Here is the good news for Newcastle – there are only five games to play. And here is the bad news – there are still five games to play.
Their season could yet get worse before the relief of summer, because it sure does not look like getting any better. At least they will go unbeaten through June. Right now, they are a team who have forgotten how to win. They are a team in need of leadership and players who take responsibility. In truth, they are barely a team at all.
The Mentality Minnows we called them last week after a soft defeat at Crystal Palace, and the capping of that moniker this time around is because it feels permanent. Their negative momentum is inescapable, a run of eight defeats in 11 in the Premier League.
Eddie Howe is fighting for his future and said on Friday that the fire still burns inside him. He could do with lighting a match in his dressing-room. There is no spark there. It was telling when the head coach waited seven seconds before answering a question as to whether his players share his commitment.
Belatedly, he gave what was a holding answer, claiming that he cannot speak for others but believes they do care as much as him. Here is the reality – some of them don’t. They have checked out on this season or, worse still, the club.
The message from the top earlier this month was that star players need to be sold to fund summer business. An honest admission but one that risked sucking the life from the remainder of this campaign. It has left Howe and his squad in purgatory and supporters enduring the hell of performances on the pitch. Their season is done and, mentally and physically, so are the players, some of whom have eyes elsewhere.
The problem for the manager is that those eyes are rarely trained on the opposition goal, or opposition attackers. While they waited for things to happen, Bournemouth had players who made things happen. Their two goals were good, but Newcastle’s defending was bad.
Marcus Tavernier gave Andoni Iraola’s side a 32nd-minute lead when he ran beyond Tino Livramento to turn in a cross from Rayan, who had ran beyond Lewis Hall. It was weak defending. Hall was taken off at half-time – ‘tactical’ Howe called it – and Livramento later succumbed to a thigh injury. Anthony Gordon was missing with a ‘slight hip issue’ after another week of speculation over his future.
William Osula ran clear to equalise midway through the second half as the hosts enjoyed a lift inspired by the return of Bruno Guimaraes, on as a second-half substitute after two months out with injury, but even the presence of the captain could not reverse what felt like the inevitable, so prone are Newcastle to conceding late in games.
And so it was, in the 85th minute, that left back Adrien Truffert started and finished an attack during which he showed more energy and desire than anyone in black and white. When Evanilson’s headed knock-down landed in the goalmouth, Truffert was first to it ahead of Sandro Tonali. Weak defending. Again. Combine that with a refusal to shoot at the other end and it’s clear why Newcastle are struggling. Nothing is functioning as it should be, or how it has done historically under Howe.
‘Momentum is against us at the moment,’ said the Newcastle boss. ‘You could feel that in the big moments. You’re looking at big players to swing momentum your way and they haven’t done that enough individually.’
There was support for the manager from the stands during the game, but there were also boos at the end of both halves. It will not, you suspect, be the last we hear of those this season.
