We have all been licking our wounds after Tuesday night, Newcastle United losing 2-0 to Manchester City and hopes of defending our Carabao Cup crown at Wembley, now looking a little unlikely.
Obviously with any match, the result is all important.
However, I thought there was certainly one huge positive to come out of it.
Ahead of the match it was announced that Sven Botman had agreed a new contract, a new deal taking him up to end of June 2030.
This isn’t the massive positive I am referring to in this article, although the Dutch defender committing to the club was undoubtedly great news.
I am talking about the Malick Thiaw and Sven Botman partnership.
I thought the pair of them were excellent against Manchester City, who got absolutely no joy trying to go down the middle.
Erling Haaland barely getting a kick. Ensuring the prolific striker still hasn’t scored against Newcastle United in any match, apart from his very first one against NUFC just after he signed for Manchester City back in August 2022.
Malick Thiaw and Sven Botman looked just like they had earlier in the season, when they ended up replacing last season’s first choice pairing Fabian Schar and Dan Burn, Schar mainly sitting on the bench and Burn ending up at left-back.
The future of Newcastle United many fans were declaring, a centre-back partnership for years to come.
Malick Thiaw and Sven Botman putting in some very assured performances, looking to complement each other perfectly. Three Champions League clean sheets in a row against Union S-G, Benfica and Athletic Club Bilbao, clean sheets away at Leeds and Bournemouth, as well as home to Forest.
Things can change quickly though in football, especially when it comes to some Newcastle United fans.
I can recall many Newcastle fans outraged that Sven Botman wasn’t called up by the Netherlands for the October internationals I think it was, then by the time the November internationals came around, many of these same NUFC fans thought he was a liability for United!
The away defeats at West Ham and Brentford seemed to have a big impact where Sven Botman was concerned, not many played well but the Dutch defender was one of those chosen to be scapegoated, his very unlucky own goal that put West Ham 2-1 up on the stroke of half-time, probably a key trigger for those who love to single out individuals to blame.
Sven Botman ended up picking up a hamstring injury and in his absence, Malick Thiaw continued to impress. A rare moment seeing him gift a goal to Pedro that allowed Chelsea to steal a point.
Sven Botman then ironically getting back into the team due to a rare second Thiaw fail, when the Germany international slipped and allowed Leeds to open the scoring. Eddie Howe replacing Thiaw with Botman at half-time, with the former AC Milan defender also on a yellow card and having given away the penalty for a Leeds second goal, though that was a shocker of a decision as the ‘handball’ only happened because Thiaw was pushed over.
Nevertheless, Botman paired with Schar for that second half and…Schar gets injured and Lewis Miley plays yet another position to see out that Leeds win!
Saturday saw Malick Thiaw and Sven Botman back together, the only two fit senior central defenders and Sven Botman able to see out the full 120+ minutes, although he understandably tired towards the end after so little recent football.
Tuesday night though and I thought Malick Thiaw and Sven Botman looked back to something like their very best against Haaland and Man City, just like they had looked when putting that run together earlier this season, which feels like forever ago, with so many matches having gone by.
It appears to be a thing these days for a sizeable minority of Newcastle United fans to go ridiculously negative, based on very little, often a single moment in a match, at most just one or two games needed to be saying this ‘proves’ whatever.
Sven Botman a case in point.
Ahead of this Man City match, after he had got his new contract, I saw one Newcastle United fan going on way way over the top in the comments section of The Mag, wanting to convince everyone how useless Sven Botman supposedly is. I didn’t see the rest of the debate but this particular individual was challenging anybody to name any five matches when Botman has played well for Newcastle United?
Well, Manchester City on Tuesday became Sven’s latest one, following that challenge.
However, for starters, I would present as evidence pretty much every single Premier League game of the 2022/23 season. The season when Newcastle United had the very best defence in the Premier League, only Man City conceding as few goals as NUFC did, with Pope, Trippier, Schar, Botman and Burn playing almost every PL match that season.
Sven Botman has had some serious injury issues to deal with and the recovering and maintaining full fitness has proved tough.
However, if Malick Thiaw and Sven Botman can both stay fit and play to the levels that they can as individuals AND as a partnership, they can be key to a very successful 2025/26 season.