Aston Villa Beat Reading last night 1-0 at home, and picked up a valuable 3 points, so after 14 games they have 13 points, just one point behind Newcastle, who are in 14th place, but a defeat tonight at the Britannia Stadium could see Newcastle slide even further down the league table, and right now we are only 3 points above the drop zone and 3rd bottom Southampton, who beat us 2-0 on Sunday.
Steven Taylor – now out until February
So it’s time to turn things around for Newcastle, before we get ourselves entrenched in the relegation stakes, because history has shown that once clubs get down there and are fighting it out – the confidence drops significantly.
We really do hope that doesn’t happen for Newcastle this season, but more bad news yesterday from Newcastle boss Alan Pardew that both Steven Taylor and Yohan Cabaye are out until February – so that’s around nine weeks at least.
And of course we already have Ryan Taylor and Haris Vuckic out for the season, and Dan Gosling out for another few months, and when you have injuries like that to a small squad – it shows.
And that’s certainly been the case in our last four league games, when we have just one point from the twelve played for, and our goal difference is -6, although it wasn’t much better than that last season.
It would be a great time to get back to our winning ways at Stoke tonight, but if Sunday is anything to go by – it’s going to be hard to pick points up at the Britannia stadium – but our players must start playing these games like their lives depended on winning.
A win would be terrific, Â and it would ease the tensions that are starting to grow with Newcastle fans, and give the players some confidence for our next league game at home to Wigan on Monday night.
Let us know how you think the game will go tonight.
Comments welcome.
Follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook and +1 us on Google+:
You can also reach Ed at admin@nufcblog.com
=============================================
19 comments so far
jeff
Nov 28, 2012 at 9:06 AM
Comment #1there are some positives you can take out of our injuries and misfortunes
anita will get an extended run in the side and hopefully force out guitterez when cabaye returns from injury.
same goes for marveaux
youth players will come off bench more and get more game time
give pardew enough time to realise williamson is bad
HullMag6
Nov 28, 2012 at 9:07 AM
Comment #2Not letting me vote, heart says win. Head says draw at best, its the least inspiring squad in ages. No apparent fight in them i find myself pining for AC, Nolan and dare i say it ……Joey Barton.
Rotonda heights
Nov 28, 2012 at 9:12 AM
Comment #3If pardew has the courage to drop one of the Dembas , play 433 / 4231 or 451 and play a creative quicker more mobile midfield I would forgive hm a lot if the penny has finally dropped.
It seems inconceivable given all the scrutiny his performance is under that he wouldn’t take on board at least a couple of obvious points.
I just hope there is an end to his stubborness and the mood will be lifted as I still think we have some great players.
jesperfuglsang - captain of the lemon crew
Nov 28, 2012 at 9:15 AM
Comment #4Honestly if Pardew won’t change I cannot see how or why things suddenly should change for us.
…every team goes through the same with injuries, suspensions, bad form and so on. The difference is where you go from there – we are there because Pardew won’t accept why we are there.
Accept it and move on. You won’t get new players before sometime in January so make without until then.
jimmysmith
Nov 28, 2012 at 9:16 AM
Comment #5Might just jag a draw tonight, if our luck takes a turn for the better, but of course I voted for a win. How could you bring yourself to do otherwise?
Santon03
Nov 28, 2012 at 9:17 AM
Comment #6RH
I agree with you.
sirtoongospel
Nov 28, 2012 at 9:17 AM
Comment #7Had a good look at our defensive line from last season to now. It is clear that we are sat deep as we are worried about Willo’s SERIOUS lack of pace.
I think I could outpace him with a Sunday dinner and 8 pints of Guiness in me!!
When the defence is so deep and worried the midfield have to drop, and then our strikers are dead and buried.
A strong, pacy CB has to be priority in January along with a top notch CM player. Tiote away and Cabaye out, we are in desperate need for a top player in there. One strong enough for the Prem. Anita is improving, technically great but he needs time.
We have great forwards, midfield isn’t far away, our keeper is very good (despite recent errors) and the problem area is defence. Santon is great as is Colo.
Simpson and Willo are miles away from the standard needed and I was shocked to see that stat someone posted on Tayls. No more than 14 games in any of the last 4 seasons? I knew it wasn’t great but that is staggering.
We probably need 2 CB’s eventually but one in January is crucial.
Ian Toon
Nov 28, 2012 at 9:19 AM
Comment #8Rotonda- As a self declared student of the game sadly not one of your best writing and far from it. There is no real investigative sense here of the topic. Your fixated riding your hobby horse of slash and burn Alan Pardew which so dominates your post that it never had a chance.
More concerning , is this obsession with Pardew loathing is not healthy. Snap out of it!
HullMag6
Nov 28, 2012 at 9:19 AM
Comment #9Bang on sirtoon
Graeme
Nov 28, 2012 at 9:20 AM
Comment #10I would love to see a repeat of the result last year but just cant see it happening, given the way we are playing at the moment.
It will take some monumental change in approach by Pardew and his coaching team to get the players that are available into a frame of mind to go out and put the sheer hard graft in required to win this game.
There is little doubt the skill and ability is there – do the players have the desire to deliver the application and effort??
Heart wants to believe we will win it – head says no chance!!!
jimmysmith
Nov 28, 2012 at 9:22 AM
Comment #11I’ve seen milk turn quicker than Willo and Tayls in tandem. Both sadly lacking in that department, I agree.
Ian Toon
Nov 28, 2012 at 9:22 AM
Comment #12sirtoongospel- Entertain,educate and inform. That’s the way to do it!
Ian Toon
Nov 28, 2012 at 9:26 AM
Comment #13Graeme- Just as well your not playing then! We would be beaten before we start . Looking at the voting your not alone though. Interesting just how many fans are making the 380 round trip during the middle of the week. Food for thought!
RonVanDam
Nov 28, 2012 at 9:28 AM
Comment #14Just because Pardew had a good season, last season. He’s expecting that if he uses the same tactics over and over again he would get a different result. This is pure insanity. Managers evolve, pardew is finding it difficult. Maybe he is a one season wonder? Does anyone know out of our 14 PL games, in how many games did we use the 4-4-2 formation?
jeff
Nov 28, 2012 at 9:30 AM
Comment #15pardew will most definitely play 4-4-2 this game to give us extra defence against set-pieces
Ian Toon
Nov 28, 2012 at 9:32 AM
Comment #16Ron- So it’s nothing to do with the number of injuries and suspensions allied to number of games this season when compared to last. Reading your post it is apparent that there aren’t two sides to every argument.
jesperfuglsang - captain of the lemon crew
Nov 28, 2012 at 9:34 AM
Comment #17RVD…no, but I know Pardew sometimes think we are playing some sort of advanced 4-3-3 or hybrid formation when actually we are just playing his own version of 4-4-2 😉
…so the answer to your question probably depends on the eyes of the beholder 🙂
IPToon
Nov 28, 2012 at 9:47 AM
Comment #18We need some pace in the team! the defenders, midfielders and attackers are mainly pretty slow.
The defence sit deep, the midfield sit deep and we have two strikers stranded up top by themselves. Ben Arfa has the ability to run with the ball from deep so he is fine. but the rest cant do that and people like Cabaye have no chance of creating anything. How i miss the old Gutierrez! when he first came he used to get it and run passed players, now he has hit the gym, almost become too muscular and cant do it anymore.
Also lets not kid ourselves about the football we played last season, we got results and played poor football. This season we are not getting results and play poor football. I remember at one point somebody on here started a debate asking if as fans would we rather win most weeks playing the poor long ball football like we did or try and revert to a more exciting style of football.
Ian Toon
Nov 28, 2012 at 9:48 AM
Comment #19Santon – I was being deadly serious. Williamson clearly isn’t a CB.
Tim has had a problem kicking for some time and needs to work on that aspect of his game. I wouldn’t fault Williamson as a trier but he panics when the ball is at his feet and opposition around him. Anita is the player who should be the conduit for movement and passage. Of the ball. He is by far the most comfortable DM that Williamson should be looking for – a 5 yard pass often rather than a hopeful punt which loses possession. Unfortunately you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.