The Newcastle United great was impressed with the Magpies’ second-half effort.
Newcastle United, according to Alan Shearer, were suffering from a hangover from their Champions League exploits in midweek. The 4-1 victory over PSG at St. James’ Park was a memorable night in a high-octane, heavy metal encounter.
The game against the Hammers, on the other hand, was the polar opposite. Eddie Howe’s side lacked the tenacity they’ve shown under the Magpies’ head coach, with David Moyes’ side leading at halftime
According to goalkeeper Alexander Isak, Howe had severe words with the players at halftime, and they were much better in the second half. When asked if he had a hangover from Newcastle’s Champions League exploits, Shearer stated Match of the Day 2: “Absolutely! There was no question about it.
Alan Shearer provides his usual candid assessment of Newcastle’s 1-1 tie with West Ham.
“I guess because of what happened on Wednesday evening and how the crowd was.” The first half got off to a poor start; they never got going at all.
“There was no fervor, no support, no energy, and no press.” Everything about Newcastle’s game that was impressive, including all of those things, simply did not happen.
“Just look at Isak’s reaction.” He’s searching around and pleading for assistance. He’s asking if there’s any prospect of help up there.
“Similar here, he is highlighted, coming deeper for the ball because he is probably not getting a tough up front, and similar here, it’s slow, and they end up losing the ball in the middle of the park.”
“The next one, when Fabian Schar comes up here, he has a similar reaction to Isak in the previous clip, as if to say, ‘okay help me out, I’m looking for some movement, I’m looking for some movement off the ball,’ and they end up going backwards.”
“Isak said after the game that the manager got into them at half-time and straight away you can see everyone is ten or 15 yards further up the park for Newcastle moving the ball quicker.
“Men in forward positions and that’s a brilliant ball to Dan Burn and a very good save. I say about moving the ball quicker, look at the commitment of the men forward.
“That is an outstanding pass from Bruno, an even better cross from Trippier to Isak. How do you want it? On a plate.
“Thank you very much. That is top quality, class. That’s everything good about Newcastle moving the ball with pace, moving a team around and making it difficult. Kieran Trippier, again I thought was superb in the second half, another ball into Anderson and that could have been in the back of the net.
“This was the moment, if this goes in it’s 3-1 and they probably take all three points but his second touch takes him too close to the goalkeeper therefore he has to go wider than he wants. Cuts the angle down and it’s too much.
“To be fair to West Ham I think they deserved a point, very similar to the previous game Brighton vs Liverpool that we showed. It was a great game but I thought it was a fair result.
“That’s the difference there look at the numbers in the first half compared to the second half.”
Newcastle breathed a sigh of relief in the first half when Bruno Guimaraes’ second foul, only 90 seconds after receiving a yellow card, went unpunished.
“For clarity and non-bias, I thought it should have been a red card,” Shearer said in an interview. “I thought two yellow cards should have been issued.”
“Bruno didn’t agree with this one, but he does put his leg out there, so it’s a yellow card.” Then 90 seconds later, 90 seconds later, 90 seconds later, the second tackle.
“Poor pass from Tonali there, and he’s lucky.” On another day, I believe a yellow card would have been issued first, followed by a red card.
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