Newcastle manager Steve McClaren has just announced his team what for is another vital game for the club in our fight to stay in England’s top league and today we entertain an in-form Bournemouth team.
And it’s another controversial pick by McClaren as he prefers Emmanuel Riviere up front to Aleksandar Mitrovic – who is dropped.
Most fans would put Riviere at the bottom of our striker list and we did bring in Seydou Doumbia into our team in place of Mitrovic – otherwise it’s the same team that McClaren starts today.
Teams:
Newcastle (4-2-3-1): Rob Elliot; Daryl Janmaat, Steven Taylor, Jamaal Lascelles, Paul Dummett; Jonjo Shelvey (c), Jack Colback; Moussa Sissoko, Georginio Wijnaldum, Ayoze Perez; Emmanuel Riviere
Substitutes: Karl Darlow, Vurnon Anita, Henri Saivet, Yoan Gouffran, Rolando Aarons, Aleksandar Mitrovic, Seydou Doumbia
Bournemouth (4-4-2): Artur Boruc; Adam Smith, Simon Francis (c), Steve Cook, Charlie Daniels; Matt Ritchie, Dan Gosling, Andrew Surman, Max Gradel; Josh King, Benik Afobe
Substitutes: Adam Federici, Sylvain Distin, Tommy Elphick, Marc Pugh, Eunan O’Kane, Lewis Grabban, Glenn Murray
Referee: Paul Tiereny (Lancashire)
Gouffran drops to the bench because McClaren said we wants to win this game, but we are not sure what he sees in Riviere, who looked rusty and out of touch when he was brought on last Wednesday night.
Saivet and Doumbia were brought into the club last month but both remain on the bench and there’s still no Siem de Jong.
The Bournemouth squad on paper is nowhere near to that of Newcastle United, but they are still 8 points above us in the league and beat Southampton 2-0 at home on Wednesday night while we were losing our 7th away game (in all competitions) on the trot 1-0 at Stoke City.
And the Newcastle players issued a statement in support of McClaren about half an hour ago, but that looks far too political and comes just before the game and seems deliberate and calculated.
It is probably meant to give Lee Charnley more ammunition to keep Steve McClaren in charge, even if we don’t win today’s game – which would be another catastrophe.
The Board seems determined to keep the McClaren in charge even as he takes us down to the Championship – what exactly is going on at Newcastle this season?
However a positive effect of the statement could be to get the fans right behind the lads and even inspire the players themselves to put in a good performance and get all 3 points – that we desperately need.
Words mean nothing it’s the performance on the field that matters.
Newcastle fans are not too confident of the win today – which is what we really need.
This is what Steve McClaren said yesterday about today’s opposition:
“My concentration and focus is purely on Bournemouth and winning that game,” “We’re coming into the business end of the season so any sort of win will be tremendous.”
“We need to get results to make sure we’re in the league next season. Bournemouth will be another tough game.” “Every game is a must win. We’ve got 11 games left and we’re just not thinking about losing the game tomorrow.”
“We know in football that things can turn around and change and Bournemouth is another good opportunity for us.””I admire what Eddie Howe has done at Bournemouth.”
“I thought they always had a great chance of staying up. The work ethic and culture he has created there is great and it’s going to be a very difficult game for us.”
“At the moment we’re just preparing, we need to show some fight and get a little bit more luck in front of goal.” “When you’re not performing and you’re in the bottom three you know you’re missing something.”
“It’s not rocket science, we know we’re missing goals and we’re missing clean sheets and we need to put that right.” “People to do their jobs constantly and when you get that you get results.”
“That’s what we want to see from the players for the next 11 games – starting tomorrow.”
451 comments so far
sparky55
Mar 5, 2016 at 5:35 PM
Comment #441I would put a large bet on Maclaren NOT being sacked.
I say that because he’s already done more than enough to be sacked should he have managed any other club in the premiership…no other club would have stuck with him for so long when it was immediately apparent even after the first 10 games he asked for that he was in fact totally fcuking clueless and inept.
He won’t be sacked because the management are so fcuking clueless they just have no ideas what to do so they do nothing in the hope Maclaren will turn it round.
Everyone knows he’s incapable of turning it round but the management do nothing simply because they are gutless and clueless.
21st Century Schizoid Man
Mar 5, 2016 at 5:35 PM
Comment #442I hoped we would have signed Virgil Van Dijk, as a pritoy in improving our useless defence – but at least he did a job for us today.
Doubt if it’ll be much use, but you never know.
Tsunki
Mar 5, 2016 at 5:35 PM
Comment #443I saw that whingeing Mob creating an undercurrent of anxiety as tino nodded in against Barcelona all right.
WHAT A CROCK!!!
Lindisfarne
Mar 5, 2016 at 5:35 PM
Comment #444SMC on 5Live after the news.
SPRINGY
Mar 5, 2016 at 5:36 PM
Comment #445carr toon
the booing for dummet comin off was uncalled for tbh..think that was just a misreading of the situation…but thats what happens when the club is in the position it is in….and having to here how good we are when its clear to see we were’nt!…..but a lot of the booing appeared to be for lack of movement and invention
Tsunki
Mar 5, 2016 at 5:37 PM
Comment #446Carr Toon is a visiting wum, surely? To post that as a possibility surely nobody would entertain that idea.
Jib
Mar 5, 2016 at 5:38 PM
Comment #447Just seen SM on SSN
He ain’t walking
Hail Wor Ashley
Mar 5, 2016 at 5:39 PM
Comment #448More platitudes and guff from Schteve on 5live
21st Century Schizoid Man
Mar 5, 2016 at 5:40 PM
Comment #449At least Eddie Howe looks like a decent English manager. – there isn’t one in the top ten in the EPL – Sparky is Welsh.
toonking
Mar 5, 2016 at 5:41 PM
Comment #450Carrtoon
That does make sense in one way, the fans have a consistent high demand for very attacking football. You get fans on the blog saying they’d prefer 4 very attacking defeats and 1 win at 6-2 than 4 1-0 wins and than one defeat. the kevin keegan season is viewed as a great season to most but I describe the second half of the season awful you don’t see many teams throw away a 15 point lead. Just think had we turned defencive counter attacking football having gone 3-0 up would it have been a 4-3 defeat?
davis_toons
Mar 5, 2016 at 5:46 PM
Comment #451If we cant change gear at home playing Bournemouth then is surely regulation form.
Here we come again..championship. Hopefully we can do well there.
Janmaat seem very frustrated kicking the ball.
@432 Edd Case // Mar 5, 2016 at 5:31 PM
Agreed ..a little hash thou..but..just like chelsea.
..we have to sack McClaren..and Ian Cathro taking over for the time being or do you have a better manager in mind?