We saw a different game. Aside from that near-deflected goal at the end of the 1st half, Newcastle were fairly berift of dangerous opportunities. Martial, Pogba and friends were playing with real guile, looking to set up the far post header again and again (scoring on it twice.) And though stats often don't tell the story, these seem pretty accurate to what I saw: Manu w/ 65% possession, 16 SOG to 12 for NU, 11 CK to 4 for NU... I don't think Newcastle is out of it's league in the EPL in general, but ManU was a cut above today. And to be fair, when Fallani and Ibra are your subs... you are carrying a different level of player than NU. That's just reality. (and ManU looked like a 2nd place team with a +21 GD today. Their D was a bit shaky if anything. But going forward they were confident and having fun, esp 2nd half, even when still 2-1.)
Finishing in the top half of the Premiership is something Newcastle has only seen twice in the last ten years, so just not being in a relegation battle is good news for them.
There is a reason Klopp scares Mourinho into playing very defensive football. That top heavy press and darting diagonal runs and wing play wreck havoc with his already defensive structure. They force him to defend space he usually negates further up the pitch. This is why Hudd under Wagner had so much success. Mo decided not to play them seriously. In this match, Benitez didn't quite have the courage to press high and wide and Mo simply picked them off at the far post with taller players. It was terribly simplistic and effective. Like passing to the kid no one bothers to defend for a layup.
Steve Cherundolo was similarly disadvantaged, and he didn't have Yedlin's speed. His teammates will have to learn to limit the liability or give up more goals on headers.
Part of the problem was letting them futz around with the ball in the wide position until they could flood the box. On the header over Yedlin there were like 5 or 6 cut backs while ManU got players forward. Need to get a double team on the ball by then or get a body on the crosser. And DY needs to learn to get a body on the player too. He got an elbow across his neck to push open space. You don't have to get a head on the ball if your body keeps the attacker from making good contact. But as I said,ManU was just better on offense yesterday. They had too much time, and too much confidence.
TBF NU's taller center-backs got beat in the air too. If you give a team long enough to get players forward and outnumber you, you risk giving up those backpost headers. I'm tempted to go through and count the number of times ManU tried that little "screen pass" chip across the goal mouth 5-6 at least, probs more - and worked 2x.
I'm making no judgement as to the Newcastle defense in general, just that short outside backs have a tendency to get beat in the air. Team's usually find ways to compensate for that, usually having shorter players with other assignments, or at least forgive when it does happen.
Yeah, I think NU tries to do that to an extent. they just gave ManU so much times on the ball this week, they were pretty regularly overloaded. It was clearly part of the game-plan - and not just vs. DY. Someone figured they could beat NU on the cross - and they did.