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Huddersfield 0 Newcastle 1 – How much the two teams of players cost to buy

5 years ago
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It finished Huddersfield 0 Newcastle 1 and at the end of the day, that is all anybody cares about this Sunday morning.

This and Burnley are our two shortest away trips of the season and a 3pm Saturday afternoon kick-off ticked a box as well.

Nice for a change getting back from an away game at a reasonable hour.

I had a chance to go down the local before back home with a celebration Indian takeaway (has to be done when we win, or indeed draw, lose…) and watch Match of The Day.

I was interested to hear Danny Murphy say that Rafa Benitez will deserve a medal if he somehow gets this Newcastle team to stay up again in relative middle of the table comfort.

My first reaction, as well as agreeing of course, was that we deserve a medal watching the kind of football we are enduring at the minute.

Yesterday was dreadful, I have just seen some happy clappy marks out of 10 from the Chronicle, one player got nine and five others got eight, talk about relying on the majority of fans not having seen the match!!!

It is not a criticism of Rafa Benitez but Newcastle were shocking, it was just as well the home side were even more clueless or else NUFC would surely have lost. Huddersfield had 74% possession! If Mooy hadn’t been injured then surely they would have managed a goal and Newcastle would have been sunk.

Newcastle had those two decent breaks when Rondon scored and Perez had one wrongly disallowed but apart from that, the only real positives were a combination of poor Huddersfield crosses into the box and Dubravka and his three centre-backs dealing with them.

Good solid 7 out of 10 defending from the four of them but they were hardly really tested by any kind of quality, or even numbers getting into the box for the home side.

As I say though, I don’t blame Rafa, and he is simply doing what he has to in the hope it might just be enough to keep Newcastle afloat until the club might get the lifeline of a decent owner.

On the way home we get stuck in traffic and there was some local (to Huddersfield) phone-in with punters slagging Rafa off for his tactics.

Truth is, even against a side as useless as Huddersfield clearly are, especially when missing a couple of their half-decent players, Newcastle would almost certainly get beat if coming out and trying to play football, rather then a back five/whole team defending approach.

There still seems to be a denial elsewhere about what Rafa Benitez is having to deal with at Newcastle. Even though the facts say otherwise, neutrals don’t want to accept that Newcastle are one of a handful of clubs who have very similarly funded teams/squads, way behind the likes of Bournemouth, West Ham, Fulham, Palace and others.

I had a look to see how much the players in both teams yesterday had cost to buy, it sums it up!

Huddersfield Town starting eleven (The prices paid to buy players via Transfermarkt):

£2.2m Lossl

£2.0m Jorgensen

£2.0m Schindler

£18m Kongolo

£4.5m Hadergjonaj

£2.2m Bacuna

£0 Hogg (free transfer)

£0 Billing (signed as a youth player)

£0 Lowe (free transfer)

£11.1m Pritchard

£3.4m Depoitre

£45.4m

Newcastle United starting eleven (The prices paid to buy players via Transfermarkt):

£3.6m Dubravka

£4.5m Manquillo

£3.6m Schar

£4.5m Lascelles

£5.4m Clark

£0 Kenedy (loan)

£4.8m Diame

£0 Ki (Free transfer)

£6.7m Atsu

£1.8m Perez

£0 Rondon (loan)

£34.9m

That is the reality, Newcastle didn’t even have a single starter yesterday who had cost £7m.

As fans we know what could be potentially possible at Newcastle United with a different owner but the current reality is that NUFC are grouped with Cardiff and Huddersfield when it comes to investment in the squad, not with Bournemouth or Wolves or whoever.

Rafa Benitez keeps saying every game is a massive challenge and the team have to give everything and be at their best to stand any chance of winning.

Until Newcastle get some better quality players there is no alternative for the manager than these desperate and defensive tactics, if survival is to be a reality, unless money is spent in January.

Stats from BBC Sport:

Huddersfield 0 Newcastle 1 

Goals:

Newcastle: Rondon 55

Possession was Huddersfield 76% Newcastle 24%

Total shots were  Huddersfield 15 Newcastle 8

Shots on target were Huddersfield 5 Newcastle 5

Corners were  Huddersfield 10 Newcastle 1

Referee: Anthony Taylor

Newcastle United:

Dubravka, Manquillo, Schar, Lascelles, Clark, Kenedy (Dummett 89), Ki (Hayden 72), Diame, Atsu, Rondon (Ritchie 81), Perez

Unused Subs:

Woodman, Joselu, Muto, Murphy

Crowd: 24,036 (Newcastle 2,400)

(Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer, United behind Rafa Benitez ahead of Mike Ashley selling Newcastle United – Read HERE)

(Instant NUFC fan/writer reaction to the win HERE)

(Match ratings for all NUFC players v Huddersfield HERE)

(David Wagner can’t believe that Huddersfield lost to Newcastle – Read HERE)

(Rafa Benitez warns after Huddersfield 0 Newcastle 1 “If you ask about referees I won’t say anything” – Read HERE)
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