Newcastle United endured a frustrating time of things on Saturday.
Indeed, there are ways to lose games but what happened at St James’ Park was simply not one of them.
Newcastle were defeated 2-1 at home to Fulham despite taking the lead through Jacob Murphy.
Fulham are no doubt a good side and certainly proved that when they beat Newcastle 3-1 earlier this season but to have thrown an advantage away at home is bitterly disappointing.
What’s even more frustrating is the utter lack of energy and intensity in the performance. The players have little excuse for fatigue given the reduced schedule this time around.
The visitors were good value for their victory and manager Marco Silva was pleased his side restricted Newcastle to just one moment of genuine quality from Anthony Gordon.
Marco Silva says only one Newcastle player did something “quality” against Fulham
Silva believes Fulham dealt with Eddie Howe’s side so well that only Gordon’s excellent assist for Murphy’s goal in which he dragged Timothy Castagne out of position before beating him with searing pace stood out from a Newcastle perspective.
“I’m very pleased, really,” he told Sky Sports.
“It isn’t easy to play here against a really good side. It was well managed and it was a very physical one as well. It is really difficult to control the game against the players they have in the middle of the park, but most of the time we did it.
“One individual moment of quality from Anthony Gordon. We know the quality he has and we should have been better in that moment.
“Overall, I think playing here the way we did, we didn’t let them press high like they normally do.”
While Silva certainly isn’t wrong in that his team dealt with Newcastle well, that is conveniently forgetting the fact both Sandro Tonali and Alexander Isak hit the woodwork with fine efforts…
Anthony Gordon’s stats for Newcastle United vs Fulham
Gordon was seriously frustrated after Newcastle lost to Fulham and, frankly, it’s easy to see why.
The winger led the way in terms of key passes, shots (albeit equal to Murphy) and crosses. Having provided the assist too, it’s fair to say he at least showed something in the way of energy and industry.
| Metric | Number | Team rank |
| Shots | 2 | =1 |
| Crosses | 5 | 1 |
| Key passes | 3 | 1 |
Without him, things could have been an awful lot worse.
Hopefully, some of his teammates step up for Wednesday night’s Carabao Cup semi-final second leg showdown with Arsenal.
If they don’t, it could be a very rough night indeed.
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