QPR 2-1 Newcastle: Five things we learned as pitiful United condemned themselves to last-day ordeal
1, Let's be honest, Newcastle United deserve to go down
No team that picks up one point from a possible 30 can make a case that it deserves to stay up and only Hull’s collapse is keeping Newcastle’s heads above water. What a pitiful, pathetic situation it is for the club to find itself in with one Premier League game remaining in a season where they should never have allowed themselves to get dragged into trouble.
There are so many culpable for this calamity. It starts with Lee Charnley and the complacency that assumed a flawed recruitment, and installing John Carver, wouldn’t lead to a nose-dive of epic problems – and it goes through the dug-out and into a squad where too many players have posted cowardly performances when it matters.
Ryan Taylor jumping out of a challenge just before Leroy Fer’s goal just about sums it up. Let’s hope it doesn’t happen but the stark reality is, Newcastle deserve to go down based on the last five months.
2, Next Sunday is going to be an excruciating, awful ordeal
A lot was made by Newcastle’s players and management about their supposed courage when the pressure was on against West Brom, but do they really have the bottle for what is going to be an excruciating afternoon against West Ham next week?
It will be the worst kind of torture – looking to results elsewhere while players who know they are disliked try to rouse themselves for one last time in front of a nervy home crowd who have long since run out of patience with them. It sounds like a recipe for disaster.
3, John Carver is running out of excuses
The interim head coach said it was misfortune rather than bad management that has landed United in trouble.
He took it a step further after this defeat by saying that United’s quality deficit was the reason why they lost on Saturday – but had he forgotten when he said that that the opposition were lamentable too?
Injuries are clearing up to the extent where United only had two senior players out on Saturday – and Carver surely has to accept his own role in all this.
The tactics were off-key, there was no reaction to the “ten minutes of madness”, the system looked a mess and unless Newcastle come up with a clear plan of action in the next eight days, the fear is it will be repeated on Sunday. Can he be trusted?
4, This is a dreadful squad but they're still under-performing massively
John Carver has been dredging from the bottom of the barrel since February. Recalling Ryan Taylor and Jonas Gutierrez was a desperate attempt to inject experience into this team and give them a backbone that didn’t work – but supposed quality players have let the team down too.
It is a squad, quite simply, that isn’t up to it – but what has been equally troubling are those hiding when the going has got tough.
Tim Krul’s performances in recent weeks haven’t been those of a World Cup player, Fabricio Coloccini hasn’t done enough and Moussa Sissoko strolled through this one again. They are handsomely rewarded, so where is the payback?
Personally, I think only Ayoze Perez and Jack Colback – although he wasn’t great here – can be excused their involvement in this omnishambles.
5, Where is Mike Ashley?
Another week, another director’s box missing the presence of Newcastle United’s owner – heckled on 34 minutes. His disappearing act is a stark contrast to last season, when he was a visible presence up and down the country.
Lee Charnley was flanked by Ashley's PR man Keith Bishop in the director's box. But no Ashley.
When exactly is he going to take responsibility for the mess that he has created on Tyneside?
