Newcastle have lost three games in a row in the Premier League, and we’ve had just one victory in our last eight league games, and picked up only six points in those games, since we beat Norwich 1-0 at St. James’ Park on September 23rd.
That’s a slump for Newcastle to be sure, and we just have to try to turn things around tonight at Stoke City, which is never an easy place to get points from.
Newcastle currently have nine first team players out through injury by our reckoning – Ryan Taylor, Haris Vuckic, Dan Gosling, Ben Arfa, Steven Taylor, Yohan Cabaye, Shola Ameobi, Gabby Obertan and Adam Campbell – and some of those players are out for very lengthy periods.
So Alan Pardew doesn’t really have much to choose from for his team tonight, and we think it will be very much like the side that played at Southampton, but of course Fabricio Coloccini is back from his three match suspension, and will resume the Newcastle captaincy tonight at the Britannia Stadium.
This is the side we think will start the game tonight:
Krul
Simpson Coloccini (c) Williamson Santon
Gutierrez Anita Tiote Ferguson
Ba Cisse
Subs: Elliot Tavernier Bigirimana Perch Marveaux Ameobi (Sa) Ranger
Alan may find a starting position for the fit again James Perch, but we think that will be the starting line-up and James should get some playing time in the second half.
The Newcastle manager knows that Stoke’s a tough place to visit – at any time:
“They’re always very, very difficult to beat.” “Tony Pulis sets his team up and they’re a strong, physical unit. Set-plays they excel at and they’re very good defensively so it’s hard for any team to go and break them down.”
“That’s something that we need to try and achieve. We won there last year with one of our big results of the season and obviously we’re going to have to try and emulate that.”
“You need to play your own game but you need to be able to cope with theirs – that’s the question they ask. They find teams out by doing that and we have great respect for what they do.”
Newcastle played great in this fixture last season, and we won there 3-1 for the first time in a long while, and Demba Ba hit a famous hat-trick – and a result like that tonight would raise the spirits of Newcastle fans sky-high.
And it’s likely to be a low scoring affair tonight, with both teams finding it difficult to put the ball in the back of the net these days, and there’s only been six goals in the last six games at the Britannia Stadium.
Stoke also have their injury woes, and is it a surprise that former Newcastle player Michel Owen is out with another hamstring problem?
Owen has only recently returned to training but is unlikely to feature tonight against his former side, although he could be on the bench – and Andy Wilkinson is likely to miss out with a back problem, and Marc Wilson and Rory Delap have long term injuries.
Let us know how you think the game will go tonight – with Newcastle needing to get at least something out of this game to stop the rot.
Howay The Lads!!
269 comments so far
Ibizatoon - Back by popular demand
Nov 28, 2012 at 11:38 AM
Comment #1Was that Alan saying that whilst we need to think and contain the opposition but we also need to play our own game and make them ask some questions too?
Progress or lip flapping?
Can I convince myself to get excited for tonights game? Jury is out, but Newcastle get me every time, usually just before kick off.
rainrix
Nov 28, 2012 at 11:38 AM
Comment #2I will take to sunderland with a sniper rifle if that is the actual line up.
Transfer Sage
Nov 28, 2012 at 11:39 AM
Comment #3I am going for a narrow newcastle win tonight.
From what I have heard off pardew the lads will be fired up after the talking to they had after southampton. I think they will battle and get at least the draw.
Transfer Sage
Nov 28, 2012 at 11:39 AM
Comment #4Nobody can deny we have a big squad.
The problem comes that we have a severe lack of depth in 3 key areas.
defence – fullback and centre back…little to choose from
ceative players – only cabaye and ben arfa are creative (fergie maybe for crossing and obertan but not genuine creativity)
Pace- we lack any pace, none in defence and none in advanced areas, it means teams can push up and limit or space and easier to catch us on the break.
Address these 3 problems over the january window and summer and we will see the best out of our players.
Why do people think cabaye is so good for france? not just better players aroun him or an advanced position. The pace of ribery, benzema, and others means that the oppossition gets stretched and it leaves more room for cabaye to play his game.
mattyNUFC
Nov 28, 2012 at 11:39 AM
Comment #5transfer – last thread
i agree re Carver. I don’t think AP is the only culprit with regards to the tactics on display. I really wanted (and I know it’s easier to mention in hindsight, especially now that he’s doing so well with WBA, but i’d chance to say most fans wanted him back) Clarke to come here before he chose Lpool
and sirtoon – last thread
seems the baffling, mind-bogglingly illogical utterance continue.
doesnt he have a match to be preparing for? sure seems to have too much time press conferences
Novocastrian66
Nov 28, 2012 at 11:40 AM
Comment #6Dreading tonight’s match. We were battered on Sunday and I cannot see any other result than a loss and a heavy one at that. Hopefully we will salvage a point. A win is beyond us without a dramatic change in fortune and form.
nufc.romania
Nov 28, 2012 at 11:41 AM
Comment #7why we don’t start whit marveaux ? if we loose we have big troubles 🙁
Transfer Sage
Nov 28, 2012 at 11:42 AM
Comment #8Can anyone think of a possible reason we persist with 442 after the success of last year in 433 where we looked much better.
I am struggling. The only reason I have is to appease Ba, to get him to sign a new deal with no release clause cause Pardew fears he would not be replaced if he left which would leave him cisse and shola.
Has anyone got a better reason? I am just trying to explain why we stick with 442…but really cant think why…especially after we tried 433 and it worked so much better, not perfect but better.
mattyNUFC
Nov 28, 2012 at 11:42 AM
Comment #9romania
if he doesn’t start something is very, very wrong
i don’t think he’s the one to win us the match single-handedly, but he’s our only potential creative outlet
Transfer Sage
Nov 28, 2012 at 11:44 AM
Comment #10Matty
Carver is still a good coach.
I would like to see him involved still. Maybe a link between the first team and the junior sides. Overseeing the whole operation and working with pardew, carr and beardsley to bring in and develop kids and implement a style into the club.
rainrix
Nov 28, 2012 at 11:44 AM
Comment #11Sage… Ba’s the only reason i can think of as well. The thing is though even last year when we did play 4-3-3 ba was still getting chances, just a lack of confidence i think stopped him from scoring. Now that he’s in form i don’t see why we don’t move him left
mattyNUFC
Nov 28, 2012 at 11:45 AM
Comment #12TS
i think that issue has probably taken up a good 65% of the discussions on here since the season started, ha
god knows, no use getting into it now. let’s just accept it and try to enjoy another match of 442 with two holding CMs and the two dembas up from with marv on the bench 😀 no, no 🙁 very sad if it is
Graeme
Nov 28, 2012 at 11:45 AM
Comment #13Given the way Stoke play, would it not be worth throwing Ranger into the equation and inject some pace into the attack? He is capable enough to give the Stoke back 4 a hard time, which, even if he doesn’t score, can leave openings for Cisse or Ba to exploit?
mattyNUFC
Nov 28, 2012 at 11:47 AM
Comment #14rainrx
and, imo at least, his contribution to the team, not just in fitting with the formation, was so so so much great on the left
oh well, i’m done with that issue until i see the team sheet
mattyNUFC
Nov 28, 2012 at 11:47 AM
Comment #15greater*
Transfer Sage
Nov 28, 2012 at 11:48 AM
Comment #16graeme
not sure on his match fitness so don’t know about from the start with ranger.
The thing ranger has in his favour is he is our only forward who will run the channels and stretch the defence a bit.
If he keeps himself right I think he could be an asset to us this season.
catchy in norway
Nov 28, 2012 at 11:48 AM
Comment #17ibiza,, your a loveble fool
i love how your optimistic and want to give the guy a chance,
but
i really cant see how 2 more months will do him any good,,
you see how he has been for 2 years, so why would he change in 2 months
you either accept that from a footballing point of view, if we stay up and he stays, the football will always be poor, some results will be good, he will always tell us lies, regardless, he is always covering for the 2 fat men,
i dont see how he can change his opinion on how football should be played when 1 of his main players is out until feb,
13 matches in, he still has no idea what to do with BA/CISSE, but if you want take that back further, its jan 2012, he can not get the best out of those 2 in the same side
history is reapeting itself , (yes just like me) we are a team on the way down fast, and if something is not done fast,, before the end of jan, it will be to late
when the end of jan come your gona say,, well come on ,, he has only just signed so and so, let them settle, then how long,,
you can see the excuses now, well if om honest,, the chaiman backed me, we got some tereble injuries that would hurt any team, the new players came in and needed that time to get used to a new league, bang, may down,
just a though, harry got his first point last night, he only needs to get to 17th place, thats his cup final.. there club will spend in jan and back him,, PL is getting villa playing again
its to scary to think, us , this big club will go down again,
the 2 cancers at our club are prdew,, no footballing brain at all, you all think it was a master stroke beating man u 3 nil with long ball football,
and lambass,, mr casino man, with no clue about football,,
say what you like about FAT FREDY, but he backed the club, maybe he was running it wrong, but id have him back tomorrow
rainrix
Nov 28, 2012 at 11:49 AM
Comment #18Matty… Yep he was doing really well, i don’t think he was ever unsettled, just really frustrated he wasn’t scoring, now he’s in form i wouldn’t back against him scoring from the left. Also i don’t think the fact he was always subbed off instead of cisse every time we were ahead helped.
sirtoongospel
Nov 28, 2012 at 11:50 AM
Comment #19I m absolutely gobsmacked at the quote I have just read in the Chronicle. Talking about Ba and Cisse.
PArdew says they have to find a way to score goals “regardless of the service”.
Is he taking the pi55??? They have 11 between them and Cisse has 2 wrongly disallowed, Demba at least 1. They should have a true tally of 14. In a team that hasn’t played more than 40 minutes of decent football all season.
So go on Pards, blame the forwards, who single handedly fired us into 5th last season, sometimes with miracle goals.
The team are not only failing to play to their strengths, but if i didn’t know better, would actually think they were trying to make it harder for them!!!
Our strikers have 11 between them. How many other teams have strike partnerships that have scored more? There are 13 teams above us, I guarantee there aren’t 13 teams with more prolific strikers.
Our problem is we have too many defensive midfielders (or they have been made to go this way) and our defence is woeful. Maybe the midfield are defensive because they know only too well how bad/slow our defence is.
Don’t blame the strikers Pards, they are a shining light in the club that will give us a fighting chance if and when the rest start playing half decent
Transfer Sage
Nov 28, 2012 at 11:50 AM
Comment #20rainrix
wide left last year ba only didn’t score because of a few very good saves…so surely if he kept getting those chances he would score.
I dont think Ba is a good lone front man though, so if we went 1 up top has to be cisse for me.
catchy in norway
Nov 28, 2012 at 11:50 AM
Comment #21why arnt we playing 424??
play like tennis, watch the ball get hoofed up and down the pitch
mattyNUFC
Nov 28, 2012 at 11:50 AM
Comment #22catchy
we see eye-to-eye on pardews ability, or lack thereof
but, for the morale of the team and fear of who MA might install afterwards, I could only see good reason to sack him before February if
1) this awful form continues
or 2) he loses the dressing room
Indian Magpie
Nov 28, 2012 at 11:51 AM
Comment #23My prediction
Ht
SCFC 0 NUFC 1
Pardew will then batten down the hatches
FT
SCFC 1 NUFC 1
catchy in norway
Nov 28, 2012 at 11:51 AM
Comment #24Transfer Sage
yes there where some good save, but he didnt et so many chances too,
Transfer Sage
Nov 28, 2012 at 11:52 AM
Comment #25Catchy
You say Pardew has followed a patter in every job.
1 good year, followed by a bad year then sacked? yes?
Well I don’t think Ashley will sack him. We will get to see the third year. Will it be a year he turns things around?
We don’t know but it will be interesting to find out, wont it? It gives him a chance to learn from his mistakes.
mattyNUFC
Nov 28, 2012 at 11:53 AM
Comment #26to elaborate on sirtoon’s post, here’s the quote:
The post-mortem of the 2-0 loss to Southampton resulted in some observers flagging up the lack of service to United’s Senegalese duo.
But Pardew said: “Regardless of the service they need to find a way to score goals.
“We need to help them and they need to help us.”
Conaldo (The Wizard...Also Bestest Friends With Paul Scharner)
Nov 28, 2012 at 11:54 AM
Comment #27Today is a game for shola I there ever was one. If we play one up front, he will get isolated by stokes defence. Two upfront without any physicality, then we probably won’t be able to break them. Three upfront then you have two non-physical strikers and a small winger, or two small wingers.
For me, I would like to see ba played with ranger behind him. Puts a lot of pressure on him, as ba will have to create holes in the defence and ranger will have to use his pace to latch on to every ball.
But is ranger up for it? Is he ready? Only Pardew knows that.
Transfer Sage
Nov 28, 2012 at 11:54 AM
Comment #28catchy
ba didn’t get as many chances as he doesnt centrally…but surely one player missing our a bit for the good of the team is a sacrifice that shuld be made…at least tried.
Jamiemac
Nov 28, 2012 at 11:54 AM
Comment #29Repost
I was at the kc stadium tonight watching Hull vs Palace since I only live a couple miles away from the stadium.
What I saw from Hull impressed me immensely. They created chance after chance and missed a tonne of sitters. Anyway how they did this was playing a 5-3-2 formation with 2 wing backs. The 3 centre mids were collecting the ball and all the time the 2 wing backs were hugging the byline and always in tonnes of space. This allowed them to either get down the line and deliver a cross or cut inside and shoot or make a pass.
I can only recall Wigan playing this formation in the prem I think but I think it’s a great way to play possession football. From what I’ve seen of Hull this season Bruce has got them dominating matches but lacks a clinical finisher.
So I was thinking would this work for Newcastle? Lets say we sign Debuchey and Douglas. We could play Colo, Taylor and Douglas as the 3 centre backs then Debuchey and Santon as the wing backs, Tiote Anita and Cab as the 3 in midfield then Ben Arfa playing just behind Cisse like Koren played behind Aluko for Hull.
What are your guys thoughts on this?
rainrix
Nov 28, 2012 at 11:54 AM
Comment #30Sage… Exactly i dont think he’d be unhappy if he was scoring from the left and the team was doing well.
I agree with you also ba really cant hold the line himself, he worked well with best as they were different type of strikers, the same with shola. But ba and cisse just doesn’t work, they’re both finishers and positional strikers, far to similar, although ba is better on the ball than cisse so i’d stick him left instead of cisse.
sirtoongospel
Nov 28, 2012 at 11:55 AM
Comment #31Transfer Sage, I have said the same quite a bit, and got slated for it. Ba could have scored 6 or 7 more while on the left, and we looked awesome.
Seems to me they are desperate to keep him through this window, regardless of the cost to the team, because the clause disappears.
I just wish that we had brought 2 or 3 more in during the summer, we wouldn’t be worried noe and could easily have 6 more points on the board.
Still, scrap a win tonight, however it comes, then all of a sudden we are a win against Wigan from looking decent again. The flip side is defeat tonight, failure to win against Wigan and we have a problem.
Early in the season but “6 pointers” start to arrive in December, and we may well have one on Monday.
catchy in norway
Nov 28, 2012 at 11:56 AM
Comment #32mattyNUFC
matty we do, and right now id rather face the fear of an uknown new manager, than watch this for much longer,,
its a slow death,
i also thnk he has lost the players,
if we can spot his lies, im sure we have a few smart players in there that will be saying ,, hold on,, we never got our passing game going today, they must be think what passing game??
in fact , i think jonas said it the other day,, il go and find it
Conaldo (The Wizard...Also Bestest Friends With Paul Scharner)
Nov 28, 2012 at 11:59 AM
Comment #33I can’t see Pardew getting sacked this year. As TS says, he will get a third season. Dumb and Dumber at the top won’t talk about stability at every press conference, then make themselves look stupid.
Also, I’ve just seen that they’re thinking of scrapping the Europa League and expanding the champions league to 64 teams. If it goes ahead it will take effect in 2015
Thoughts?
catchy in norway
Nov 28, 2012 at 11:59 AM
Comment #34Transfer Sage
upi would think so,, but then he go to his agent to get it sorted, he is now where he wants to play,,
play him where he want to play and play him what he wants to be played and he will play,
but that is football
ARS have jack wilt and theo, both demaiding huge pay rises, because they can, if ars dont pay them, then they will lose to good players
mattyNUFC
Nov 28, 2012 at 12:00 PM
Comment #35conaldo
read that too re CL
won’t matter, will it? not to us anyhow
Transfer Sage
Nov 28, 2012 at 12:02 PM
Comment #36catchy
So pardew is stuck between a rock and hard place really.
either upset demba and possibly lose him with a board that wont rush to replace him
or
play him in a system that doesn’t suit the team but somehow try to get it to work.
I think he should just go for it and but Ba left, maybe let him and cisse rotate on the pitch a bit and just face the consequences if he leaves.
At least then the blame would squarly be on ashleys door and not pardews.
sirtoongospel
Nov 28, 2012 at 12:03 PM
Comment #37If they expand the CL to 256 teams then it might affect us eh?? Lol!!!
Conaldo (The Wizard...Also Bestest Friends With Paul Scharner)
Nov 28, 2012 at 12:04 PM
Comment #38Matty – don’t see any reason why it doesn’t matter to us. Yes we are not a top 4 team, we are a mid table side. Mid table sides get Europe every couple of seasons, followed by a bad season. Followed by getting into Europe, followed by a bad season. Don’t see why people think we are anything different.
catchy in norway
Nov 28, 2012 at 12:04 PM
Comment #39jonas said this
“At Southampton we deserved to lose the game because they were better than us. We have to try to get back to winning ways and be all together as a group. That’s the most important thing.” “Of course when you play in one position with the same players and the same team it’s better for the confidence.”
he has played in about 5 different positions this season alone,
and he isnt the only player
anita the other day played 3 in 1 match
how is this stability
jesperfuglsang - captain of the lemon crew
Nov 28, 2012 at 12:06 PM
Comment #40Okay where were we…
Ibiza…It is not a matter of lack of trying on my part – Pardew just don’t want to talk about 😉 he gets very defensive when I bring it up lol
TS…I hear what your saying – basically that was the same problem last season and do remember the silver supremo saying in August that he was happy the the size and quality of the squad 🙂
Ibiza…that’s another thing I have to bring up at the next meeting with the relationship therapist !
So basically there is nothing in the way of us contacting a club about a player and agree terms with him? Just so we are clear!
…it just comes down to that someone has to be first and that’s just not us it seems? …or is it because we don’t know who we want or who gets injured next? (I am just trying to understand it ’cause I know which positions we need to strengthen and I also know there are no guarantees in football when it comes to injuries)