It looks like Papiss Cisse is staying at Newcastle this season, and we have no complaints about that for a player who has said more than once this season that he doesn’t want to leave the club.
And with Aleksandar Mitrovic already on board and the much improved Ayoze Perez just waiting in the wings, we should have some goals scoring power this season – and we didn’t even mention Siem de Jong and Gini Wijnaldum.
Papiss Cisse – off the mark on Sunday against the Saints
The Senegal star has so far scored four goals at the Liberty Stadium, and he scored two for us last October in the 2-2 draw, and in April three years ago he also scored a brace in the 2-0 win.
The good thing about Papiss is that he finally looks 100% fit after playing last season when he was troubled a lot by the pins in his knee, that were inserted to stabilize the knee following his broken kneecap a year last April.
A fit and rejuvenated Papiss Cisse can score a lot of goals for us this season, as he showed last Sunday.
This is what the Senegal International has said about the game tomorrow:
“Swansea isn’t an easy stadium and can be hard. But every time I have had a chance to score there.”
“I hope this time I can add to that. If I get chances I want to be in the right place again.” “It’s a good tally. I always work hard on that.”
The striker missed a lot of last season through injury, but he still scored 11 goals in just 22 appearances for us and was our top scorer.
Since he arrived three and half years ago from SC Freiburg, he has played for Newcastle 110 times with 42 goals, and 35 of those were in the Premier League.
It’s a good goal-scoring record for the 30 year-old, and he will hoping to improve on that tomorrow.
Comments welcome.
8 comments so far
hibbit
Aug 14, 2015 at 9:36 AM
Comment #1toonbrother you took the pip yesterday when people had a go at you.. put your point across but leave out the fan bashing we all have opinions mine happens to be that haidara will cause us more problems than collo on saturday……. our captain is a problem but not the only one
Llort muw
Aug 14, 2015 at 9:43 AM
Comment #2Hibbit
Not keen on the way you express your words but damn do you have good points. I agree with you almost every time you post something.
WWSBRD
Aug 14, 2015 at 9:48 AM
Comment #3Cisse does love s bit of swan hunting
toonincheek
Aug 14, 2015 at 9:51 AM
Comment #4Jail –
from last topic.
toonbother has changed the bet into the “first five games”, not the next five.
So I think Watford is not included?
Llort muw
Aug 14, 2015 at 9:51 AM
Comment #5WWSBRD
Exactly, which is how we know he is going to start instead of Mitrovic on Saturday. I’m just glad Cisse knows that he has real competition this season, I also hope that he didn’t like being second best to Perez last season, all things that should push him to his best.
JP...from The Rock
Aug 14, 2015 at 9:58 AM
Comment #6Hibbit I agree with you on that. Haidara looked out of sorts last Sunday. Hopefully it’s just first match nerves but he was at fault for both goals as he gave the crosser acres of space to place an inch perfect cross. For some reason he was double marking a man in the middle with Colo and then tried to rectify his mistake and get into position when it was too late.
He needs to have much more postional sense.
We could do with a solid upgrade and I hope that is addressed in this window. But on the other hand I would hate to miss out on Sam Byram as he has something of a young and raw Gareth Bbale about him.
WWSBRD
Aug 14, 2015 at 10:00 AM
Comment #7Llort
Was he second best to Perez? I honestly don’t know he was injured, suspended and away to Africa that much it’s very hard to tell.
Though I dare say he is keen to shine this season mainly because he has that attitude but also he needs a contract at the end of it
pawl250
Aug 14, 2015 at 10:09 AM
Comment #8Ok have not posted all week, mainly due to the office internet in my workplace being down, and truth be told I have more important things to do in my personal time now I have a 8 month old bairn……
That said. Sunday. I was actually at the match watched it all unfold. This is what I took away from it.
Anita – This guy has really improved and impressed me, even against opposition towards the end of last season he was one of our better players. I do not think he was given a fair crack of whip when Pardew was manager but if he plays like he did Sunday he will be a great player for us this season. Early days though, we all know some players can have a few good matches so lets wait and see if he can consistently keep the level of performance up for us.
I do think the game changed when he left the pitch, which brings me to my next point – Tiote, who was simply AWFUL. It had nothing to do with match fitness, he was just so poor. It was the basics he was poor at. His passing was shocking, he was charging out of position leaving gaps in our midfield for Southampton to exploit. Going the other way, he was equally as bad, if not worse. He slowed the general play down, not passing the ball first time and in doing so made it difficult for players that were introduced later (De Jong, Mitrovic) to even get into the game. He was our worst player by far on Sunday, which says something.
Mbemba looked solid (even when he was not fully match fit – Hibbit) and Coloccini did well until final stages when maybe he should have left the pitch for Taylor if he could not handle the pace, which is understandable given the amount of game time in pre season. Yet as I said before the game, only way to get match fit is to play games, so he would have only benefited from a full 90 mins. I would happily see our season with Mbemba and Colo at the back, they seemed solid enough, apart from the 1st goal. Lets be realistic though, it was their first game as a partnership so hopefully that will only improve with time. We do look a tad weak in the air, but not many teams have the height Southampton do in and around the box and we managed to cope.
Haidara, ok the first half he was awful, UNTIL his assist. He did grow into the game and I think he was one of our better players going on towards the end of the match. Hopefully he has more games based on his 2nd half opposed to his first half.
Obertan. Seriously not sure how this guy made it in our team. He is lazy, he cannot pass, despite the goal assist which in fairness was a great cross, but lets be honest his ball contention was awful. He did seem to put more effort it but compared to Sissoko on the opposite wing Southampton were happy for us to play it down whichever side Obertan was on. He has blistering pace and he simply will not use it, only when he was actually forced to use it with Cisses ball infront of him it was effective. When he has the ball to his feet he is such a poor dribbler that all the pace is ineffective and rendered pointless. Certainly someone I would change for our next game, especially with his defensive duties, Swansea will have a field day.
As for the team itself, we played well and at times looked the better team, playing passing football aswell. If McClaren continues this way he will win alot of supporters over from the past hoof ball tactics. I do think we could do with a couple more signings, but ultimately I am optimistic for the new season, based on 1 game. Please note I am basing it off one competitive game and this could all change this weekend, but we did look like a solid unit for a change.
My team for Swansea would be:-
Krul
Janmaat – Mbemba – Coloccini – Haidara
Sissoko – Wijnaldum – Anita – Colback – Aarons
Cisse
Darlow, Taylor, Dummett, Cabella, De Jong, Perez, Mitrovic