Newcastle United's biggest complaints from fans in the past few season have been the reluctance of the Newcastle board to purchase quality players.
However fans can certainly not use this excuse anymore. With Newcastle having increased their spending spree this season to just over £80 million, they have become the sixth biggest spenders in the Premier League. Doubt has risen recently to these new additions to the Tyneside club as their commitment and quality, expected for the Premier League is missing.
This complaint with the current Newcastle squad can be perfectly personified in this match as none of the players looked on par with the quality expected of them. Jonjo Shelvey for example, whose dream debut has seemed to rapidly evaporate and in this game he consistently gave the ball away to Everton in dangerous areas.
New additions also include Henri Saivet, who following the example of Shelvey was perhaps more dangerous towards his own team than the opposition at times. In fairness, his inexperience with the Premier League must be taken into account and coming in to arguably the toughest league in the world is going to take time to adjust.
Andros Townsend – The overview
Being the newest addition to the team, Andros Townsend, the ex-Tottenham player who moved during the January transfer window for £12million started his first game on Wednesday night. Overall Townsend - despite playing at the club for less than a week - showed more grit and determination than many of the original players.
When on the ball, Townsend seemed to be the only one that was trying to press the Everton line and although surely not a dream debut, this additional factor to Newcastle’s current squad should provide a small piece of hope for fans of the club as he portrays something the club has not had in a long time in a proper attacking winger.
The 24-year-old was in this game surely feeling the side effects of having not experienced first team football for a while, often limping on occasion, suggesting that Steve McClaren has to be careful with their new player.
Newcastle would be a sunken ship without Elliot
Rob Elliot has probably become an unsung hero in Tyneside. The second choice goalkeeper now turned shot stopper is the only reason this season that the black and white side do not potentially find themselves below Aston Villa. Although having failed to not pick up a clean sheet for the ninth game running, Elliot made the difference between a 3-0 defeat and utter annihilation.
On numerous occasions, the British goalkeeper consistently tried to keep Newcastle in the game making a plentiful collection of key saves, denying Everton’s Arouna Kone and Ross Barkley's shots on goal. Without him this game would have been a complete fiasco for McClaren as Everton’s consistent attacking spells plagued the Newcastle difference without much resistance. Chancel Mbemba and Fabricio Coloccini, the key Newcastle defenders could just not cope with the pressure from the Everton attacks.
The score line itself does not truly reflect Rob Elliot’s stellar performance on Wednesday evening as Aaron Lennon and two penalty’s from Ross Barkley confined Newcastle to yet another defeat, with Newcastle having now conceded a league-high of eight goals from outside the box in the Premier League this season.
Newcastle’s biggest Problem…
Where do you begin? Newcastle are a team plagued in almost all areas of play.
The defence look incredibly shaky, refusing to put their lives on the line to protect the goal. The midfield seems almost absent at times as proven in this match as Everton passed the ball without resistance and hassle from the Newcastle players. In attack, the place where the goals are meant to come from is lacking in the pivotal area of actually scoring.
It seems like all this has doomed Newcastle to almost certain relegation, unless a small miracle is undertaken in the next few weeks. The irony of this statement is that Newcastle certainly have the level and quality of players to avoid it, however the belief of this quality has vanished.
Finishing should be the priority of the Newcastle coaching staff over the next few weeks as this game has proven once more that Newcastle are entirely useless in front of goal. The biggest of chance of the game came once more from Aleksandar Mitrovic who put the ball somehow to the right side of Joel Robles' net.
McCLaren’s tactics are questionable
McClaren seems to be playing his side in an inefficient manner, a fact proven by the numerous losses of recent weeks.
The biggest problem seems to be in attack as having a single player upfront just isn’t working for the Magpies. In the first half Ayoze Perez was virtually rendered useless and could not exploit the infamous and unpredictable Everton defence.
In the second half Mitrovic added another factor to Newcastle’s play, holding the ball up so that Moussa Sissoko and Townsend could advance further up the pitch. Again however, this seemed to be a futile attempt and from the fact that two different players cannot exploit, or at least make a dangerous attempt at goal, suggests that the current formation is just not working for the Newcastle team.