Injury ravaged Newcastle take on Tottenham.

toonsy

The cathedral on the hill.
Tottenham the visitors to SJP.
Tottenham are the visitors to St James’ Park on Saturday afternoon for what is set to be a tough test for Alan Pardew’s Newcastle United.

There was once a time when playing Tottenham used to pretty much guarantee us three points, but that isn’t the case anymore. They are a Champions League team these days and play nice, attractive, attacking football which is very pleasing on the eye. I have an irrational dislike of ‘Spurs, but even I’ll doff my cap to them on that front.

The match will signal the return of John Carver to the Newcastle dugout for the first time in over 6 years as he takes his seat next to Alan Pardew for his new assistant manager role. The last time Carver was in our dugout we won 3-0, more of the same tomorrow will do very nicely indeed.

First of all though, Newcastle have to dig in and try to scrape a team together. The term ‘bare bones’ has never been more relevant, and with the lack of a breakthrough in the transfer market as yet, the selection problems won’t get any better for the visit of Tottenham.

Andy Carroll is still sidelined with a thigh injury, Steven Taylor is out with a hamstring injury, Alan Smith is likely to be out for the season with ankle ligament damage, Dan Gosling has suffered a slight setback in his recovery from a cruciate injury and will not be risked, Kevin Nolan has a throat infection and probably won’t be able to play the full 90 minutes, and Cheik Tiote serves the second match of his three game ban. Ryan Taylor and Hatem Ben Arfa remain sidelined with their respective long-term injuries.

See what I mean? Bare bones….

We know Danny Guthrie is set to start, and we know that the goalkeeper and defence are pretty settled, and we also know that it is likely to be Shola Ameobi and Leon Best up front for us, which just leaves the midfield as a problem for us. Well not so much a problem, more the fact that it will be weakened. I’d go with a team a bit like this:

Newcastle: Steve Harper, Danny Simpson, Mike Williamson, Fabricio Coloccini, Jose Enrique, Joey Barton, Danny Guthrie, Kevin Nolan, Jonas Gutierrez, Shola Ameobi, Leon Best.

In contrast, Tottenham have no fresh injury concerns ahead of the trip to the North-East. Former Magpie Jonathan Woodgate is still injured, as is Ledley King, Tom Huddlestone and Jamie O’Hara. Apart from that, Redknapp has a clean bill of health for his squad, and he can also call on new signing Steven Pienaar after the South African midfielder signed from Everton in midweek.

Last time out Tottenham managed a rather tame 0-0 draw with Manchester United. In that match they played a team consisting of:

Tottenham: Huerelho Gomes, Alan Hutton, Michael Dawson, William Gallas, Benoit Assou-Ekotto, Aaron Lennon, Wilson Palacios, Luka Modric, Gareth Bale, Rafael Van der Vaart, Peter Crouch.

Tottenham last won on Tyneside back in 2004, whilst Newcastle go looking for a fifth consecutive home win over ‘Spurs. If Tottenham score first they generally win, and they have done that on nine occasions so far this season. However, they do concede goals and have done so in their last 11 consecutive away league matches.

Newcastle have won more corners than any other team this season, with the current count being 160 corners for The Magpies. Kevin Nolan will score his 50th Premier League tomorrow if he can find the back of the net.

We haven’t lost a league game since I stopped predicting results, so I’m going to continue that omen and see if it works in our favour again!

Howay the lads!

About toonsy

A lifelong Newcastle fan and current webmaster of this very 'blog who has the sole aim of creating a place by Newcastle United fans, for Newcastle United fans.

View all posts by toonsy →

You may like these posts

112 thoughts on “Injury ravaged Newcastle take on Tottenham.”

  1. Toonsy
    You may have stopped predicting however Lawro hasn’t and he says 2-1 to us 👿 ……… we’ll see what has more power you not predicting or him predicting us to win! :mrgreen:

      (Quote)

  2. Don’t mention that **** 👿

    He was on radio the other night saying how we wouldn’t pay the money for Shaun Wright-Phillips. Then he said how to survivie in the PL all teams need a shedload of players and cited us as an example. This is after he said we would dtruggle because we had the same players that took us down 🙄

      (Quote)

  3. Lawro hasn’t got a clue what he’s on about. His punditry is terrible and he annoys the life out of me, complete waste of space on the MOTD sofa. He’ll be picking up a tidy wage aswell.

      (Quote)

  4. Complete shitbag. Remember when he used to preach how our defence was shyte and Keegan got im and said if he thought he could improve it with his knowledge then crack on.

    It didn’t work :mrgreen:

      (Quote)

  5. Good article Toonsy. I agree with your line up as that is the best team we can field at the moment. Would love to see what the team would be like if we had all our best players able to play. It would be a very canny side with Tiote, Ben Arfa and Carroll added into the mix.

      (Quote)

  6. Looking at those two lineups, I can’t say I’m exactly filled with confidence for tomorrow.

    Add Carroll, Ben Arfa, Titote, a new RM and I’d take my chances…

      (Quote)

  7. Shows how much he knows about football doesn’t it! 🙂
    Also do you know anything about Gosling time frame?

      (Quote)

  8. As far as I know it’s just a set back as he has some swelling. No time frame, but it shouldn’t take too long. Something like that was always likely to happen anyway.

      (Quote)

  9. Thank you Jill 🙂

    I agree. Our starting XI is very strong, but it’s when injuries strike and how the squad can cope with those injuries that makes the difference.

      (Quote)

  10. Good news, but something that is worrying me is that we haven’t made any new signings except obviously HBA but he cant play until March I can see us getting no-one in. Pardew seems to be happy with the strikers, until end of season they will do. Also we seem to be falling short with everyone we try and buy! We are starting to look very fragile indeed and need one if not two players in. One loan and one permanent

      (Quote)

  11. One of the main reasons manure are top and chelski are doing ***** is because of strength (or lack of) in depth

      (Quote)

  13. a bit concerned with the match against spurs i expect guthrie getting the nod and performing well like he did against sunderland

      (Quote)

  14. Hey T,just on digging out the PS file to sort pout the banner, been busy all week and cant log in from my BB now youve made the changes!

      (Quote)

  40. I haven’t a prediction myself. I am just excited to once again have Fox Soccer Channel showing the game here.
    If Best is in the line-up, I look forward to him working to get the goals. He strikes me as someone who still has something to prove…even after the hat-trick. Therefore I look forward to a worthwhile effort on his part.

      (Quote)

  42. Nothing would suprise me to be honest, not at this club.

    I agree with their basic method in this window though. Most business should be done in the summer, providing we have enough to stay up and we should have, but our midfield doesn’t half look empty at the minute.

      (Quote)

  43. putting it out there 2-0 toon best in the 23rd min and Barton 69th min :mrgreen:
    wonder what the odds on that would be!

      (Quote)

  46. I always try to be supportive of the incumbent in the said managerial role, namely Newcastle United and Mr Pardew. However I am frankly dissapointed that Mr Pardew has got headaches with the transfer window. Whereas Mr Hughton had no such headaches, which begs the question ‘is Mr Pardew up to it’?

      (Quote)

  47. just been out with a Spurs fan and he was all like we’re gonna win no problem.

    My opinion, player for player, they’re better.

    But player for player we shouldn’t have got relegated! It means nowt at the end of the day and it depends on which teams turns up.

    For me, we’re better than what we were, (that team that never used to urn up against teams around us) however, I think Spurs are too. So I think it’s going to be a close one tomorrow, one goal either side to win it!

    Just which side i’m not sure….

      (Quote)

  48. How does throat infection affects the legs as well? 😯

    In this kind of matches when we are down to barebones,we need Nolan to contribute.

    Unless somehow,somewhere Best score another hat-trick. 🙄

    But I would rather Best+Lovekrands. Shola starting is a no-no.

    Or Xisco. 😆

      (Quote)

  50. AOD – a throat infection can prevent people from breathing properly. To me and you it would be annoying, but to a top level athlete its pretty important

      (Quote)

  57. Hopefully, just wanna get to 40 points asap and you should always be looking for 3 points at home whoever ya playing.

      (Quote)

  58. if we had of held on against the scum ,we would of been talking aboot this being a 6 pointer for europe 😀

      (Quote)

  62. Tough game today but if we get at them from the off we could win.
    Shola was good last week holding the ball up and generally making a menace of himself, he also made the goal.
    afraid best was rubbish so would prob go with loven
    Wonder if vuckic will make the bench today, we’re short on midfielders and he’s meant to be canny

      (Quote)

  63. Got a feeling with our injuries and pathetic lack of depth in the squad we could get a good spanking today.

    They have some real pace in their side and we have, well we have any ideas who has pace for us?

      (Quote)

  64. 4411….think Vukic is injured.

    jay jay….coach nae good….know ya don’t like em but needs must.

      (Quote)

  66. 4411
    Posted January 22, 2011 at 9:15 AM

    Shola was good last week holding the ball up and generally making a menace of himself, he also made the goal…..

    shola only shows up every 1 in 4 games so dont expect owt from him the day like or the following couple of weeks either.

    cue – boater.

      (Quote)

  70. 😆 batty, just checked and the last bus back to brum leaves Neville street at 5:00pm so that’s no bloody good. I’ll stick with the trains and advanced bookings.

      (Quote)

  71. Anybody on the blog give a lift from Brum to Toon, he doesn’t take up much room and makes canny “smalltalk”….nae pun intended 😆

      (Quote)

  72. I may come in for criticism (not that I care) but I see Routledge going and smith injured as blessings in disguise. Now Pardew can’t let either of them near the pitch.

    Don’t know why people think we’ll beat Spurs….

    I have been to many spurs Newcastle games but those days are gone (or maybe just postponed)

      (Quote)

  73. Unfortunetly I agree with you Moreno , spuds are a good side and with the players we are missing i cant see us winning today , hopefully im wrong tho 🙂

      (Quote)

  74. I can see a tough game today where the toon don’t see too much of the ball, and we need to sit tight and hold a strong defence. Especially so since we lack our 2 ball-winners in Tiote and Smith. I fancy a tight game perhaps a 0-0, don’t think we’re gonna get spanked though, at the end of the day we are still the home side.. AP’s tactics will go a long way to deciding the outcome of the game..

    Interesting developments in the free transfer markets where obviously MA is playing hard ball and won’t pay “over the odds” for players which are often classed as squad players at their respective clubs. Must admit I agree with the theory, cos the player just sits tight and picks up his huge wedge, and warms the bench. Just goes to show which clubs are willing to take the risk and make the huge investment. MA obviously has done this for certain individuals and agreed to pay the wedge – Ben Arfa, AC etc, next stop for new contracts are the bull and JB. Which of the bloggers would be willing to pay the huge salaries of players like Keane, and supposedly Ireland ? At the end of the day the squad needs strengthening, when everyone is fit we have a strong first 11, when injuries kick in perhaps not. Hope it doesn’t all end in tears when we fail to strenghten our squad when the majority of clubs seem to be doing so…

      (Quote)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *