From what we saw Of Manu Riviere on Saturday he looks a decent player but what he really needs is his first Premier League goals to give him that confidence every striker needs.
Manu Riviere – can still come good
Manu likes playing with a partner up front and for the first time for a long time Carver played two strikers in a 4-4-2 formation.
Riviere turned 25 yesterday and he got the nod over 21 year-old Ayoze Perez who has had a great first season for us, and managed to hit the bar in the second half on Saturday after he had come on as a sub.
“I feel for him a little bit because he is waiting for that first league goal. He has been working extremely hard.”
“I thought it was an important time to get Perez out of it because he;s been one of our main strikers, he’s a young lad.”
“Ayoze is coming from a different culture. Riviere has worked hard, he has stayed with it, he has been great in training, so I thought it was time for an opportunity.”
“I got Papiss and Manu in the office and told them I was going to go with two strikers, and both their eyes lit up because they’ve both wanted someone to work with.”
“They both got a little bit of a lift from that. His physical stats from the amount of football he has had have been excellent.”
That’s good man management from John Carver.
And Manu has remained professional and positive this season after scoring 13 goals in 30 appearances for Monaco last season.
And of course it does take time for players to settle in England – just look at how difficult Angel Di Maria is finding it at the Red Devils.
Fab Coloccini and Kevin Nolan are two players who also found it difficult when they first arrived on Tyneside, but both went on to have good careers at the club and became the captain too.
We are certainly not writing off Emmanuel Riviere, and maybe he can get a birthday goal tonight for Newcastle – that would be great for both club and player.
For the record, Manu has played 20 times for Newcastle with two goals scored in the Capital One Cup.
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64 comments so far
martoon
Mar 4, 2015 at 1:07 PM
Comment #41Jeff @38 – I like it 🙂
If only……………………..
Tsunki
Mar 4, 2015 at 1:10 PM
Comment #42I think that most of our team is good enough to compete at the top level. What stats don’t tell you is the effect on those good players that poor players have. If we had decent players instead of Colback, Williamson, Gouffran, Anita, Dummet and even Tiote the teams performances would lift exponentially. Covering and compensating for these weak players is dragging the whole teams game tight down. Law of averages, which are better than stats. 🙂
Mr Magpie
Mar 4, 2015 at 1:10 PM
Comment #43I would like to see us really go for it tonight as the home team with nothing to lose. Riviere & Cisse up front with Perez just behind in the hole. Sammy, Abeid & Sissoko in midfield & the only fit defenders making up the back 4. No need to play 2 defensive midfielders as be nice to see attacking football…..not holding my breath though, probably be more boring negative football.
Riviere. Cisse
Perez
Ameobi. Abeid. Sissoko
R.Taylor. Colo. Willo Janmaat
Krul
mindshaft
Mar 4, 2015 at 1:13 PM
Comment #44“From what we saw Of Manu Riviere on Saturday he looks a decent player ”
Ed must have been watching a different game, I saw a player who was a pile of poo and can’t come to terms with rush em run premiership football
Jeff from Benwell
Mar 4, 2015 at 1:29 PM
Comment #45I’m sure this kid posts on here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHa3TzNuMnA
NYMAG
Mar 4, 2015 at 1:38 PM
Comment #46Ed, thanks for the early morning laugh I got reading this. Clearly is was intended to be ironical….
I’ve watched his performances very closely and in my opinion he will never be successful in this league. He lacks desire, he doesn’t commit when challenging for the ball or going for a header, I’ve seen him numerous times just duck out of it, he reminds me of those kids in PE who didn’t want to get their shorts dirty. This was just a cheap option because we wouldn’t pay decent money to get a proper forward player over the summer. I hope we loan him out next season never to be seen again.
Lilongwe Geordie
Mar 4, 2015 at 1:38 PM
Comment #47Tsunki,
Stats are deceptive and don’t tell the whole story, but that doesn’t make them totally redundant. All those traits you apply to Colback are flaws that all our central infielders have. When I quoted those figures I wasn’t claiming he was our best player, more pointing out that he is far from as bad as some make out. Sissoko has been ineffectual in just as many games as Colback and had far little end product as well as giving away more fouls. That is fact. Colback has had an okay season, no more, no less. But none of our other midfielders have had more than an okay season.
Bambams
Mar 4, 2015 at 1:40 PM
Comment #48Their eyes lit up !!!
Says it all…Even the players are shocked when we play two up front
jayphoto
Mar 4, 2015 at 1:41 PM
Comment #49I was a huge fan of Riviere in france, especially at St Ettiene! I was calling for Newcastle to sign him 3/4 years ago on here. He needs a run of games with Cisse really!
His record throughout his career shows that although he doesn’t bag too many goals, whoever plays alongside him seems to reap the rewards.
I’ve seen we mainly use him upfront alone which is really unfair to judge him on! At St Ettiene he played wide left of a front 3 and a toulouse and Monaco he played as a withdrawn striker, a #10 supporting an out an out goal scorer!
For some of the season last year he actually played as the head of a diamond 4-1-2-1-2
His work rate is excellent, hes unselfish and actually is decent at linking midfield and striker.
Whoever decided he could play uptop alone in my opinion knew nothing about his career before newcastle
Lilongwe Geordie
Mar 4, 2015 at 1:44 PM
Comment #50mindshaft,
I missed the game at the weekend, but the reports and comments on Riviere seem a real mixed bag. From what I can tell it is a case of those who already decided he wouldn’t cut it being unimpressed still, and those who are happy to give him more chances seeing a touch of promise.
I hope he plays tonight, I don’t think he will cut it at all, have said that since he signed, but he may as well be given more of a chance for the remainder of the season as we have little else to use up top.
beermonkey
Mar 4, 2015 at 2:01 PM
Comment #51jayphoto
when the our own head coach and stand in manager claims he didn’t know Sammy could take corners what hope is there for players coming into the club that they talk to them and read about them cos Sammy has been with us all his career and yet no1 knew
lesh
Mar 4, 2015 at 2:17 PM
Comment #52Jeff
I agree with you that a win tonight would delight Ashley and Charnley – not only because we’d have beaten ManU to make us near safe from relegation but because it’d give them justification to employ Carver as HC.
Ffs, how short sighted do they choose to be? If a generally crap team unexpectedly turns over any one of the top clubs, does that mean that the manager is good enough and will sustain that pattern of results? Does it hell.
But as far as Ashley’s concerned, Carver was and us the cheapest, trouble-free option (what a snivelling git Carver’s been show to be) and will be hailed as a saviour for achieving 10th or avoiding relegation ‘under very difficult circumstances’.
But will they kick him out for allowing the big cushion Pardew left to be eroded? Will they hell.
Is Ashley going to sanction spend, refuse to let top players leave and entrust them to the coaching of a man who’s results post-Pardew have shown relegation form? Entrust the team to a man who’s taken us from nibbling at a Europa place to near relegation? Probably yes and he’ll be ably mentored by Harry Rednapp or the like.
Ashley’s vision goes no further than the cash and his vision is skewed and detrimental to providing the entertainment and excitement fans crave for, over a full season.
He’s nothing more than intent on making money and to hell with anything or anybody else.
Mr Magpie
Mar 4, 2015 at 2:18 PM
Comment #53Playing players in their favoured position, coaching the team to get the best out of them as individuals & utilising tactics & formation enabling the players to play to eachothers strengths as a team…..is unfortunately something that just doesn’t happen at Newcastle with both the previous & current coaching set up.
Bri
Mar 4, 2015 at 2:46 PM
Comment #54I expect dross for many seasons to come because i believe Ashley will be here for a long long time.
martoon
Mar 4, 2015 at 2:46 PM
Comment #55Maybe on TV Riviere doesn’t stand out but when you are actually at the match you can see he puts himself about, fights for the ball, does some nice little flicks. He could establish a good partnership with Cisse – he’ll never be prolific but a good workhorseand actually reminds me a bit of John Tudor – not the one on here but the real one 🙂
Our Toon
Mar 4, 2015 at 2:53 PM
Comment #56I look at Riviere aka the french Heskey and think just how many goals will he actually get? He’ll struggle to hit double figures consistently. Against Man utd we can’t go with 2 upfront as we will lose, the battle must be won in midfield.
Our Toon
Mar 4, 2015 at 2:54 PM
Comment #57LG
Interesting stats on colback, the 4 assists is the one that interests me the most, here’s a lad who regularly take free kicks and corners yet only had 4 assists to show for it all season….that’s a pretty piss poor effort!!
beermonkey
Mar 4, 2015 at 3:13 PM
Comment #58I thought our accounts were out today
toon kk
Mar 4, 2015 at 3:23 PM
Comment #59Our Toon
take out half a dozen players, which are average and the rest are p.ss poor. Add Carver and had we not gone on a decent run earlier in the season we would have definitely gone down.
Small World
Mar 4, 2015 at 3:24 PM
Comment #60Martoon I see what you are saying about Riviere. I haven’t lost patience with him yet as he does a shift and is a trier. Where I differ is that I don’t think he has the bravery. John Tudor used to put his head in when it was going to hurt – I get the feeling that Riviere has yet to adapt to he English game with respect to that.
Small World
Mar 4, 2015 at 3:29 PM
Comment #61Re comments about tonight’s crowd. It will be about 50k. Not too clever saying it is Man U.
However it must be noted tickets aren’t on general sale and won’t be available for walk ups tonight. Only available to season tickets and members. It does seem as though the timing of the match and possible sense of outcome has stopped members taking up tickets, especially as it is on TV. £42 is a lot to pay for what may be on offer
clinath@ed
Mar 4, 2015 at 3:30 PM
Comment #62Is anyone else getting these annoying ads from answered-questions.com across the bottom the screen? Playing havoc with my ipad.
bladeuser
Mar 4, 2015 at 4:58 PM
Comment #63Get real people why do u always accept s@#@ say it like it is riviere is a flop a poor striker the monaco fans new it when we signed him and could not believe the fee we payed mediocre team bah bah black and white sheep
NYMAG
Mar 4, 2015 at 10:53 PM
Comment #64Another shocking performance from Rivière, missed two chances my mam could have finished…..