'Not good enough': Anthony Gordon gives brutal assessment of worrying Newcastle United trend
Newcastle United dropped two points once again last night, letting a lead slip in the dying minutes of a game to come away with a draw when the game should have been wrapped up long before.
Bayer Leverkusen probably deserved a draw on the balance of play over the 90 minutes, so we can't really complain about he result per se, but it was once again Newcastle failing to see out a lead that left the fans frustrated.
On top of that, Newcastle also conceded from another set-piece, something that really shouldn't be happening with the size of the players at our disposal.
The set-piece problem is one that can be worked on, but this habit of conceding late goals suggests there's something deeper at play, be it a fitness issue or a mentality issue.
Anthony Gordon says fatigue could be to blame for all the late goals
Anthony Gordon spoke to TNT Sports after last night's draw in Leverkusen and he suggested it could be a mix of both.
"I don't know if it's fatigue with all the games coming up, that we're getting a bit tired late on in games. I'm not too sure. But listen, I think it all comes back to mentality. I think we've got to be strong. We've got to hold off in them games because the top teams do.
"[on conceding from set-pieces] Yeah, not good enough. I think it's something we're definitely working on. We spend a lot of time on it. Not an attacker's dream, but it has to be done because we're we're not doing it well enough. Again, come back to mentality. We need to be stronger."
Eddie Howe is in a no-win situation
We aren't as concerned about the set-piece side of things, except when it combines with the late goals problem, obviously.
If it is a fatigue issue with the congested fixture list, then surely it's down to Eddie Howe to rotate the squad more.
Having said that, it just opens him up to criticism when he does. We're the worst for it when we see Joe Willock's name on the team sheet or someone else we don't deem to be first-team quality. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
