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A big budget takeover and a solid spending transfer window left Newcastle United with a lot of promise. The 2022-23 season treated the team quite well allowing them entry into the Champions League for the first time in almost 20 years. This killer season combined with a reasonable transfer window gave hope to the rising club. This hope largely fell through at the beginning of this season as the club slipped back down the ranks. At first it seemed just a return to the regularly scheduled programming but looking deeper there appears to be an issue with the clubs approach.
The 2022 transfer window was a pretty big one for Newcastle who had recently received a solid chunk of change after being acquired by the Saudi Public Investment Fund in 2021. They hit quite the spending spree spending over $185 million on players. This seemed to work well as they were able to finish fourth in an incredible show of tactical strength. The club's unity, clean passing and strong attacking gave them a needed boost. It seemed Newcastle was back in the big leagues competing at high levels and even getting a crack at playing top European football again.
This high level success and rise to the top was somewhat evident at the beginning of the season. Recently however it’s nowhere to be found with the club frequently losing to poor sides while overall presenting a less than great form. The team does sit just seventh in the table thanks to their early matches but their recent performances have been deserving of a much lower position. The club has lost to Bournemouth, Everton, and a less than top-shape Tottenham all in the past few weeks.
Their early runs this season were somewhat impeded by bigger clubs who were quick to take the team down. That being said they fared well against teams frequently appearing in the very top flight. A rough game against Arsenal sent the team spiraling to where they now sit after having lost to both Bournemouth and Everton in multi-goal losses. Early games showed a team that couldn’t perform against the very top but were still strong especially in individual player skill.
Newcastle's massive problem in recent games is that they’re unorganized in strategy and as a team. In the game against Bournemouth this was on full display, with players clustered together seemingly unaware of where their teammates were on the field and failing to move and support in the positions needed. This disorganization led to inefficient and ineffective attacking and defending. Players were often left on their own without viable passing lanes or overcrowded by their own teammates making them easily defendable halting attacks.
It is incredibly difficult to create a productive offense when there aren't viable passing lanes and when players move out of position. The Premier League is largely categorized this season by a style of play that largely involves heavily structured play; this can be seen in Tottenham, Manchester City, Arsenal, and occasionally Liverpool. High control strategies have worked and failed but in the Premier League they tend to be centered around positional play and seemingly free movement that’s actually carefully orchestrated. When players are given more free reign it tends to be one player not an entire team.
Looking towards Newcastle’s massive 3-0 loss against Everton the issues of free reign are even more apparent. Everton were able to easily overpower Newcastle's forwards who were quickly isolated causing them to either lose the ball in a one on one or make a poor pass which was likely to be intercepted. In the first half Newcastle were able to get away with this as their players still had fresh moves and it was taking Everton a while to adapt to the team’s individual style. Even before Everton was able to turn over the ball and score, Newcastle's attacking was ineffective. The team was unable to score the whole game even in the first half where Everton’s defense wasn’t optimal.
Beyond just relying too much on individuals the team fails to have a unified force. In their game against Tottenham the isolation was slightly reduced but another piece of the issue was amplified. Players seemed to be unaware of where their teammates were at the moment or where they were going towards this left very few offensive passing lanes and created a huge defensive issue. At one point in their own half two Newcastle players were right next to each other on the ball at the same time, needless to say Tottenham quickly intercepted in the midfield and as there was no open player within passing distance Newcastle lost the ball. When attacking it seemed as though there was no joint plan and when defending it seemed more like a mad scramble for the ball than any actual strategy.
