Steve McClaren has just announced his team for the home game against Stoke City this afternoon and there’s just one change with Vurnon Anita coming in for the injured Jack Colback.
Teams:
Newcastle (4-4-2): Rob Elliot; Daryl Janmaat, Chancel Mbemba, Fabricio Coloccini (c), Paul Dummett; Moussa Sissoko, Vurnon Anita, Cheick Tiote, Georginio Wijnaldum; Ayoze Perez, Aleksandar Mitrovic
Substitutes: Freddie Woodman, Massadio Haidara, Jamaal Lascelles, Siem de Jong, Yoan Gouffran, Florian Thauvin, Papiss Cisse
Stoke (4-2-3-1): Jack Butland; Glen Johnson, Ryan Shawcross (c), Phillip Wollscheid, Erik Pieters; Glenn Whelan, Charlie Adam; Marko Arnautovic, Bojan Krkic, Xherdan Shaqiri; Jonathan Walters
Substitutes: Jakob Haugaard, Marc Wilson, Stephen Ireland, Marco van Ginkel, Ibrahim Afellay, Mame Biram Diouf, Peter Crouch
Referee: Roger East (Wiltshire)
As we expected Yoan Gouffran comes in on the substitute bench since he can play in central midfield at a stretch – and we seem to be short of central midfielders.
But it’s the usual 4-4-2 formation with Aleksandar Mitrovic and Ayoze Perez up front – and we really need a win in this game – especially after what happened last Sunday at Sunderland.
This is what Steve McClaren has said about the game this afternoon:
“We will expect a vibrant, very good Stoke team who have an excellent manager and squad who can take the club forward.”
“They played 120 minutes in midweek and got a good result but I don’t think that will be a factor. The fitness of teams nowadays is such that you can play a game on Tuesday and still be ready to go again at the weekend without a problem.”
“We had a very disappointing result against Sunderland but we’ve had a very good week off the field – very focused and intense. We’ve been reflecting on one of the strangest derbies I’ve been involved in.”
“We know we have to take our chances. Against Sunderland we had 21 attempts, eight on target, we took our chances against Norwich and we need to do that again against Stoke.”
“It’s imperative we get the win,” “Recently we’ve had good performances so now we’ve got to keep reproducing those performances week in, week out.”
“We’ve shown what we’re capable of doing and we’re creating chances, which we weren’t doing before.” “In the long term I can see this team winning games. In the short term, we need to start winning tomorrow.”
Three in five fans think we can win this game this afternoon.
A win this afternoon is what we all need.
Howay The Lads!!
285 comments so far
davetoon
Oct 31, 2015 at 3:27 PM
Comment #81Damn how did that not go in
davetoon
Oct 31, 2015 at 3:28 PM
Comment #82There you go Sissoko almost gets another assist. He is our best passer of the ball by a long space
Hail Wor Ashley
Oct 31, 2015 at 3:28 PM
Comment #83Argh, unlucky Mitro!
Hail Wor Ashley
Oct 31, 2015 at 3:29 PM
Comment #84Davetoon
I think it’s safe to say he blows very hot and very cold.
davetoon
Oct 31, 2015 at 3:29 PM
Comment #85Impressed with Perez, he is everywhere at the moment
mindshaft
Oct 31, 2015 at 3:29 PM
Comment #86so unlucky for Mitro
John Tudor
Oct 31, 2015 at 3:32 PM
Comment #87very poor again
Hail Wor Ashley
Oct 31, 2015 at 3:33 PM
Comment #88Mbemba doing most of the defensive work alone again.
go toon goooo
Oct 31, 2015 at 3:34 PM
Comment #89We can’t survive with these forced headers by Mitrovic.We lack a Premier League game playing.Tiote,good job by far.
Hail Wor Ashley
Oct 31, 2015 at 3:35 PM
Comment #90FFS!
Overrunning the ball is catching on!
John Tudor
Oct 31, 2015 at 3:36 PM
Comment #91p155 p00r
mindshaft
Oct 31, 2015 at 3:36 PM
Comment #92why do we keep giving the ball away
Hail Wor Ashley
Oct 31, 2015 at 3:37 PM
Comment #93Perez is at least sparkling as is the norm.
Very consistent for such a young player
TheToonKing
Oct 31, 2015 at 3:39 PM
Comment #94Why are ref’s so shit ??
Missed the foul on Bojan, Perez was a foul and then Bojan no card for intentional handball..
John Tudor
Oct 31, 2015 at 3:39 PM
Comment #95deliberate handball is a yellow cheating officials again
Hail Wor Ashley
Oct 31, 2015 at 3:39 PM
Comment #96Hahahahah
Tiote and his Hollywood passes are ridiculous, has one ever met it’s target?
Least he hasn’t got a booking or given the ball away dangerously yet.
JDdubai
Oct 31, 2015 at 3:40 PM
Comment #97Centre mid is as big a worry as CB.
These 2 give nothing going forward at all. With 2 players just holding then we need both full backs being able to attAck, Haidara for Dummett for me.
Ron Knee
Oct 31, 2015 at 3:41 PM
Comment #985 minutes to concede a stupid goal.
sparky55
Oct 31, 2015 at 3:42 PM
Comment #99Headless chickens…we need someone to slow the game down a bit and pick a pass rather than this…it’s like watching a pin ball machine FFS and the final pass is always way too hard.
No subtlety and no control…bring on SDJ in the 2nd half if we’re still in the game
toonking
Oct 31, 2015 at 3:42 PM
Comment #100What has happened to all this attacking football?
JDdubai
Oct 31, 2015 at 3:42 PM
Comment #101Canny dull game tbh, think we have edged it but not much happening.
JP...from The Rock
Oct 31, 2015 at 3:42 PM
Comment #102Sissoko and Tiote can’t pass the ball to save their life ffs! We need a better psser and more technical player in the engine room. Someone of Ayoze’s technique there in the middle of the park is what we need. Hopefully in January that will be looked at too.
John Tudor
Oct 31, 2015 at 3:42 PM
Comment #103they always have a decent out ball we have a headless chicken
go toon goooo
Oct 31, 2015 at 3:43 PM
Comment #104Haidara still on the bench.What’s the problem.
John Tudor
Oct 31, 2015 at 3:44 PM
Comment #105cant see any attacking plan there
Hail Wor Ashley
Oct 31, 2015 at 3:44 PM
Comment #106Anita having a very poor game.
catchy in norway
Oct 31, 2015 at 3:45 PM
Comment #107http://firstrows.org/soccer/newcastle-united-stoke-city-frs11f02d?l=1437052692
ilovetoon8788
Oct 31, 2015 at 3:46 PM
Comment #108Very even and dull game really. It’s like the players don’t know this is a must win game. We are already running out of games to get points. We need 3 points here.
Thump
Oct 31, 2015 at 3:47 PM
Comment #109This has draw written all over it. What’s with the long balls?
JP...from The Rock
Oct 31, 2015 at 3:47 PM
Comment #110Is Aarons still injured? Because I would certainly play him either at LW and move Wijnaldum in CM or I’ll ply him at RW for Sissoko who is more miss than hit.
Toonfan8
Oct 31, 2015 at 3:48 PM
Comment #111Anita off and S. De Jong in…we need better brain there…
Hail Wor Ashley
Oct 31, 2015 at 3:49 PM
Comment #112Started off well, zippy and passing well until the final ball, as the half wore in the football wore thin and ended up very scrappy.
Midfield poor across the board. Perez doing his level best to mix things up and bring some imagination to proceedings, Mitro so-so with 1 good header.
Anita/Tiote never play well alongside each other, although you could say Tiote has done better than his previous 2 games, but he was starting from a very low bar.
nufcursed
Oct 31, 2015 at 3:50 PM
Comment #113our team is so poor it’s frightening!
we’ll definitely be in a relegation battle this season..
janmaat: half decent
mbemba: decent
colo: mmm
dummett: half decent
anita: crap
tiote: too inconsistent
sissoko: crap
wijnaldum: too invisible
perez: our best player by miles
mitrovic: in a half decent team he would’ve scored 10 goals by now!
mcclaren: poor
i don’t see nothing of the passing football we’re supposed to be playing!
there are no running lines or passing structures in our game at all.
no plan or tactics. we don’t know what to do when we have the ball.
also sissoko is the laziest player i’ve ever seen
1 DISGRACE TO THE SHIRT!
toonking
Oct 31, 2015 at 3:52 PM
Comment #114If a boring game isn’t enough, we’ve got a bench consisting on players unlikely to see things chance much.
nufcursed
Oct 31, 2015 at 3:54 PM
Comment #115@JP from the rock 110
that’s exactly what we’re lacking!
toon kk
Oct 31, 2015 at 3:54 PM
Comment #116Nufcursed
we haven’t the payers to play passing football or the pace.
John Tudor
Oct 31, 2015 at 3:54 PM
Comment #117shite in the first half they better get cracking in the second half
nufcursed
Oct 31, 2015 at 3:55 PM
Comment #118102 i mean:)
we need a technical centre midfielder badly
Newcastle for alltid
Oct 31, 2015 at 3:55 PM
Comment #119There was some potential, especially early in the game. We should be a goal or two up, but our attacks just seem to fade away due to poor decision-making and passing. Wijnaldum should be involved more, for sure. Pèrez/Mitrovic partnership looking good. The players just need to be accurate.
The problem is when we`re defending. We`re playing kind of a 4-2-2-2-system, which exposes our flanks if Sissoko and Wijnaldum isn`t backtracking. Also, the space in front of our 2 CMs and behind our strikers is massive. In addition, our two CMs aren`t the best either, with a rusty Tiote who seen better days, and Anita, who has some of the worst through-balls I`ve ever seen.
Oh, and Dummet at RB, I`ve never thought of him as a PL-level player. My opinion.
I hope Siem De Jong will be on at some point in the second half. I still rate him higher than most of our players. He just needs a run in the side.
Let`s hope for better play!
Bri
Oct 31, 2015 at 3:56 PM
Comment #120It’s like an end of season game with nothing to play for when in reality we need every point we can muster or we are going down.