Colo’s knock shows desperate need for defensive reinforcements

Colo injury a blow
Fabricio Coloccini is rated as ‘doubtful’ by manager Alan Pardew as he prepares his side for an FA Cup 4th Round encounter against Brighton.

Our Argentinian Captain is carrying a groin strain and will undergo tests before it’s decided whether he’ll play at the Amex Stadium tomorrow evening, although personally if there is any doubt I’d prefer him to be left out.

Which is a problem as we have nobody to replace him with which, in turn, could put our FA Cup participation in jeopardy. To counter that, if we play and he aggravates the injury further we could be without him for a run of league games, which would pose a serious risk to our decent season and our chance of chasing a European place.

Put simply we need a defender and we need one before the end of the window. According to the local hacks we’ve tabled a take it or leave it offer to Watford for Adrian Mariappa which would offer us cover, but it would be cover that is untested at Premier League level, or indeed at any top level.

Of course it’s going to be hard to balance. We need defenders, but we also need to consider what is going to happen when Steven Taylor returns. It’s all well and good getting an international centre-back through the doors, but once everyone is fit again I very much doubt any of them will be happy sitting on the bench.

The counter-argument is of course squad depth, but I don’t think we are in a position to be able to keep international players on the bench for too long. We don’t have European competition to offer like other clubs do for example, and will an international player like Jan Vertonghen for example, be happy to fill in for injuries? Or will our current centre-backs be happy to take a back seat for a new player?

As I said, it’s a balancing act, but it’s one that needs to be balanced pretty **** soon. We have just four days of the transfer window remaining or else we’re going to have to cross our fingers for the rest of the season and hope we don’t pick up any injuries in defence.

It would be a shame to see our bright first half of the season fade away because of a lack of defensive options but I can see it happening if we fail to bring in a defender. Bringing in Papiss Demba Cisse is all well and good, but it won’t matter if we have nothing at the other end to stop the goals being conceded.

As ever, time will tell…

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.

97 thoughts on “Colo’s knock shows desperate need for defensive reinforcements

  1. @troyore, Just been restrained so I could post a comment, keep bouncing past my keyboard.. 😀
    looks like the geordie dancer, your source.. might have been winding you up Trot 😆 lol first the Geordie dancer now Nobby.. to me to you to me

    boin boing boing

    gannin to pick the bairns up from school 😀

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  2. The Costa Concordia has to be the only cruise liner in the world where the hot tub is cold but the main pool is at ninety degrees. 😈

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  3. NOBBY@38 i said the same thing y/day about eds blog,set of evil thick gits,let them get on mate,i never go on 👿

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  4. Again very strange way to handle things. No cover at CB whatsoever but we have 8 or 9 M to spend on a striker. He was a great buy but do we have things backwards? Shouldn’t a CB have been brought in first? If the Mariappa deal falls through what then? It is highly likely we won’t spend much more and now we have 16 games left with no depth at the back at all. If Kadar was useless why didn’t we get rid of him last summer and bring someone in? Is anyone in management even paying attention? Why this lack of investment at such a key position? What does Llambias smoke these days? All these questions and more. Stay tuned. 🙁

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  5. What happens if Colo is out (quite likely), and Willo gets injured? Lack of decent cover in a number of positions is extremely unprofessional (mickey mouse) for a club of this size. It is the reason we have won nowt for 50 years.

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  6. Have to agree B&B. Even if we bring Mariappa in we still don’t have enough cover at the back. Saylor is an excellent young player but how many games has he already missed through injury? Colo is 30 now and he still hasn’t signed a contract extension. Willo is too slow to cover fast strikers and is only useful when Colo is fully fit. Pardew doesn’t rate Kadar at all or he would have played him in December. Is anyone thinking about the defense at all? I would want 2 CB’s in by the end of next summer, both of high quality. Krul deserves a better defense in front of him.

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  7. I agree B&B, it’s infuriating, but there’s still 4 days left. The Cisse deal had probably been arranged ages ago and was just waiting to drop.

    I can remember when we were really weak in midfield, in the Dyer days. Now we have 3,486 midfielders and no defence.

    (slight exaggeration)

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  8. I got a nagging feeling Colo is going this window ,still ain’t signed his contract extension and now apparently injured .Called me paronoid but really got a bad feeling like . 🙁

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  9. I think our plan for going forward is to win every game 5-4. We are going to outscore everyone so it doesn’t matter who we play at CB. We should even try pairing up Perch and his granny. Krul will be so impressed with his defense that he will agree to stay forever. We can obviously let Colo go as he isn’t needed with the depth we have. 🙄

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  10. Rodz- (a) other clubs know how desperate we are and (b) we all know Mikey wont pay over the odds. We’ll be lucky to get a loan signing. Nice to see your optimism however.

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  11. As a supporter I say we should always strive for perfection. The first 11 is very decent indeed now but how often will the first 11 play together? To me Saylor plays the type of game which will see him injured quite often. All of the top 5 have a lot of cover at every position. Even Arsenal because Wenger is not afraid to use young players with confidence. We need 4 or 5 more players to stay in the top 6 and compete in Europe. I would like to see us get them by the end of next summer. Then push on into Europe, win a cup. Restore Geordie pride. Shut the southern press up. Bask in the jealousy from the makems. Ah, it could be so good!!

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  12. I was full of hope after Cisse signed ,but as the clock runs down i’m feeling more and more concerned we are going to miss out on a cb.The club need to move on if the Marriappa deal is too much trouble and look to loan until summer.

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  13. …”Mike asked me when am I going to get a centre-half. It’s about making sure we get the right one.”

    I’d like to think we are ‘trying’, I just hope we have a fall-back plan if we’re not getting the “right one” until the summer, cos we need backup now. In fact, why couldn’t we have brought in a cheap/loan CB first and then work on the “right one”, we could do with 2 anyway.

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  14. Jeez guys, a lot of worrying going on here! Lets wait until the window has shut before panicking. A lot can change in the next few days! 🙂

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  15. @shamrock
    I’m with you. There’s 4 days left. We could have a CB lined up and picking the perfect moment to strike.

    23;59 hrs on Monday evening is likely. 😛
    We also have 4 days to get shot of Colo, Tiote and Krul.

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  16. Just announced on the Legends that another bid by the Toon for Mirriappa has been rejected by Watford. 🙄

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  17. I get the age thing about our new transfer policy, but I don’t think it should necassarily be a hard and fast rule.
    I think you need experience in the team aswell and some older players to guide the younger ones. For me, it would be a really shame to rule out the likes of Samba coz he’s 28 (in March) when we could sign him on a 3-4 yr contract and get his best years out of him.
    I also think, and it was mentioned in last nights thread, that Ridgewell at £2m would be a worthy signing. He would provide excellent cover LB/CB through to the summer when we can get “the right one” in. But again, under the new policy, Ridgewell would be ruled out.

    I think as a general, the policy is a good idea, but I think if a player ticks most boxes and is at least under 30 and at a decent price, he should certainly be considered.

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  18. I had a happy childhood.My Dad would put me inside a tyre and then roll me down a hill.They were goodyears…

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  19. 16 years we woulndt be worrying bout defenseive problems, cause KK would just put an extra striker in, instead and just go for it, something we should do tomoro, it’ll frighten the lives out of brighton, see the toon bombing forwards at them!! thats my opinion anyway 😉

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  20. Agree we should have got a defender before a striker

    Disagree we should be worrying about having 3 good centre backs. Perch has gotten a lot of games this season…he shouldn’t have gotten one imo. Williamson is a good promising player and should be getting Perch’s games while someone better should be getting Williamson’s

    Even someone as good as Williamson would be ok for me because he always looks tidy despite not being a beast like Taylor and Colo

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