Newcastle’s next game is at Derby County on Monday evening with a 8pm KO. With yesterday’s results in and only two games remaining to be played for this round of league games it looks like a win at Derby County will take Newcastle into the top 4 in the league.
If Manchester City beat Aston Villa today then Newcastle will be 4th with a win otherwise we’ll be in 3rd place. That will be one of the highest positions we’ve been since Sir Bobby Robson was managing the club.
Newcastle will not have Emre available, since he was injured playing for Turkey on Wednesday evening but everyone else seems available except our long term injured players Duff, Barton, Carr, Ramage and Babayaro.
Enrique and Viduka have niggling hamstring injuries and Sam may elect not to risk them. On checking the PhysioRoom.Com injuries list for Newcastle it looks like Viduka is out till 20th September, so we’ll assume Sam will not risk him on Monday.
Certainly Allardyce has selection problems simply because of the strength of the squad and we think he will play the following team in a 4-4-2 formation.
Harper
Beye Rozhenal Cacapa N’Zogbia
Smith Geremi Butt Milner
Ameobi Martins
Subs: Given, Owen, Taylor, Faye, Enrique
The referee is Peter Walton.
The TV coverage for the game worldwide you can get from www.nufc.com and it looks like it will be beamed live on Setanta Sports in both England and the USA 😀
With the acquisition of Faye and Beye recently, Sam is going to have to leave some really good defenders on the bench or completely out of the match squad for some games, once all players return from injury. We think Sam will still prefer Harper over Given and will start Habib Beye at right back for his debut. We think Abdoulaye Faye, acquired from Bolton, will be on the bench.
We also believe Sam will tend towards safety and start Michael Owen on the bench. That depends on what Michael has looked like in training but we do have 3 tough games coming up the following week – West Ham H Sat 22nd Sep, Arsenal A LGCP Tue 25th Sep and Manchester City A Sat 29th Sep – so Sam may elect to rest Michael.
We don’t think Steven Taylor will make the starting eleven and will be on the subs bench since he can play anywhere along the back four. Sometime in the future we’d like to see Enrique at left back so we can have Charles N’Zogbia and James Milner as the two wingers to the exclusion of Alan Smith.
This is a big opportunity for Newcastle to go high in the league which will give the whole squad a confidence lift for the next 3 games. Newly promoted Derby County have taken only a single point from their first 5 league games and are stuck at the bottom of the league. These are games we just have to take 3 points from – with no excuses.
If we can do this on Monday evening Newcastle will be nicely placed in the league (top 4) for the upcoming tough games. So that’s a big opportunity for the team at this early stage in the season.
What do you think? What should our team be? Should we expect a win?
You can join the discussion of the game on our Newcastle United Forum and also leave comments here.
31 comments so far
ChrisL
Sep 16, 2007 at 10:38 AM
Comment #1Ed,
“Sometime in the future we’d like to see Enrique at left back so we can have Charles N’Zogbia and James Milner as the two wingers to the exclusion of Alan Smith.”
I wonder if when Enrique is selected at left back, if it’s more likely Butt would be rested, not Smith? That would Enable Geremi to be the holding midfielder & Smith to be the creative one. A Geremi + Smith line up would most likely be selected in tough away matches I think. But who knows?
Ed Harrison
Sep 16, 2007 at 10:48 AM
Comment #2ChrisL – could be – that’s one of the good things at Newcastle right now – Sam has so much choice. I think that will happen as Sam will change the team around often. Smith will still play a lot because of his versatility.
Ed
Sep 16, 2007 at 10:50 AM
Comment #3I think we play west ham on the sunday, which makes little sense considering the arsenal game is tuesday – why a squad of good players is so important- will be interesting to see who sam plays when.
Clearly we have to go for a win, and a clean sheet would be nice.
Games on monday are frustrating!
Dingo
Sep 16, 2007 at 11:09 AM
Comment #4Frustrating!!! tell me about it… I am having an operation on my shoulder in the General… gave am a call to find if they would show the match there.. the sister on the ward told me they were not a pub!….. anybody got a freeview box with setanta subscription??? Please bring to ward 17 general hospital 😛
Ed
Sep 16, 2007 at 11:14 AM
Comment #5ha bummer. well if your on the net you can get commentary and possibly a live stream.
t-g-w
Sep 16, 2007 at 11:16 AM
Comment #6Yes, we should win, but we should not expect it. If you don’t respect every team in football you will get beaten. We should not get carried away but play well and deserve the win.
dragoner
Sep 16, 2007 at 11:17 AM
Comment #7feel like i have been waiting FOREVER for this match
Ed
Sep 16, 2007 at 11:18 AM
Comment #8t-g-w: completly agree. i think sam will instill the right mindset in the players.
Jerry
Sep 16, 2007 at 11:36 AM
Comment #9Why is the KO tomorrow vs Derby 3pm?
Graeme
Sep 16, 2007 at 11:46 AM
Comment #10I have no problem respecting Derby County and their achievement in getting to the Premiership. However, I do EXPECT Newcastle to beat them.
They are struggling to survive the transition, as many before them have done and are firmly rooted at the bottom of the table. We must take full advantage of that and hammer them – Liverpool showed the way and look at their goal difference today!!!!
Thats why Derby are already fighting for survival and we are fighting for Europe. We can afford no sentimentality in these game and must play as if our survival depended on it. Derby are favourites to go straight back down, its our job to help them on the way.
Sean
Sep 16, 2007 at 11:52 AM
Comment #11when is barton fit?
And why can’t we play martins and owen as the front 2 i know they are both pace players but they are completely different, owen stays on the last man and gets into great positions and martins has a rocket of a shot and chases the ball all the time and martins is left footed and owen is right. Its a perfect partnership
Graeme
Sep 16, 2007 at 11:59 AM
Comment #12Jerry, the Derby match is an 8pm kick off.
Ed
Sep 16, 2007 at 12:00 PM
Comment #13is 3pm the east coast american time for KO? think its 8pm here.
Darryl Money
Sep 16, 2007 at 12:31 PM
Comment #14yeh, its being shown on SkySports1, 8PM
Funnily enough, skysports yesterday, the website “scorecentre” had the game marked down for 3PM Kickoff. it was removed though, so it must of been origionally planned for yesterday?
ToonKing
Sep 16, 2007 at 12:38 PM
Comment #15I don’t want Butt in the team, as the first post sad, move smith in the middle and bench Butt, even more when Barton comes back bench Geremi too. Smith and Joey in the middle with Milner and Zog on the wings is gold, perfect 4-4-2 midfield, they are both box to box, balanced players.
Hadji
Sep 16, 2007 at 12:50 PM
Comment #16ToonKing….Agree with you 100% for Butt but i’m afraid that with that choise of players we’ll be weak on defencive point of view cause Enrique is not fit yet to play as a LB.Which puts Zoggy as a LB automaticaly.
But we’ll be able to do that in the near future.
Toon Chicken
Sep 16, 2007 at 12:52 PM
Comment #17The games is on Setanta, not SkySports.
Just heard that Galatasaray are going to make a £4m bid for Emre in January.
Bye bye bye bye, bye bye bye bye!
Hadji
Sep 16, 2007 at 1:14 PM
Comment #18ToonChicken….I would’t be happy if i were you.Until January many things could change,maybe you will have different opinion for Emre till then.
If he starts making creativity which we lack so much at the moment,would you want him out then.
I only agree that he needs to lose at least 8 pounds.
My opinion for January
OUT:Ramage,Butt,Carr,Babayaro,Pattison,Ameobi
IN:De Guzman(Feyenord),Fabio Aurelio,Noble,Huntelaar.
Toon Chicken
Sep 16, 2007 at 1:35 PM
Comment #19Hadji – if we get £4m for a complete waste of space who has shown zero commitment to his club I will be laughing my head off. He is a complete waste of space – just like Babayaro, but no doubt you’d like him to stay as well.
Ed Harrison
Sep 16, 2007 at 1:35 PM
Comment #20Game is at 3pm EST in USA – but starts the coverage one hour earlier according to the listings.
Ed Harrison
Sep 16, 2007 at 1:37 PM
Comment #21It’s 8pm KO of course in the UK
toonjon
Sep 16, 2007 at 2:06 PM
Comment #22Does anybody know if there is any live coverage of the game on the internet?
t-g-w
Sep 16, 2007 at 4:00 PM
Comment #23@ Sean
Owen and Martins a perfect partnership? Owen relies on through balls from his strike partner and Martins is too inconcsistent for that – one minute he will cross for Owen to score (a la Wigan game) and then the next moment Oba can’t pass across the floor. Owen needs someone to link up with and that certainly isn’t Martins.
Hadji
Sep 16, 2007 at 4:00 PM
Comment #24ToonChicken…For 4 mill you can never ever buy a player of Emre’s caliber,but Newcastle is famous for losing money on players so this would’t suprise me.
And NO,I don’t want Babayaro to stay,if you noticed my last comment you’dd realized that by now.
Hadji
Sep 16, 2007 at 4:10 PM
Comment #25T-G-W…..What are you talking about man.
First of all this ain’t basketball game and expect every pass to be 100% accurate.
Second,when did Martins & Owen started the game together(this season) so that could actually happen.
Third…It took them 15 min only to combine each other to break Wigan.
Fourth…Martins’s priority is not creativity to pass through balls to Owen,we have Midfielders for that.
Fifth….You should think before you act t-g-w
Toon Chicken
Sep 16, 2007 at 4:23 PM
Comment #26Totally agree with you Hadji – you can’t buy players of Emre’s calibre for £4m.
You can buy 4 better ones for a lot less though – Geremi, Beye, Cacapa, Viduka – total outlay £2m.
FYI; we only paid £3.8m for Emre – so we wouldn’t be losing any money. Apart from the money we have wasted on his wages over the last 26 months in which he has made a thoroughly pathetic 55 appearances and scored only 5 goals.
I rest my case.
Hadji
Sep 16, 2007 at 4:38 PM
Comment #27ToonChicken….You’re right at some point but half all the players you’ve listed are over 30.
When we paid 3.8 mill for Emre he was 24 i think,what i’m saying is that we cannot get the same calibre of Emre for the next 5 to 6 years playing at top level.
Anyway,let’s just see what happens,life is a bitch.
t-g-w
Sep 16, 2007 at 5:38 PM
Comment #28Hadji – No they haven’t played together this season in a competitive game. I wonder why? Sam has seen them in training together and they obviously don’t work. 15 mins to break Wigan… I talked about Oba’s inconsistency and how he is wonderful (Wigan cross) one second but more often than not he is poor at passing. He cannot hold up play to supply Owen with the through balls. As for the midfielders providing through balls, isn’t everyone on here saying how we have no creativity in midfield? Owen plays well with a target man who he can link up with (Heskey for England) – Martins is not a target man. As for me thinking about acting, I have – I use evidence to back up my points. That requires a bit of thinking.
evil dick
Sep 16, 2007 at 10:23 PM
Comment #29it’s 5am kick off here (sydney). so my whole day is riding on a good result.
Rich
Sep 17, 2007 at 12:29 PM
Comment #30im going to agree with Hadji on this one. Unless we get another creative midfielder in January then id be gutted to see emre go, wed be short of options then. give him a chance to get to his full fitness because he no doubt has a lot of talent and is at a good age. Pele rated him in the top 100 footballers in the world a year ago so he cant be and isnt shite!
ChrisL
Sep 17, 2007 at 1:15 PM
Comment #31Pele was a fantastic footballer, but I can’t remember a single time when he was ever spot on with his football comments over the last 15-20 years.
Emre is a decent player but his heart has not (so far) been in the club.