Newcastle United v Everton: Match Preview, Team News, Prediction
After the 3-1 defeat in the EFL Cup Newcastle now have a chance to reverse that result at St James' Park in at 8pm KO live on Sky.
A win and three points would take the Toon clear in 7th place in the table and a draw would take us to 8th.
Match Preview
The stats from the cup game showed that Newcastle were the better team in all areas except the only two that really count; goals scored and goals conceded.
Everton had three chances and scored from every one while Newcastle had more than three and missed all of them, other than Dan Burn's goal which was too late to give any chance of a comeback.
Not taking our chances and giving the oppo too many chances at the other end of the pitch has been the common theme that has frustrated fans all season, and Matthias Jaissle described some of our defending as "shocking" in his post match presser.
Having said that I've got some sympathy for Dedic who, other than by name, got the brunt of MJ's wrath for attempting to play his way out of a defensive area only to see the ball rebound to Garner who swiftly planted it past Hornicek for the opening goal.
First, the direction of the ricochet was unlucky and, second, fans criticise defenders for aimlessly hoofing the ball clear when in exactly the same position Dedic was.
Lewis Hall, for all his great performances this season, has been caught out more than once when trying to play himself out in similar positions and it was only because Dedic's mistake immediately led to a goal against the run of play that he got hammered.
Jaissle I am sure will have handed out rockets to a few in the dressing room and Dedic won't have been the only player getting one after all three goals were avoidable.
I just hope the instruction in training over the past few days hasn't been to hoof it every time because, especially with Osula likely unavailable, the chances are that there will be no physical challenge and it will be a possession gift to Everton.
Other than the three goals they notched against us in the cup game, Everton have only averaged a goal a game in the PL but they have also only conceded nine with only three teams having conceded less.
That points to a tight match this evening but if we can convert the possession and chances we had into goals then the Toon have every chance of climbing into 7th place.
Team News
With Osula unlikely to start Jaissle's options are more a case of who replaces him and does he again play Schar and Burn and will Elanga start in place of Murphy.
Some on the blog have speculated whether Jo should be played again as a ST to give us a physical presence but I think that option has well and truly flown.
So MJ has a choice between Wissa and Pardo with neither giving fans much confidence that they are up to the job.
Unless Jaissle has seen something exceptional from one of the two in training, for me, it's almost down to the spin of a coin who starts.
£100M spent and spinning coins, it just tells you how bankrupt out attacking options are.
Prediction
Everton were nothing special on Thursday night and plenty in the media rated us the better team.
Mind, we were nothing special either but in some ways that gives me confidence - or is it just hope - that we can do a number on them tonight.
If we can step up just a tad from the cup performance and take some of the chances we created I can see us winning this comfortably 2-0 or 3-1.
The danger man for Everton is their ST Thierno Barry who has scored seven in eleven games this season.
He is a handful, deceptively strong and quick, and he took his goal very well on Thursday.
One thing that we should bear in mind is that last season, his first in the Prem, he only scored eight goals in 38 games and pre-season Everton only failed to sign Florian Balogun as his possible replacement because the lad failed his medical.
My point; it's still far too early to judge the likes of Pardo, Toure and Bamba after so few minutes in the PL. They could yet prove astute buys with more time under their belts.
Anyway...
My prediction tonight is that hopefully Barry won't add to his goal tally and we will add two to ours with none conceded to Everton.
So my usual fiver is going on 2-0 to the Toon.
What's your prediction?
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Thierno barry
Everton 15 goals in 52
Villarreal 11 goals in 37
Basle 20 goals in 41
@Dougall
From earlier,
''Realistically, nobody wants to blame anyone—but someone wanted to sign Wissa, Elanga, Woltemade, and Ramsey''
Given our stellar success in the transfer market up until last summer and the signings that have subsequently turned us down or we've been gazumped (after the sales of Minteh and EA, coincidence???) don't you think our recruitment team deserve to be cut a bit of slack. Guehi, Khusanov, Manzambi, Munoz, Pedro, Etikite, Sesko, Mbuemo(?) and there's probably a few I've missed, we're fishing in the pond that can offer a lot more wages than us and all some people want to do is give out to them.
Woltemade got Juve player of the month in October, whoops, quick edit, @A Geordie Mongrel got there before me 😬
Not be long now and we will see what we get tonight. Everton are anything but a good team problem is neither are we but hopefully home advantage and an extremely poor Everton attack will give us the advantage 🤞
John J . Wissa for me is arguably the biggest flop I have ever seen at NUFC . Its not just the amount he cost , there is absolutely very little to show for it overall. Woltemade was a very disappointing signing , wissa though is that bad he makes woltemade look reasonable and he's not even here anymore.