OneFootball
Alex Mott·21 September 2019
OneFootball
Alex Mott·21 September 2019
Newcastle were held to a goalless draw against Brighton on Saturday with Steve Bruce still looking for his first home win as boss.
The Tyneside outfit were poor throughout and will count this as a lucky escape against a spritely Seagulls side.
“It’s not working.” Those were the thoughts of Isaac Hayden midway through the first half when a break in play saw the Newcastle midfielder make a beeline for Steve Bruce.
The home side were being bossed to an almost startling degree in the opening exchanges and looked like a boxer being pounded on the ropes, round after round.
What should worry fans at St James’ Park though, isn’t that initial struggle, but the way they reacted thereafter – or, to be more precise, their complete non-reaction.
Davy Propper had a decent effort on 30 minutes and then Steven Alzate had a header disallowed for offside.
At half-time Brighton had an astonishing 75 per cent possession with the home supporters booing off their own side. Good job the stadium was only half-full, really.
The second half brought little relief with the Magpies creating very few chances of note and resorting to lashing balls up to Andy Carroll for the final five minutes.
It wasn’t pretty…and it wasn’t very effective either.
At what point do Newcastle just cut their losses and admit that this whole Miguel Almiron thing is just not working?
The Paraguayan joined for big money from Atlanta in January but has so far failed to register and single goal or assist in the Premier League in that time.
Clearly stats aren’t everything, but that’s an appalling return for a man that was the club-record signing before Joelinton.
There is just no point trying to crowbar Almiron into this side, so a spell in the bench may just have to do for the foreseeable future.
It’s been a mixed bag for Graham Potter in his opening six games as a Premier League manager, but the signs are certainly there that Brighton are going in the right direction.
They may not have got the win here – and Potter will almost certainly see this as two points dropped – but the Seagulls overall performance was one of a club with a plan, a side that know exactly what they’re doing under a proper coach who has ideas.
Perhaps the biggest black mark on their campaign so far has been the lack of a genuine goalscorer and that was in evidence again here.
They really should have been out of sight at half-time but struggled to finish a number of gilt-edged opportunities. The positive though, is that the opportunities are coming.