One of the few players who has performed well for Newcastle this season, very well in fact, and is a better player than last season, is our 21 year-old Italian International full-back Davide Santon – and isn’t it wonderful what a Geordie girlfriend can do for your football. :D.
Davide Santon – been one of Newcastle’s best players this season
Davide has been in fine form and so much so that Italian clubs Roma and his former club Inter-Milan would like to take him back to Italy, but this lad’s going nowhere.
Newcastle are coming off another disappointing defeat at Craven Cottage on Monday night, after we managed to break the four game losing streak against Wigan, who of course were down to 10 men after only 12 minutes, and that made it a little easier.
Manchester City will be smarting after losing the Manchester derby at home in injury time to their rivals Manchester United, who are now 6 points clear of them at the top of the Premier League, and for Newcastle we’ll be trying to get only our 5th win of the season.
This is what Davide said to nufcTV today:
“I think the team has to do the best performance against Manchester City, because Manchester City this week lost against Manchester United.” “They will be really angry because they lost.”
“They’ll come to Newcastle for a win – but we are angry as well.” “They’re a really big team and we’ll have to play at our best to win the game.”
Newcastle will have to play at the top of their game, and a lot better than we played on Monday night, especially in that first 30 minutes when we were surprisingly over-run by a mediocre Fulham side, who hadn’t won in their previous 7 games.
It doesn’t look like many of our readers are too confident about the outcome of Saturday’s game either – with 72% think we’ll lose that game – and we should let Alan Pardew and the players know about the poll – and maybe they can go out and prove us all wrong and win the game.
We’d like to see a Newcastle win – which is probably the only result that will significantly lift the gloom on Tyneside at the moment.
For the record, Davide Santon has appeared 46 times for Newcastle, but he still has to score his first goal for the club – but he’ looking a very good buy at just £5M.
Maybe he can score on Saturday?
Here’s the current poll results – and you can still vote – one vote per reader
Comments welcome.
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19 comments so far
Rake
Dec 12, 2012 at 7:21 PM
Comment #1Remember it took just one stone to take down the giant.
nick_9
Dec 12, 2012 at 7:23 PM
Comment #2Someone needs to tell Cheik his hair cut is 5h1t because that lad plays better when he is angry, worrying about being carded doesn’t suit him.
It’s a shame we are playing the bit boys at a time when we are in a mess. It would be nice to see this as a free game where the result doesn’t matter so much as its the league leaders but sadly it does. We need something and if we don’t get it then the qpr game is a must win
Charlietoon
Dec 12, 2012 at 7:28 PM
Comment #3Nick we looked at those 4 games in November as ones we should win and we weren’t in that big a mess then. Maybe playing the big boys for a few weeks will re introduce the lads to the standard of football they need to be playing.
toonarmydownsouth
Dec 12, 2012 at 7:30 PM
Comment #4Seen danny guthrie has been fiined Fir refusing to travel for readings game vs the scum and has been told to sort his sh1t out
Perhaps a little insight in to why we let his contract run??
Also that stuart robson who was slating pardew a couple of weeks back has now slated wenger calling him a dictator who should of been sacked years ago! Does this bloke take tw@ pills everyday or is he just bitter that no one really knows who he is or gives a sh1t what he thinks??
Ian Toon
Dec 12, 2012 at 7:30 PM
Comment #5Santon had less influence on monday. Fulham knew that Simpson was not a threat going forward and could double bank Davide.
Tiote is trying too hard. He needs to relax and not dwell on the ball particularly as he has a short pass option readily available in the form of Anita. Despite what his critics might think you don’t become a bad player overnight.
nick_9
Dec 12, 2012 at 7:34 PM
Comment #6Hopefully it will be confidence is low so who
Knows how they will handle it, it’s easier to dismiss a defeat against the bigger teams but when you are nearing the bottom of the league after a very bad spell its not going to look good unless we perform well or get the result. I would love us to come from behind and get a win or draw
jimiley
Dec 12, 2012 at 7:37 PM
Comment #7Europa is taking its toll. But we are far too good to even consider relegation. We will recover our form and should end the season about 7th. A bit disappointing after last season. In Pardew we trust!!!!!!
jimmysmith
Dec 12, 2012 at 7:40 PM
Comment #8It isn’t reasonable to conclude that the greater majority believe our greatest need is in strengthening the squad. so we might perhaps do well to sort that out first, and then see how Pardew manages it, before we start calling for the “manager of the years” head and rubbishing the core of players that got us to fifth in the first place?
hotdog
Dec 12, 2012 at 7:40 PM
Comment #9I’ve put win. When’s the van coming for me 😉
On santon. I thought Gary Neville (who is normally very good) was wrong on his assessment on Monday. He had moved into the correct position when we had possession in midfield. We lost the ball in a bad area which inturn left him exposed IMO.
Ian Toon
Dec 12, 2012 at 7:47 PM
Comment #10Jimiley/Jimmy Smith — Both spot on in my humble opinion. Nice to read posts with a common sense theme. Mind you top half maybe not 7th. With a settled restructured team in February and a returning Cabaye why not !
Spoof
Dec 12, 2012 at 7:47 PM
Comment #11Totally Ian Toon, and having a very poor defence behind wil only increase the pressure on him, if our opponents get past Tiote they are faced with a very poor defence, all this does is heighten the pressure on Tiote, get rid of Williamson and Colo and replace them with two decent centre halves and we will see a less pressurised Tiote who will naturally play better, its Willo and Colo who are letting the side down, there combined incompetence is draining the confidence of the whole team, even Alan Pardew has blamed soft goals of late, notably Colo at Fulham
Ian Toon
Dec 12, 2012 at 7:58 PM
Comment #12The dissent shown towards Pardew is not displayed throughout the fan base. Patience is needed but it seems that our recent run of bad performances have just opened up old wounds. That’s not unique to
NUFC.
Ian Toon
Dec 12, 2012 at 8:04 PM
Comment #13Spoof – My comment on Tiote equally applies to Coloccini . Given the nature of his game he can play at the highest level for another 3-4
Seasons. We just need to replace Simpson and Williamson.
magfly
Dec 12, 2012 at 8:29 PM
Comment #14The reason we did well last year was the fact barton nolan enriqie left and the new lads had to prove thier worth this year they dont.
Spoof
Dec 12, 2012 at 8:39 PM
Comment #15Ian Toon, I respect your opinion, but we will have to agree to disagree.
Tiote is out of sorts and Taylor is not there carrying Colo, as a result Colo is not good enough to cope, in his first season he had no one to hide behind, we all saw how bad he was, de-ja-vu, m8, Fulham, Suarez and Lukaku have all embarrassed him this season, that is 3 complete embarrassments, he has only played 8 games, how more games and points does he have to throw away before the penny drops, a centre half has got to be able to head a ball, its essential, have a look back at the goals which we have conceded and ask how many could have been avoided if we had a couple of decent centre halves, we are incapable of defending set pieces, yet its all Williamson’s fault and Colo is superb, and here’s me thinking we had two centre halves
peterrwrightt
Dec 12, 2012 at 9:02 PM
Comment #16Davide,
Manchester City are not a ‘very big team’
mfarmer85
Dec 12, 2012 at 9:11 PM
Comment #17Without Santon we’d be a lot worse off. I’d be almost tempted to try Santon at RB and then put the non-attacking Jonas at LB. Means we can then use Marveuax’s ability in midfield alongside Anita and Tiote.
woolerbill
Dec 12, 2012 at 9:28 PM
Comment #18You should send the poll to Par dew, because it’s real. The cronical ran poll and said we were 95% behind Par dew, no on this blog.
nufc 11
Dec 13, 2012 at 2:19 PM
Comment #19Love to see him played RM has a touch of the bales about him wen not worring about defending move HBA behind BA