James Tarkowski has been heavily linked with a move to Newcastle United.
Refusing to sign a new contract, his current deal ends in June (2022), so it is heavily rumoured that Burnley will feel forced to sell him in January, rather than lose him for nothing in seven months time.
However, today James Tarkowski was playing against Newcastle United, indeed he captained Burnley at St James Park.
I was interested (amazed!) at what he had to say about how he saw the game had went…
James Tarkowski talking after losing 1-0 to Newcastle United:
“I would say it’s probably a difficult one to take, it was a close game.
“I thought we dominated more of the game than they did.
“They have a huge following behind them at the moment, pushing them on, but I thought it was a good performance from us really.
“We created chances, Vyds [Vydra] was in a good position late on in the first-half, then Jay’s [Rodriguez] was half a yard away [offside].
“So, we’re getting in the right areas.
“We just have to tidy up on those little details to get the ball in the back of the net.
“It’s just them fine margins at the minute, just aren’t going our way.
“Today’s just three points for them and none for us.
“It’s not the end of the world.
“It’s still early on in the season, there’s plenty of time to put things right and get points on the board.
“It’s disappointing, but we move on to next weekend back at home, before another home game after that.
“Hopefully those margins fall in our favour sooner rather than later.”
Is he for real?
Yes, the first thirty, maybe forty, minutes were pretty level and indeed really scrappy and generally poor quality.
However, once Callum Wilson put Newcastle in the lead on 40 minutes, it was a case of United playing some really good stuff and could / should have won by three of four, whilst Burnley were reduced to just booting it forward hoping something might happen.
Look at the stats below.
Newcastle United with 10 v 3 on corners, then 18 v 10 on shots, as for efforts on target it was 4 v 1 in Newcastle’s favour and I can’t even recall that one Burnley effort on target.
On the other hand, those final 50 minutes of the match saw numerous NUFC chances and good situations, only choosing the wrong final ball, or shooting instead of passing, preventing a three or four goal win. As well of course as Pope making some really good saves, including a fingertip one to deny Almiron. Plus the Paraguayan saw another effort beat Pope and heading towards the top corner, only for a defender to deflect away with his head. Almiron also seeing another effort blocked by a defender’s arm in the first half, only not a penalty because of how close to the ball the defender was.
Yes, the possession was very evenly split with 48% for Newcastle and 52% Burnley. However, a serious proportion of the visitors’ 52% must have been when the ball was 60 feet in the air as James Tarkowski and his teammates just hoofed it up the pitch time after time.
Stats from BBC Sport:
Newcastle 1 Burnley 0 – Saturday 4 December 3pm
(Half-time stats in brackets)
Goals:
Burnley:
Newcastle:
Wilson 40
Possession was Burnley 52% (52%) Newcastle 48% (48%)
Total shots were Burnley 10 (6) Newcastle 18 (7)
Shots on target were Burnley 1 (1) Newcastle 4 (1)
Corners were Burnley 3 (1) Newcastle 10 (2)
Referee: Paul Tierney
Crowd: 51,948 (Burnley 1,600)
Newcastle United:
Dubravka, Manquillo, Schar, Lascelles, Lewis, Shelvey, Willock, Saint-Maximin (Murphy 90+1), Almiron (Fernandez 85), Joelinton, Wilson
Unused Subs:
Darlow, Ritchie, Hayden, Hendrick, Krafth, Longstaff, Gayle
(Newcastle 1 Burnley 0 – Match ratings and comments on all the NUFC players – Read HERE)
(Alan Shearer celebrates at St James Park “A winnnnnn and a clean sheet, is it Xmas!!!?” Read HERE)
(Newcastle 1 Burnley 0 – Instant NUFC fan/writer reaction to Saturday’s victory! Read HERE)
(Newcastle United WIN! – Read HERE)
