t continue. We have to assess what it’s like.
He was just certain he couldn’t continue the game. He didn’t want to make it worse.”
Choose your own favourite ‘hello darkness my old friend’ meme. You can point out all of the valid statistics, and they're each their own defensive nightmare, but Hermansen has been our MVP this season.
His impact is undeniable, he sits top of the percentage chart for expected goals following a shot compared versus saves made. Clearly helped by just how many shots we are giving up but he's been essential in the points we have picked up so far.
We (I) haven't always been known for our generosity to Ward, and most fans would agree we should have moved him on at least 18 months ago. That’s a failing of the club, we could even go back to when he was given his 4 year contract extension, we didn’t replace Kasper Schmeichel and the combined bad luck of our actual second choice goalkeeper, Stolarczyk, being injured. The tipping points in the Leicester downfall / Ward venn diagram are multiple.
Commentators and pundits will have you believe Ward couldn’t have done much about the goals and yes, perhaps it isn’t ideal to come into a game halfway through where we were lucky to only be 1-0 down, but his positioning for the second and maybe third goals has to be questioned. He had very little support defensively in the three that he conceded and he did pull off some saves, however, the first point is the worrying part.
What is most painful is seeing how our defenders, lacking confidence already, seem to look instantly more nervous with the change between the sticks. Your goalkeeper needs to inspire confidence and instill organisation. Hermansen has that, whoever is in front of him, they trust him. Perhaps we shouldn’t be judging it based on one half of football, but Ward does not have that.
Making Ward the scapegoat for today is unfair, this was a collective disaster by all players. We gave up the ball so many times, allowed ourselves to be outmuscled on numerous occasions and continued the theme of missing out on second balls. That all of this got significantly worse within two minutes of Ward coming on is more coincidental and comical.
However, we have been here before. Ward was finally given a shot at being number one in our relegation season and it was a painful experience for all. Whether you rate Ward or not (ok, he’s good at penalties), no Leicester fan is of the belief that he can make the same kind of difference that Hermansen has been able to do so far.
Injuries are a part of every season, but this could be the big talking point of the season if the injury will keep him out for any significant time. Our next run of fixtures was already looking pretty horrific, assuming our actual number one was available. Stolarczyk is back in training after his own injury, but with the games coming, three in ten days, it may be a little too early for him.
Open season on the Leicester defence
We're Leicester City, we defend when we want. Which is apparently not that often right now. In van Nistelrooy’s first three games, Leicester City have given up 74 and a combined 8.3 xG against us. Despite that, Ruud still has four points on the board.
We all knew the challenge he had signed up to, but his first three games have seen both an improvement in certain areas and him realising just how bad we are at the back. The sheer number of shots faced didn't happen as often under Steve Cooper but perhaps that tells you more about how we sort of gave up or had so little going on up front that we weren't giving the ball away quite so often and generally sat deeper.
But something has to give with this back line. Things have got worse and van Nistelrooy is likely seeing the extent of his problem. It isn't new from a fan perspective. We didn't invest in that area of the pitch enough in the summer.
Not one fullback was added to the squad and we opted to bring in, or could only, bring one centre back. A Premier League rookie. He could be good but it's a lot of pressure and he needs experienced, calming influences around him. We’d mostly paired him with Wout Faes before Ruud came along.
It's why Conor Coady and Jannik Vestergaard have been the selected centre back pairing more often than not so far. Coady had a nightmare in moments and for the third goal but prior to this, the pair had sort of got away with their lack of pace more than made up for by their insight and getting a foot in first.
In Vestergaard’s corner, he didn't do a lot else wrong today ignoring his speed. He blocked several shots and appeared to be screaming at anyone and everyone to try and hold it together.
It wasn't just the actual back line who struggled through, the support from others defensively was poor. McAteer started the game on the right in front of Justin but before half time we'd swapped him and Mavididi. Gordon had given both of them the slip on numerous occasions and it was just too easy for the home team, carving through us with every single attack.
We’re seeing the same issues and weaknesses exposed every game but there are so few options to change things. Justin should have had at least a one game break by now, but there’s nobody else. Ruud has quickly assessed that while Kristiansen may not be perfect, if the only alternative is Luke Thomas then he’s sticking with the Dane. He’s shuffled the centre backs a little but the pool is four players and all of them have a weakness.
Things to get worse before they get better?
Strap in for some more tough watches. It's 18 days until the transfer window opens. We don't know how much money is in the kitty or who we can offload to free up squad space. But the gaps in the squad may as well have their own red flashing sirens at this point. Ruud can keep working with what he’s got but it’s clear that’s a problem in several positions.
So far, gambling on players who hadn’t established or covered themselves in glory two years ago, alongside a significant portion of the squad having next to no Premier League experience is a risk that hasn’t paid off. There’s already the creeping argument in the fanbase of putting some academy kids into the mix, potentially getting the same outcomes but at least seeing what they’re capable of. We may well have glitched and gone back to late 2022.
We suffered by not having our usual midfielders yesterday. Skipp may still come good but it was another patchy performance, he and Choudhury gave up a lot of possession and didn’t get a foot in to stop too many attacks. For Choudhury it’s a tough one. He’s one of our own and versatile but his Premier League pedigree was under question and this hasn’t changed any thoughts.
Ruud rolled the dice on a triple substitute to take off Mavididi (he’d not really imposed himself on the game, albeit we did shift to his weaker side), Hamza and Vardy. Buonanotte, Okoli and Daka were dispatched but we were long out of the game.
Before van Nistelrooy can even think properly about the transfer window, there's the next four games: Wolves (H), Liverpool (A), Manchester City (H) and Aston Villa (A). Even the most optimistic fan isn't coming up with a prediction of more than 1-3 points there.
Wolves is our best chance but within the other fixtures, they're teams who can be just as potent, or more, in attack than Newcastle. It’s going to be a long month ahead. Aston Villa is our first game of 2025 and probably too soon for any ‘New Year, new us’ statements.
All eyes on you Ruud, to see if you can get something extra out of this squad and restore the Christmas cheer. Everything feels a bit ‘bah, Humbug’ now.
