Newcastle match review

By: j | August 7th, 2008

As in the last three matches, the Newcastle tussle ended in a draw, this time level at two. PSV fought back after a very poor start in which they surrendered two goals within the first eight minutes of the match. On the surface this was a troubling start given the amount of focus upon shoring up the defensive issues.

The gist of the defensive problem stemmed from a number of inexperienced players getting a very high profile start. While I know on first reading of two goals in the opening eight minutes is alarming, given they settled down and thwarted all efforts after,a lot can be said of their play. However I want to also emphasize the use of this friendly to gain quality inexperience is one of the best coaching decisions I’ve seen this pre-season. While certainly there are other managers who use this period properly, all-too-often I see managers trying to drum-up home support by rolling out their top squad against substitutes or recently promoted reserves. PSV supporters should be very pleased with this result and Hubb Stevens choices. The use of Peruvian Reimond Manco, who turns eighteen in a few weeks, was brilliant. He faced many difficult challenges but showed very good confidence, solid touch and creating a number of goal scoring opportunities. The same can be said of nineteen year-old academy product Stijn Wuytens and Balázs Dzsudzsák, who continues to create opportunities and has a very bright future.

After falling behind 2-0, the club settled down and gradually clawed back a goal with an impressive goal by the much sought-after Ibrahim Afellay at the thirty-second minute. Finally after narrowly missing on a few opportunities Nordin Amrabat scored off a Carlos Salcido cross at the seventy-first minute.

Again I know this was “only” a draw but to use this match as Hubb Stevens did was superb and the result left you with many positives for this season and many to come. To see a young group on the pitch fight back for a draw is a very promising outcome.

With apologies to those who were waiting for this review, I erroneously saved it in que but did not “post”.