Book your seats now for Newcastle’s goalless draw at Brighton next month! That is three stalemates from three away from home for Eddie Howe’s side this season, and life without Alexander Isak is proving as difficult as it threatened to be.
Not only are they struggling to score, their shot count on the road is diminishing fast. They had three on the opening day at Aston Villa, two at Leeds and one here. This was a match that was there to be won in the second half, but they did not know how.
That should be a concern for Howe, because his game-plan of contain and counter (and later control) worked well to a point – to the point of creating chances. Forget about scoring goals, the first half of that eventuality is working openings, and Newcastle are attacking like a pen without ink. Because of that, the scoresheet is blank.
Howe recognises that replacing Isak with Nick Woltemade – two strikers with very different in styles – will not be a quick transition.
‘Just naturally we will be a different team attacking wise without Alex,’ said Howe. ‘We will be attacking with a different emphasis. Nick was very effective here with his footwork and link play. He sees some lovely passes. We just need to know and get used to him and his style more. We need to get more runners off him, because he’s very good in that respect. I’m hopeful we’re evolving to a different team, hopefully a better team. That is the plan, but it may take a bit of time.’
Woltemade had four touches in Bournemouth’s area but no efforts on goal. Indeed, he has scored with his only chance so far in black and white.
‘All centre-forwards to a degree are reliant on their service,’ said Howe. ‘Alex wouldn’t have scored a goal for us if we didn’t get up the pitch and get the ball into dangerous areas. We have to do that better as a team. But of course Nick’s a goal-getter – his record last year was very strong. It wasn’t a criticism of him today, more the team. We got into some good areas, and areas we should have done better from.’
Summer signing Nick Woltemade had four touches in Bournemouth’s area and no shots
Eddie Howe will be concerned by Newcastle’s failure to create chances against Bournemouth
Magpies right to feel aggrieved over penalty claim
One of Woltemade’s touches in the area came in the split-second before he made a claim for a penalty early in the second half.
The PGMOL says VAR has a high bar for intervention, and because of that you knew Bafode Diakite’s shirt-tug on the German would not be revisited and over-turned. It should have been.
A foul is a foul and the Laws do not allow for a player to pull on the shirt of an opponent, which is what Diakite did when Woltemade looked to turn and shoot with his back to goal.
The referee, Robert Jones, had a bad angle with being straight on to the incident, but VAR did not. This was not a subjective call, either – he pulled his shirt. But because Woltemade, at 6ft 5ins, has a big, baggy jersey, that tug did not look particularly violent, and that is perhaps why it went unpunished.
‘My gut instinct was a penalty, I was adamant it was,’ said Howe. ‘He was tugged and it stopped him getting a shot off.’
Woltemade felt he should have been awarded a penalty after a shirt pull by Bafode Diakite
Thiaw solid on full debut as Botman stands out
On the flip side of Newcastle’s failure to score was a fourth clean sheet in five. Indeed, they have conceded only once with 11 men on the pitch in the Premier League this season.
Howe deployed a back five with Malick Thiaw making his full debut and Sven Botman making only his second start of the campaign, and both were solid.
Botman does not like his place in the pecking order behind Dan Burn and Fabian Schar, but this was a response that would point towards a run in the team. If he can stay free of injury, Newcastle could have their best centre-back since Jonathan Woodgate, at least that was the belief during his impeccable debut season.
It speaks to his injury woes that, at 25, he is yet to be capped by Netherlands. He was the game’s best player here.
Malick Thiaw made his full Newcastle debut in a back five and produced a solid performance
Sven Botman was Newcastle’s best performer and will hope to have put his injuries behind him
Semenyo symptomatic of Cherries’ display
As much as the game felt there for Newcastle’s taking in the second half, the same was true of Andoni Iraola’s Bournemouth early on. It was surprising, then, that on the back of three straight wins they had little confidence to convert on their promise.
Star player Antoine Semenyo was symptomatic of their performance – he started well and then disappeared.
‘I’ve been riding high for a little bit,’ he said. ‘The bar was set high. But there were a few opportunities. We wanted to attack the space a little bit more, but it didn’t happen as much today.’
Belatedly, in stoppage-time, the hosts had the first effort on target of the second half when Nick Pope saved Justin Kluivert’s free-kick. It would have felt unjust had it gone in, for the game got the scoreline it deserved.
