If Alan Pardew had any doubts that he had taken on the biggest job he will ever have in early December – as manager of Newcastle United – then these last few days will have convinced him otherwise.
Shola – has broken cheek bone
It seems only at Newcastle can we keep shooting ourselves in the foot, and not only have we lost our talisman striker Andy Carroll, which has ripped the guts out of Newcastle supporters everywhere, but the other local lad who could have filled in – at least until the end of the season – Shola Ameobi – is now out for some time with a suspected broken cheek bone.
It has once again highlighted the incompetent way in which the club is being run, and shouldn’t we get a Chairman in who actually knows what he’s doing?
Alan Pardew and the Newcastle club seem to be in some difficulty right now, because after last night’s performance we have to think most of the players are like the fans – and are simply devastated by the events of last Monday.
Alan tried to talk about the game last night:
“Even though we were diligent, we could have been a lot better,”
“A little bit missing tonight, a bit off on some of our passing but so were they and there wasn’t much in it, and they team who scored first was going to win.”
Newcastle’s strikers were the focus of last night, and Ameobi, Lovenkrands, Best and Ranger are the only strikers we have and the question was can they fill in until the end of the season. Last night Best didn’t turn up, and Nile Ranger seems too raw to be able to make an impact at just 19 years old.
We can take Shola out of that list now, as he was injured after only 13 minutes last night.
Pardew was not happy with the injury of course, and now the whole of our tactics will need to change because we have no Carroll or Ameobi up front:
“The injury obviously hasn’t helped our cause, we are really light now and need to be careful,”
“The diagnosis for Shola Ameobi isn’t good, he has got a dent in his cheek bone which suggests he may have fractured it. It was a big blow to us in the game and it affected our game plan.”
“Shola has been very important for us, his performances have been very good and it was a blow to lose him so early.”
“We put a system out on the pitch so we could score goals. We’ve had good goals in the side but there’s no doubt that Shola’s injury is a blow.
“We need to make sure we play our game to suit the strikers we have now.”
Every game is important through the end of the season, and a win last night would have done wonders to lift the spirits of everybody associated with the club, but a defeat against a poor Fulham side, who have struggled all season, have made things even worse – unfortunately.
Alan continued:
“I am disappointed as we did really well tonight, but just got caught on a corner and I think that it was our recoveries that were a little misshapen, which left us in 1-on-1 situations at the back which is unlike us,”
“We had some good performances tonight, but it was a real tight affair with a side in form.” “We’ve got 30 points but we need to make sure that we build on that.”
And Pardew was also unhappy with the pathetic pitch at Craven Cottage, but picked out local lad Harper in goal, and Jose Enrique for special praise:
“I was disappointed the game was so scrappy. The pitch made it difficult for us and Fulham.”
“No side could string 10 passes together, it was more like two, three, four passes. I felt we lost our way a bit during the game.”
“Steve Harper in goal was terrific. Jose Enrique, even though on the goal he was slightly at fault, he was absolutely outstanding at left-back.”
“He is one of the best left-backs in this division.”
The lads will be in a bit of a plight if we also lose at home to Arsenal on Saturday – but it’s time for Alan Pardew and Kevin Nolan to pull this side together, before we lose all the good work that has been done so far this season.
The time for mourning has to be over – right now.
Comments welcome.
40 comments so far
curmon
Feb 3, 2011 at 9:52 AM
Comment #1Good time to open a book on how many goals we will score between now and the end of the season. I will start the ball rolling with EIGHT !!!!
WesJameson
Feb 3, 2011 at 9:52 AM
Comment #2Quite simple really Ed, the answer is we arent going to score many & we are in deep trouble this season
As for Enrique….well i cant see him playing for us for much longer, seeing as we are a selling club
Yet another season, yet another year, where Newcastle Utd, whether it be the players, the managers or the owners have let me/every NUFC fan down…i think im pretty much done with supporting football as a whole….FFS
Xavi
Feb 3, 2011 at 9:56 AM
Comment #3we need ben arfa back ASAP
we are so slow and need players with the ability to beat a player…we havent had that since…too long
ThaiMag
Feb 3, 2011 at 10:05 AM
Comment #4I think Ranger will score many goals once he gets his first goal.
Oleg G
Feb 3, 2011 at 10:06 AM
Comment #5Well. Then start passing more, from the middle and the sides (on the ground, keep the ball down).
Find who are the best shooters and start shooting instead of trying to get headers.
Play with more passes from the middle and open to the sides.
Put in players like Vukic (thats his name right?)
We need to start opening defenses, we cannot relay on air (And I HATE that tactic, so old and so ineffective. Works once every 10 attacks, maybe).
We need to shots ON goal, so some of them will go in.
How many times did we shot ON goal last night? 3? 2?
Need to be very accurate to get at least one of those in.
lewman
Feb 3, 2011 at 10:07 AM
Comment #6when steven taylor gets back we will be more dangerous at corners etc… as him and collo are good at headers, nolan should get a couple more and joey might get one or two. i am sure best will get a couple more this season but lets hope we can get someone scoring consistantly, ranger was reall poor last night.
dandan84
Feb 3, 2011 at 10:07 AM
Comment #7Our strike force is s**t. without AC we are in deep trouble. Out of the 4 games unbeaten without him, two were against poor opposition, 1 was a derby so the lads would of been up for it, and in the game against spurs we were lucky that they couldn’t hit a barn door.
We should of paid AC the 80k a week lets be honest hes worth it.
So many lies coming out of sjp. People saying AP is doing well are full of s**t, this is Chris Hughtons team still. Its about time we did what the liverpool fans did and get rid of these dodgy owners!!!
hitman
Feb 3, 2011 at 10:10 AM
Comment #8agreed dan we need these 2 cockney spivs out cairo style
Oleg G
Feb 3, 2011 at 10:11 AM
Comment #9ThaiMag // Feb 3, 2011 at 10:05 AM
Aren’t people tired of saying this?
So what even if he scores the first goal? The next game he will have super power?
He already played enough times to score, but he missed his chances. I am not saying he is a bad player, but people here are putting their hopes on this lad and he is not that great. He is above average maybe, but not someone to build a teal around.
And I forgot to say that – We also need to hold on until some of our injured players come back.
I am sure that with Tiote we will play much much better.
Now we just need to hope that him and Jose Will stay after the summer, which is very doubtful. Our next season actually depends on it (if we survive this one).
dandan84
Feb 3, 2011 at 10:11 AM
Comment #10AP saying Jose is best left backs in the league, probably just wants a club to come and put an offer in
Oleg G
Feb 3, 2011 at 10:14 AM
Comment #11Xavi // Feb 3, 2011 at 9:56 AM
About HBA, Well. You are right, but if we bring him back too early, that can be a very dangerous thing.
By the way, another player who is very important for our next season, have to keep him (afraid that he will also be hunted by the big clubs).
Maybe there is a reason why not to play him. So he will not shine too much.
Angryman the Angry fan
Feb 3, 2011 at 10:15 AM
Comment #12The state that these arseholes have my club in, turns my stomach on a daily basis.
How can they get away with destotroying something that is so good about the area?
The Fat man has done nothing absolutely nothing for this club. For crying out loud, he hasnt even paid off ‘all the debt’ like he originally said he had, the money is dropping into a bottomless pit seemingly and as for Lambarses protestations that ‘mike has ploughed millions into this club’ ….yet still we are in huge debt?? Is it not about time he was bailing out then??
He obviously hasnt got the nous to take this club exactly where it should be, in the top six teams in england”!!!!!!!!!!
We will never get there with these incompetent imbeciles in charge!
dandan84
Feb 3, 2011 at 10:15 AM
Comment #13Also did i read yesterday that MA ashley has so much money he doesnt need 35 million, and then in the next sentence that we cant afford 80k a week. WTF, we are being taken for mugs. I cant see joey barton, Jose, or HBA staying too long
Plastic_Geordie82
Feb 3, 2011 at 10:18 AM
Comment #14Was at Craven last night and we looked really unmotivated in the middle of the park and upfront.
Ranger is carrying too much weight and Best is ineffective. Play too far apart and neither can read the game – looked like they had never even met yesterday let alone played together – not a word said between them.
Peter was better when he came on and at least makes some committed runs.
I thought we could sneak euro spot before Jan with players coming back, although I didn’t advertise this. Now I am genuinely concerned that we will slip into the relegation battle.
Admire the guys whole travel to support the club – I won’t be.
blip
Feb 3, 2011 at 10:24 AM
Comment #15Gotta say, although the criticism of our ‘strikers’ is warranted, they weren’t really the problem yesterday. I can’t remember a single cross or through-ball that was actually played into a decent area. Yes, when we had Carroll you could get away with that and he’d bring other players into play, but we need to get the midfield thinking and creating.
Barton played some nice passes, but usually to the other wing. Jonas and Enrique didn’t cross anywhere near as often as I would have liked. Simpson didn’t push forward as much as usual, and Nolan & Guthrie seemed to both be playing the DM role.
Ranger looked a lot less interested and a lot more lazy than I’ve ever seen him, but his and Best’s poor performance owes as much as anything to the the fact that they were only played the ball when isolated and with 3 defenders to beat.
Think we’ll see the strikers weigh in with a few more goals once Benny, Ireland and Tiote are back. Maybe even Gosling? Haven’t seen enough yet…
SirJohnTudor
Feb 3, 2011 at 10:24 AM
Comment #16Ed,
I think you are wrong to say this is a poor Fulham side. A month ago perhaps, but they are starting to get it together now. Its the same team who demolished spurs at the weekend. I agree with AP that is was always going to be the first team to score who won. The problem is that we were never going to score, so the best we could hope for was a 0 – 0. In the disappointment of recent events we need to be realistic and remember a few facts
1. We rarely win at Craven Cottage anyway
2. AC wasn’t going to be playing so the team and tactics we had last night were not affected by recent events
3. We’ve got the arse on saturday, and quite frankly, the best we can expect is a draw.
4. The following games are against Blackburn, Birmingham, Bolton, Everton, Wolves and Villa – all games we could get points from, so by the end of March we could be safe.
5. This season was only ever about staying in the league. Forget europe, that’s the target for next season
We need to lift the spirits and put tyhis week behind us, just like those who travelled last night did. They were fantastic. They made more noise than Fulham all night
HWTL
JohnnyBrookes
Feb 3, 2011 at 10:25 AM
Comment #17Angryman, I’m the same as you, I really think its time that something needs to be done.
Liverpool did it, they got rid of their owners and now are looking upwards completely, buying good players. We are moving backwards, rapidly, we will be lucky to stay up. Obviously the team spirit was papering over massive cracks and the team spirit has gone.
Is anyone doing anything, we need to take a leaf out of the scousers book, as much as I dislike them , it worked.
Oleg G
Feb 3, 2011 at 10:25 AM
Comment #18dandan84 // Feb 3, 2011 at 10:15 AM
This again?
You don’t understand that if you cave for one player you will have to do that for others. Or, just make other players feel that there are different rules for different players, and that is the worse that can happen in a club. The club is more important then any player.
Then you get Tiote, Joy, Jose and others, coming and saying that they want new contracts because teams are interested in them.
Anyway, total wrong way of looking at it. Giving in to extortion by a player.
They just didn’t need to let him go without a cover.
Also, don’t understand why they let Roug. go without having any cover for him, idiots.
Rotonda heights
Feb 3, 2011 at 10:27 AM
Comment #19Last night persuaded me to ditch sky sports !
I think it showed all too clearly all our collective failings and repeat offenders.
Guthrie just empasized how much we miss Tiote.
If Nolan doesn’t score goals, he does nothing in midfield creatively, or fitness wise.
Jonas is still played on the left and until he gets a go on the right or the middle we’ll never know if he really is a player. Lost count as I do every game of how often he gives the ball away.
Can’t really blame Ranger and Best too much as the service was non – existent, although Best does look more and more like a one match wonder.
The really worrying thing is I don’t trust pardew to bring in anyone decent with that 36M. It’ll be the Carlton Coles of this world or worse.
When fit:-
Harper
Simpson Colo Taylor Enrique
Tiote
Jonas Barton Ireland
Ben Arfa
Ranger
sammydolan
Feb 3, 2011 at 10:28 AM
Comment #20I think we should get a few academy/reserves in up front to remind Shola, Lov & Best what it means to wear this black and white shirt & you want a performance your going to get it with these lads they want to play, score and become legends every young geordie lad does (bar one.)
Vest
Feb 3, 2011 at 10:29 AM
Comment #21Please stop moaning. Carroll is sold and that’s it.
We have to look forward from now on, and just be a little positive.
For me I think we should play 4-5-1 with Nolan behind the lone striker.
Harper
Simpson – Williamsom/Taylor – Colo – José
Barton – Tioté – Guthrie/Ireland – Jonas
Nolan
Best/Ranger
I think this will be our best shot.
What do you think?
HWTL
toon_dog
Feb 3, 2011 at 10:34 AM
Comment #22wt u guys reckon on taking a gamble on benni mcarthy ??? the hammers wanna pay him off with 1 mil so i reckon we should say do that n wel sign ya on a small 6 month contract n see how it goes hes better than ameobi n we are pretty desperate.
if not then i say we just put airey ,vuckic in at the deep end cos i honestly think they will have more fire in them than our strikers.
as for ranger i do generally think he has wt it takes but there is sommit missing, maybe it is a goal or 2 for his confidence but wt ever it is im sure hel find it.
i work with shat load of the unwashed and we had to listen to the game last night on the radio n a certain comment about best stated he lost the ball and seemed to have no interest in even attempting to get it back THATS NO GOOD TO US ad personally rather see some one lose the ball everytime but at least make 110% effort to get it back than simply have no interest.
shane ferguson will be a canny replacement for the bull i think judging by a few of his perfromances but its horribly to know that i think its almost 95% that he will go cos the board simply have no ambition i think he will feel so sorry for us but if he does leave i hope he just comes out and says sorry to us guys but the board are useless and i am sure we will just thnak him for his services and wish him well but lets hope that does not happen WE LOVE U ENRIQUE AND BARTON AND ARFA AND NOLAN AND COLO AND PRETTY MUCH EVERY PLAYER THAT GENERALLY WANTS TO BE IN A BLACK AND WHITE SHIRT.
TS -77
Feb 3, 2011 at 10:34 AM
Comment #23Oh my Shola´s out for 6 weeks! Thats one goal less in 6 matches for Newcastle. Hope he doesnt gain to much weight now when he takes 20 lesser/week. How will it end..?
Nah thats was an evil joke.. Come back soon Shola and start scoring those goals!
dandan84
Feb 3, 2011 at 10:36 AM
Comment #24Oleg G // Feb 3, 2011 at 10:25 AM
yes this again. you have to pay the money to keep the best players i.e. rooney, teves, gerrard got their rises. The hardest players to find are goal scorers. liverpool have now set the benchmark price for goalscorers. Even if we spend 20 mill on a striker he wont be as good as AC and we’ll probably be paying him a lot more than we paid AC. If you want to keep your best players you have to pay them well
Foasjiano
Feb 3, 2011 at 10:36 AM
Comment #25Best doesn’t appear to get the idea of holding the ball up…
Lovenkrands is a winger – not a striker.
Chances are we’ll end up playing Ben Arfa as a striker, if he’s able to play this season…
Would like to see some more academy players getting chances ahead of the likes of Guthrie – who by all means defended well last night but fluffed pretty much every pass and spent most of the game too close to Nolan to make any use of space.
More sub appearances for the likes of Vuckic, Ferguson and Inman should be on the cards.
supermacnumber9
Feb 3, 2011 at 10:37 AM
Comment #26I do not like to be negative cos it helps no one, I want to encourage the players and support them – BUT, where do I begin! I see nothing encouraging at all the moment and all I can hope for is survival through at best a boring run of dreary draws with the odd couple of wins. My big fear is that another defeat (I can’t see us beating Arsenal) will lead to a third on the trot and we will all (players & supporters) plummet into despair. Oh happy days.
toonarmy1986
Feb 3, 2011 at 10:39 AM
Comment #27Thing that annoys me Newcastle held all the power on Monday for the Torres deal so why didn’t they use that power and go to Chelsea give us Anelka on loan to the end of the season with Chelsea paying his wage or we don’t sell Carroll meaning you don’t get Torres. It might be an abuse of power but Chelsea were desperate so surely common sense tells them to do this or at least get Sturridge but instead we sell Carroll with no replacement and let Bolton sneak in for Sturridge that to me is very poor management and all they seen was the pound signs.
dandan84
Feb 3, 2011 at 10:41 AM
Comment #28toonarmy1986 // Feb 3, 2011 at 10:39 AM
Well said mate. The whole things stinks of poor management
supermacnumber9
Feb 3, 2011 at 10:45 AM
Comment #29VEST – where would we play Gosling – and who will score the goals? This may sound daft but (as we have midfield choices) what if we moved Barton and Nolan up front? Both can score – and if we don’t know what they will do then no one else will either and may not be able to cope with a packed midfield allways moving forward.
nufcursed
Feb 3, 2011 at 11:07 AM
Comment #30if we ever want to get better, players like nolan won’t help us.they only offer motivation to the team. in modern football you need technically gifted and quick players, of which we have almost none. nolan is too slow and no technical skills.
players like ameobi, best, lovenkrands, smith, jonas are just not good enough for a top club!
i’m even doubting coloccini.
the only players for me that could play in a top team are:
harper, barton, s.taylor (sometimes), enrique, tiote, ben arfa, gosling and maybe ranger (needs a bit more chances before we can decide that)
conclusion we lack creative offensive players and i’m so scared we’ll go down again. scoring goals was our only advantage compared to other mediocre teams. and now that seems gone as well…
leedodd
Feb 3, 2011 at 11:22 AM
Comment #31The Problem Here is No proper centre Forwards- Either to Young Or To Inexperienced typical Newcastle they should have said yes you can have carroll for £35 million but in the summer to give us time for a new player to be lined up the Pratts !!!! why have we no players and 4 out on loan ?? Bloody Ideots Even Xisco would be better than what we have at the moment .
sammydolan
Feb 3, 2011 at 11:25 AM
Comment #32Agree with toonarmy1986 … everyone says the club is bigger than the player… but the clubs the only fool here.
Sinner
Feb 3, 2011 at 11:30 AM
Comment #33Fulham
Tottenham
Sunderland
Stevenage
Four consecutive matches and none of our strikers have scored!
Thats really shocking.With West ham Birmingham both giving up good performances yesterday!With that we really need to be thinking on how we’re gonna be winning games now and avoid relegation.
Pardew is not the right man for this job and this is showing its results on the pitch.
The team has low morale because of him and fck he is absolutely clueless.
And please no more Best!!!!
aguero10
Feb 3, 2011 at 11:35 AM
Comment #34The ginger ninja Adam Campbell scored for the reserves the other night in only his second game for them.
He has only just turned 16 but if he’s as good as they say he is he should get some minutes from the bench at least
He won the Nike Cup MVP award (won by the likes of Iniesta, Tevez and Torres before him)
I’m thinking he can’t be any worse than Best and co.
jimmymagpie
Feb 3, 2011 at 11:36 AM
Comment #35Sorry lads, there’s no light at the end of this tunnel, just the inevitable. It is 2009 all over again – no goals means no points. Just watch and listen to Pardew carefully and you will realise that he has had the stuffing knocked out of him. He’s been left with a load of 2nd and 3rd players, a good few of whom took us down last time and will do the same again. The one thing that was keeping their heads above water, their spirit, has just been knocked out of them. I am told that Nolan is on the verge of putting in a transfer request, and he knew that Carroll was going on Sunday afternoon. Even Lawrenson told the MOTD viewers last night that it was an open secret in football that Ashley was going to sell Carroll in January, something which I told you on this very site. I take no pleasure in being proved right, and the FCB is dismantling the very fabric of our club by his asset stripping on and off the pitch, making scores of employees redundant, and laughing his head off. I cannot understand how some of you keep defending him, I can only assume that you have a sadistic likeness for being regularly kicked in the bollocks.
wynsleap
Feb 3, 2011 at 11:54 AM
Comment #36Too right jimmymagpie.
Ashley hasn’t got a bloody clue in how to manage a football club. He may be king in the “pile em high and sell em cheap” empire but he has no place in the football world.
He is a plague on this club and the sooner he goes the better.
(and takes Lambsarse with him)
ToonMobile
Feb 3, 2011 at 11:57 AM
Comment #37@ 24
dandan84 spot on! You have to pay for quality. The whole talk of “can’t do it for one otherwise they will all want it” is rubbish. You (should) get paid for how much you contribute and can justify. In Carroll’s case if they really wanted to keep him it would be justified to pay him more based on his current level and future potential.
The Ashley imposed wage ceiling is a convenient
excuse to not have any real stars at the club in the future. Remember a certain Shearer being the top paid player at the club? That was for a reason and the wage structure flexibility allowed it – to our detriment in some cases with some players I admit – but that isn’t because of a flexible wage structure and no ceiling, that was due to the managers who chose them and bought them on those wages!
Has anyone seen in any job a situation where when one person got a raise and everyone else demanded one too? Or everyone left because someone else was valued more? That’s life! Different roles involve different salaries,
different talent and the desire to retain it should cost more. £35million wont get you a new star striker even if one wanted to come (including cost+wages) now. Sorry for being negative but the wool continues to be pulled over some fans eyes as to our potential in the future under this ownership.
Another thing, we are always hearing about all the debt inherited by the Ashley etc – just like all the other things they say though can we actually believe the extent of the problem they claim they inherited?
MacToon
Feb 3, 2011 at 12:20 PM
Comment #38“He is one of the best left-backs in this division.”
So that’s Enrique in the shop window for the summer transfers then!
Alinufc
Feb 3, 2011 at 4:12 PM
Comment #39put collo up froont best striker of the ball we have!!!!!!!!!!
dave 1961
Feb 3, 2011 at 4:13 PM
Comment #40Nolan is one of the most unprofessional player we have ever had to talk Carroll into going to Liverpool is just um believable, then to gloat about it on Liverpool TV Nolan is judos mk2, I can never remember a player recommending to a team mate to leave & drop the team paying your massive wages in the c*ap.