Shambolic refereeing without VAR fails to derail Newcastle against 10

Alan Shearer:

I can give a small excuse for the referee, but that’s me being kind. There’s no excuse for his assistant. He had nightmare today, costly with the offside [Abraham goal]. Goodness me.

If you ever needed any evidence of the damage done by VAR to refs, it’s today. They looked petrified to make a decision without a comfort blanket. They’re getting worse. That’s not a difficult decision, it’s easy, it’s standard.

Wayne Rooney:

You can be critical of referees either way [with VAR], but that decision is one of worst I’ve ever seen. At no stage is Digne ever outside the penalty box. To not give that, the referee looked like he was listening to assistant, it’s an absolute shocker.

It’s always is a rollercoaster vs Aston Villa, high tempo. We’ve been under scrutiny, but we’ve regrouped after Brentford, talked amongst players and now we have two away wins.

On refereeing decisions, and the decision to give a free kick for a clear handball in the area:

There’s no VAR, I’m sure it was a penalty, but this is football, you have to react to disappointment and we did that. The third goal was crucial.

We’ve regrouped, looked at ourselves as players, most importantly for the manager. You see all the stuff on social media which he doesn’t deserve. We’re fully behind him so this is one for him as well.

Woltemade seals the deal!

Both sides playing an unnecessary amount of football deep in their own halves and an awful pass from Thiaw is intercepted by Joe Willock in the Villa box. Woltemade pounces on the loose ball and there’s a touch of fortune to the finish, Pau Torres’s tackle ricocheting off the big German for his first goal in 14, on his birthday.

The Villa Park home stands are emptying. Shirts off in the Newcastle end.

No luck needed for Tonali now, what a strike!

A good cross is cleared meekly, and Dan Burn squares to Tonali 25 yards out. He’s under pressure but gets it out the feet to catch it as pure as pure can be. It flies through the crowd and into the bottom left, no chance for Martinez.

That had been coming, Villa camped in their own half, but nothing they could do about that.

We apparently required confirmation that Bizot’s dismissal was for denying a clear chance at goal rather than for the recklessness of the challenge itself. Why can’t we just appreciate that he ticked all the boxes?

Unai Emery late out of the sheds, suspect he needed a moment alone with his back up ‘keeper.

Villa’s pressed has eased so far, will update you on their formation once they have some possession.

Nearly a second for Villa! Rogers drives through the Newcastle midfield and the ball is worked to Bailey outwide, but he gets the ball stuck in his feet and the pull back to Abraham is blocked. Another chance falls to Ross Barkley but he miscues.

Abraham seems to have picked up a knock in the process, he’ll need some attention on the sideline for a moment.

There is no VAR at this stage of the competition but Tammy Abraham looked offside to the naked eye. Replays confirmed he had gone too early running in behind to get on the end of Luiz’s chipped free kick. Newcastle had started well but are now behind. We spend a lot of time moaning about VAR but that looked like a terrible decision from the referee’s assistant. It was a clever free kick routine from Villa though.

Tammy Abraham with his first goal back at the club!

It’s a training ground free kick move. Morgan Rogers with a theatrical performance lining up the shot before Douglas Luiz dinks it over the top for his striker, who finishes well. The finish was particularly good given how little time he had, which was definitely a consequence of him being offside.

No VAR in the magical Cup though! The goal stands and Villa lead.

The atmosphere is building nicely before kick off. High energy dance music, some flamethrowers around the side of the pitch and a half decent light show have got us all into the mood. There are more than 6000 Newcastle United supporters in the away end and the home crowd have had to crank up the noise to try and drown them out.

It was a clinical, first-time finish, a goal that released months of frustration, as Jacob Ramsey let out an ecstatic roar and sprinted off in the direction of Newcastle United’s delirious supporters.

His first goal for the club and a much-needed win for his team. When Newcastle needed someone to spark their season back to life a new hero arrived. The explosion of joy and relief in that celebration revealed much.

This has not been an easy first season for Ramsey following his £40m summer move from Aston Villa. He has felt all of the draining, negative emotions that come with failing to make an early impact at a new club.

You can read the full article here: Jacob Ramsey was becoming Newcastle’s £40m flop but Spurs performance can be making of him

Newcastles away form in this competition, to Premier League opposition, does not read well for any Geordies making the trip to Villa Park. They’ve lost 10 of their last 13. Those numbers are repeated in their last 10 away games to Prem opponents in all comps, and they’ve failed to score in eight of them.

Newcastle should just harness the spirit of their 1923-24 FA Cup champions then! They beat Villa 2-0 in front of 91,000 courtesy of late goals from Neil Harris and George Seymour.

If you were looking for evidence to support the argument Newcastle United manager Eddie Howe does not see the FA Cup as a priority at the moment it is the selection of Aaron Ramsdale in goal.

Ramsdale is a goalkeeper who simply does not save enough shots and his presence in the starting XI instead of Nick Pope points to a team sent out with the hope of winning rather than a determination to do so.

There also appears to be an experimental feel to the formation as well, with Nick Woltemade presumably starting in the number 10 role behind William Osula in a 4-2-3-1.

Eddie Howe has been flirting with this idea since the Germany international signed from Stuttgart back in August and he also played in that position - with mixed results - in the third round win over Bournemouth.

The fact Yoane Wissa does not even make the substitute’s bench is a concern in the same week that Newcastle lost captain Bruno Guimares for the next six to eight weeks with a hamstring injury. Wissa is absent with what has been described as “ a knock.”

Newcastle have made six changes to the team that beat Tottenham Hotspur in midweek. Aston Villa have made seven to the side that beat Brighton.

You get the sense this is a fixture both managers feel is a game too far for some of their star names in the middle of a hectic schedule.

Something needs to change at Newcastle United. That change is not a new manager. But it is the current manager changing his tactics to allow Newcastle to play more like a big team.

The test for Howe is can he adapt as a coach, having helped take Newcastle such a long way already? The level of determination he shows, and his work ethic, suggests so. And it will be fascinating to see if there are tactical differences in the way Newcastle play in the coming weeks, and whether what has happened actually emboldens Howe.

If Newcastle had beaten Aston Villa in late January they would have gone fourth in the league, they were in the semi-finals of the League Cup, fourth round of the FA Cup and doing well in the Champions League. That was only two weeks ago. The big dip in form has come at the wrong time, but football can be fickle. It can quickly change. The question is: can Howe?

Jason’s full comment piece is here: Eddie Howe needs to change

Newcastle manager Eddie Howe has admitted his new-look Newcastle team is still searching for its identity as he targets FA Cup glory.

Newcastle head for Aston Villa in the fourth round on Saturday still dealing with the on-field fall-out of Alexander Isak’s £130m departure for Liverpool and the arrivals of Anthony Elanga, Aaron Ramsdale, Malick Thiaw, Jacob Ramsey, Nick Woltemade and Yoane Wissa which surrounded it.

Howe said: “The words ‘patience’ and ‘understanding’, they’re rarely accepted, I think, in football management when you’re talking about your team. People want clarity on where you are, they want to know whether you’re good or bad. In the middle isn’t accepted.

“Don’t get me wrong, we could have done better and there are certainly things that we could improve, but I think longer term we’ll be better for it if we can work through this season and this period.

“The biggest thing is to find a clear identity and a clear way of playing, and then we can see what the future looks like with this team. If it’s positive then that could be a great thing.”

Tuesday night’s 2-1 Premier League win at Tottenham eased some of the pressure on Howe and his players after a disappointing run of results, although the departure of Spurs boss Thomas Frank the following day and Sean Dyche’s exit from Nottingham Forest 24 hours later highlighted the precarious nature of management.

Howe, who will make late checks on midfielders Bruno Guimaraes and Lewis Miley, said: “The sways and the speed of opinion changing is quicker, I think, than it’s ever been due to various different factors and forces that you have to compete against. I have sympathies for any manager that loses their job.

“For me, I don’t think too deeply about it. My immediate focus then goes back to myself and what I can do to help the team that I have, and that’s all that I can do every day.”

Nonetheless, Howe is in desperate need of a tactical rejig. His side languishes in tenth in the league; the fans are still onside and he has the board’s backing but he’ll need to show some adaptability for that to remain the case. FA Cup fourth rounds are usually a good time to do this, but not in this instance.

Despite faltering since Christmas with defeats to Arsenal, Everton and Brentford, Aston Villa are flying high in third in the league and second in the Europa League group phase. They eased to their first win at St James’ Park in late January and the last two fixtures between the two at Villa Park have ended 0-0 and 4-1 to the hosts. In fact, Newcastle have only won once in their last 10 visits here.

In terms of places to come to save a season, Villa Park would’ve been towards the bottom of Eddie Howe’s list. Team news and build-up to come.

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