Newcastle United lost 4-1 to AFC Bournemouth as Justin Kluivert scored a hat-trick.
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00:00Newcastle United 1 Bournemouth 4 here at St James' Park this afternoon. Newcastle's 9
00:07match winning run comes to a crashing end. Liam what was your initial assessment or assessment
00:16overall of that game? I think there's a lot of people ready to jump to certain conclusions.
00:21I've seen a lot of talk of people saying that was the worst performance Newcastle have put
00:24in this season. What I would say is I don't think it was very good from Newcastle but
00:28I don't think there was a huge difference between the performance levels today as to
00:34what there was on Wednesday. But I thought Wolves and Bournemouth are at a totally different
00:39level. I thought Bournemouth played Newcastle United at their own game today and I thought
00:43they did a proper job on Eddie Howe and his players did a proper job on Newcastle United
00:49today. They pressed high, they didn't give any space, they dismantled Newcastle United's
00:54midfield structure. We've seen Tonali having to pop up on the left, Bruno dropping into
00:58the six. It was disjointed beyond what we'd ever seen before and there wasn't a lack of
01:04effort, there wasn't a lack of trying. Newcastle tried and pushed but it was an outstanding
01:11performance from a very, very good team. They've had their injury troubles but wow, if they
01:17can put performances in like that Bournemouth, that was the best away performance I've seen
01:21from any team XFJ has bought in a long, long time. I thought they were outstanding. The
01:25centre-half was so tight in the east-half, they didn't give an opportunity, they were
01:29brilliant. Kirk Edmonds was outstanding, physical, quick, lovely left foot. They've got some
01:36very, very good footballers. They might be a small club but they're well punch above
01:41their weight and with that manager who has them well drilled, they all know what they're
01:45doing. I don't think Clive, in many ways, is an outstanding footballer but he knows
01:50exactly what he's got to be in this team and he scored some quality goals today and
01:55was the real difference between the sides but let's not beat around the bush. That was
01:59four, could have been six or seven but I would say the same. Newcastle played against a couple
02:05of centre-halves today who didn't give them an inch, an organised midfield and a functional
02:10forward line that caused problems all over the place. Newcastle let them have chances
02:15but they let Wolves have chances and it could have been a very different game. That was
02:18a 3-0, probably could have been a draw on it if we'd played a better opposition. I don't
02:23think it was the worst performance. I thought Palace was worse, I thought Fulham was worse,
02:27I thought the half an hour against West Ham was much worse. I don't think Newcastle were
02:31a disaster today, I just think they came up against a side that were much better. I think
02:35they looked a little bit fatigued, I think the team looked a little bit flat, a little
02:39bit tired. I think there's a little bit of that. I thought they looked bad on Wednesday
02:42but again, what got them through on Wednesday was just having that bit more quality than
02:46a team that's fighting relegation. They played a team who were on a par with them this season,
02:50make no mistake about it. People might not look at it and think, oh but it's Fulham coming
02:55up next, it's Holmen, it's Bournemouth. I think people are massively overlooking the
02:58fact that there's a good section of teams in this Premier League, in the upper middle
03:02section, who you could almost chuck a tea towel over. They're all very good, they're all very
03:07similar and they've all got good players. Fulham are another one of those teams. Newcastle
03:11United are in that mix, Bournemouth are in that mix, Chelsea are in that mix. There's
03:14probably six or seven teams who are all very similar and Newcastle came up against today
03:20who had the bit between that team and I thought, in my opinion, that was an excellent, excellent
03:26performance and I'm not really going to drill too much and say this was bad, that was bad
03:30in Newcastle because I thought Bournemouth were excellent. Sometimes I think in football
03:34you've got to hold your hand up and say they were just beaten by a team who couldn't lay
03:38a glove on the day. I think it's one of them, do you almost accept after such a good run
03:43that it was just an off day for Newcastle? Can you really go any further than that and
03:46just say it was an off day? You went throughout the opposition but in terms of Newcastle's
03:49point of view, the first five minutes, Lewis Hall almost epitomised the fatigueness of
03:54the way Newcastle looked. They looked off it. He was half asleep. There was a lot of
03:58them like that but it was the first moment he was burned by David Brooks and the team
04:04never recovered from that, Lewis Hall never recovered from that. The ball was bouncing
04:07around in that first five minutes and every time it was bouncing up there was a Bournemouth
04:11player nipping ahead of Newcastle there. It was just like there was a malaise about
04:14them. I don't think they turned up the day thinking we're not going to put it in, we're
04:18complacent, which is what some people have suggested I've seen on social media. That's
04:22not what I saw. I saw a team who were putting it all in but I just think that fatigue, I
04:28have said it for weeks now, I thought every game was going to be a game 2-4. Football
04:35has been going for 150, you don't statistically go and win. Teams don't do very often where
04:40you win X amount of games. If Newcastle had won 10 games in a row today it would have
04:43been the first time they've done it in all competitions and titles. Well there you are.
04:46It's for a reason isn't it. That's the malaise I think from a supporter base that
04:52they get. They just think and it's a natural thing everyone is positive. You think it's
04:56going to go on forever. It never was and it never will. Look, it's how they react from
05:01it. They've got a good week off, the New Year week off. It's been a very hectic period.
05:06If you had said after that Bournemouth game that they were going to lose one more game
05:09now until midway through January, you would have snapped your hand. Of course you would.
05:14They're going to win every other single game. There's lots to be positive about. I think
05:18a good few of them need a good few days off to mentally refresh, never mind physically
05:22refresh and go again next week against Southampton. This almost does matter but it won't matter
05:29as much if they don't get a result next week. It just puts them back on the treadmill if
05:34you like to go again. That's a challenge now to recover from this. You have off days,
05:38it happens. Players have off days, teams have off days. I didn't have an off week. I don't
05:43think they were very good against Wolves but I said that. They still claimed a 3-0 victory
05:48but I get your point because it wasn't a great performance and people would have watched
05:52our video on Newcastle. After that game, that's pretty much what we said. They won 3-0 but
05:56they weren't great. Today, they played a good team and they were showing up. But I think
06:01if they played Bournemouth on Wednesday, they would have been the same. That's why
06:08I keep saying, I don't think there was a massive difference between the two performances.
06:12It was the level of the opposition. They played a team who were breathing today whereas Wolves
06:17weren't. It was a walk in the park that. We couldn't have got much easier. Again, they
06:24had a goal disallowed, had a couple of chances, hit the bar. They had really good opportunities
06:28at both ends. It was the same today whereas Bournemouth were clinical, took their chances.
06:34Like I say, they got 4. I mean the scoreline, it got a bit scrappy at the end and that's
06:39when they got their goals but it was 4 going on 6 or 7 today. Sometimes, like I say in
06:44football, you've just got to hold your hands up and say, were Bournemouth a better team?
06:48Did they deserve a win? They were comfortable winners today. I don't think Newcastle deserved
06:52anything from the game but you've just got to dust yourself off. Newcastle are still
06:56a good football team and they've had some fantastic results. Eddie Howe has transformed
07:02the team with some changes they've made but I think they got out tactic today. I think
07:08you know this, I've talked to you about this, we've spoken about this off camera of course
07:12a lot. Big fans of his work. He's an excellent, excellent manager and if he continues doing
07:18the kind of work that he's doing at Bournemouth then the sky's the limit for a manager like
07:22him. I think he's outstanding. I say Mark O'Silva, Mark O'Silva of Fulham, they've got
07:28Fulham here in two weeks time. Mark O'Silva has done a fantastic job at Fulham. No, he
07:32turned them from a yo-yo club into an established Premier League, potentially European chasing
07:36club. The mark you would have against his name is you'd probably say he didn't do a
07:39very good job at Everton but you could say that about a lot of managers. Carlo Ancelotti
07:43went there and he's won things in Real Madrid after so you can't really judge it. So I think
07:51there's a lot to be said about that. You've got to not get too complacent. I don't think
07:54the players got complacent. I think maybe some fans are maybe taking their eye off the
07:58ball. Wembley this, Wembley that, Premier League title race this and all that kind of
08:02stuff. Not for me. You can't sit here and fight to get into Europe this season and they're
08:05still in a really good position to get into Europe next season. That's the key thing that
08:10matters. If you can win a cup, that's fantastic as well but they're not there either. So no
08:14more complacency. Let's get back to work. Three points against Southampton, that's all that
08:18matters.