Newcastle United Season Review

So here we are once again, a season review, another season ended under Rafa Benitez on a high note. Newcastle United finish in 10th place in the Premier League, a league in which we were expected to be relegated from, a league in which we have finished in the top half of, fairly comfortably too. A season where we have been knocked by every pundit in the land, but a season that has seen Newcastle United’s unwavering support stick by their team, through thick and thin, once again. We apparently have a “Championship side”, a team full of players who are simply not good enough; an easy and rather lazy go to line when we lose for most of the media. We may be thin on numbers and we certainly do not have the global stars that glitter a lot of the Premier League sides but as the banner from Wor Flags showed on Sunday, Where there is Unity, there is Always Victory. Newcastle United have unity in abundance.

There has been a long running theme through my blogs over the last 3 years and that has been Rafa Benitez. It is hard to write a season review without focusing on the real reason that there is such a good feeling around the club right now – and there has been since the day he took over. Sure, there have been some lows, there has been some defeats but what is hard to describe to ‘outsiders’ is the way in which the Spaniard has completely transformed our club. Pundits and non-Newcastle following press may well pore scorn over Rafa and Newcastle United, but we don’t care. We have been on a steady decline since Sir Bobby Robson left and an even steeper decline since Mike Ashley bought the club over a decade ago but for once, we are starting to see glimmers of hope shining through.
I could talk about my worries for the coming summer with Mike Ashley still holding the purse strings but I said my piece in last week’s articles and now is not the time to talk about the negatives. What I wanted to do in this blog is to pick my highlights from this season.

The second half of the season

A bit left field I know but this season had two clear halves, the first half was dreadful, we were playing awful football, losing matches and hovering around the bottom 5 of the league. Times were bleak, relegation seemed to be a certainty and after the January transfer window when we made no permanent signings, a lot of fans, myself included, almost conceded defeat. The final league position is clearly the main highlight of the season but it was the second half of the season that got us there. We played 17 league games in 2018 and won 7 of them, losing only 6 (3 of those came over the last few weeks when the team seemed to have gone on holiday prematurely). That form isn’t much to shout about I know but we started to win games and it was those points that achieved survival.

Martin Dubravka

This is an obvious one for Newcastle United fans and it is interesting to see the Sky and BBC MOTD pundits starting to take notice of the on-loan shot stopper in recent weeks. I mentioned above that no permanent signings were made in January but one of the in-coming loan players, alongside Kenedy and Slimani, was the Slovakian keeper Dubravka; when the international keeper was linked most fans raised an eyebrow or two. Rob Elliot and Karl Darlow were having average seasons so to bring a keeper in was slightly confusing when the priority seemed to be attack minded players but this is a perfect example of when we just need to trust Rafa. Dubravka has transformed the season, he has pulled off some world class saves but more than that, he has given his defenders confidence and simply by having him in the side has changed the way we play. We defend with confidence and aggression and that is down to Dubravka. He has a fee of roughly £6m attached to his loan agreement which in this day and age is mind boggling. I would imagine his move will be made permanent as soon as the transfer window opens.

Player improvement

Again, a fairly left field choice as a highlight but this is not something I have witnessed as a Newcastle fan or a long time, possibly ever. We were labelled as Championship side (a Championship winning side I might add) and whilst I disagree with the label, I do see where it comes from. Newcastle United started their return to the Premier League season with mostly the same side that won the EFL Championship last season, as I said before it is a rather lazy statement. Given we were relegation fodder for the first few months of the season I started to think that maybe they had a point; we were losing matches easily, mistakes were being made and quite frankly, we looked like a poor side. Then something happened, Mo Diame was moved back from his number 10 role, a role in which he has consistently struggled in. He partnered Jonjo Shelvey in the centre of midfield and suddenly became the greatest defensive midfielder the world has ever seen (I am standing by that!). His change in form has been phenomenal and he has kept his performances at this level throughout the last few months of the season. Yaya Toure in his prime has got nothing on Mo Diame right now and long may it continue.

Mo Diame is not the exception though. We have also seen the likes of Paul Dummett become a magnificent left back and he has found a turn of pace I didn’t know existed. Jonjo Shelvey has been in the best form of his career over the last few months and it will be a crying shame if he is not selected for the England World Cup squad; he is arguably England’s most in form midfielder right now. Like Shelvey, Lascelles has been playing with one eye on a World Cup squad place and his form has been impeccable. This is partly due to the arrival of Dubravka but Lascelles has been dominant at the back alongside the equally impressive Lejeune.

Wor Flags

I wrote a piece of on this fans group a few months ago and I am going to say it again, the work they have done, in their own time, using mostly their own money, has completely transformed the match day experience for Newcastle United fans for the better. The atmosphere at St. James’ Park has always been good but Wor Flags has created something very, very special indeed. I can’t speak for the rest of Newcastle United fans but I hope they continue their good work for a long, long time.

Manchester United at home

A match most fans would say was the turning point of the season. 11th February 2018 and Martin Dubravka’s debut. The game ended 1-0 with Dubravka making some key saves but it was a win, a clean sheet, 3 points against a top 4 side and a real signal of intent. The result gave fans and players alike hope that we could stay up and the manner in which we won was impressive. We bossed the game from start to finish and it really highlighted how much the likes of Diame, Dummett and Shelvey had improved.

So there we have it, another season review, another season that has ended on a real high. A summer of uncertainly most definitely lies ahead but I for one am going to try and ignore that and bask in what has been a hugely successful and enjoyable season for Newcastle United. Howay the lads!