Taylor-made for an injury free season?

Taylor returns to training
Steven Taylor was unfortunate enough to pick up a rather serious injury at the back end of last year, an injury which seen him ruled out for the rest of the campaign.

As things stand now, we actually managed to finish the season off ok without him and, even though Mike Williamson is perhaps not to the taste of everyone, we managed to secure European football thanks to finishing fifth in the Premier League.

However I do sometimes wonder if we could have finished higher had we not lost Taylor to injury. At times Williamson was outstanding but at others he floundered and seemed to lose his confidence a bit. Could we have finished fourth or even third had Taylor stayed fit? Judging by his start to the season you couldn’t rule it out as both he and Fabricio Coloccini played a large part in our stunning unbeaten start to last season.

Like I said though, the Europa League isn’t a bad consolation prize so it’s important not to get too disheartened by it considering the fact that ultimately we beat pretty much all the expectations people had for us before the season kicked off.

What is important now though is making sure Steven Taylor is back to his best and is physically able to put his body on the line. It’s not a mental issue with Taylor as he’ll do it regardless, but the club need to make sure that he won’t damage himself in the process by making sure he is 100% fit over pre-season.

Another important thing for Steven is having an injury free season. All too often we’ve seen his playing time cut short by one injury or another although in fairness they aren’t exactly injuries that concern me. By that I mean that they aren’t injuries in one specific area that indicate a problem with, say, a hamstring for example. Instead they are often impact injuries, such as his shoulder one, or just generally unlucky ones like his latest one.

At 26, Taylor is now approaching what should be the prime of his career and will obviously want to be playing as much as he can be. The goal for him this season should be to avoid any type of long-term injury whilst also maintaining his blood and thunder style of play.

Fingers crossed he can achieve just that!

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.

35 thoughts on “Taylor-made for an injury free season?

  1. We were outstanding in defence with Taylor in the side and we were just not the same for the rest of the season, just hope he comes back in the same form.
    But we still need quality back up, Williamson is ok but you have to have doubts about any defender who turns his back on the ball to avoid being hit.

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  2. Got to say, he is defo improving with age and it’s strange to think he’s only 26 bearing in mind he has been in the first team squad for almost a decade.

    If he continues to show consistency and development then there is no reason he won’t break into the England team now that Terry & Ferdy are nearing the end of their careers.

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  3. Nice comments Troy, you used to be one of his biggest detractors so it is good to see you have chewed on some humble pie and changed your views..

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  4. I’ve said for months now that if we’d kept Stevie T to full fitness all season we’d have grabbed that 3rd spot as there was only a few points in it and our defence would have been a lot stronger, we probably would have won both the Arsenal and Spurs games which would have leap-frogged over them and we most certainly wouldnt have lost so much to Fulham, WBA and Everton. But as I said a couple of days ago if he has another big injury next season I’ll lose all hope for our Geordie CB 🙁

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  5. Taylor and Collo really compliment each other well. Not sure I’d trade them for more than a couple CB pairings in the entire league.

    I’m not worried about his injuries moving forward- the lad just seems to have had some really bad luck.

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  6. I don’t like how MK Dons have released a statement regarding the Smith signing saying, ‘former Manchester United and England international’ completely ignoring Leeds and Newcastle, the two clubs he was at the longest. 😡

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  7. MDS
    Aye theyre 2nd in the league to the Kompany-Lescott partnership, far better than Vidic-Ferdinand.

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  8. Troy said it all, really. I think he’s matured enough now and just needs a bit of polishing to be international class. He was amazing as captain of England U21s and has all the attitude that was missing from the senior squad.

    I just hope he can cut out the play-acting b.s. – it’s just not the Toon way. Cheating, basically.

    Really glad to see Tayls back – proper Geordie CB; guts-and-glory player who gets stuck in and is feared by defences whenever we get a corner.

    Gerrin, Stevie!

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  9. Whumpie
    aye think it helps he was originally trained as a striker, so he’s as prolific in front of goal as he is defending the goal.

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  10. Wow, absense certainly makes the heart grow fonder… Next someone will be saying he his the next Maldini.. Taylor still has more than his share of flaws.. he constantly gets caught out of position and seems to want do his own thing in regards to working with Collo. He is over exuberant in tackles and rides his luck with the refs… He is a solid defender and nothing more at the moment.. Hopefully Pardew can iron out these flaws..

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  11. Yup, agree with Troy…..let’s hope his injury problems are behind him, though history doesn’t look to promising on that score 😕

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  12. Aussie- agree he has flaws but I think collo compliments him well. Staylor can run around like a maniac disrupting plays while calm and steady collo has his back.

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  13. I agree that they balance each other in regards to composure MDS.. but we had our share of luck early on last season, I don’t think we were as rock solid as some are saying with him in the team.. I like him as a player but he is far from being the panacea for our defensive issues..

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  14. Well that ends the De Jong chase, Luuk says he only wants to go to Mochengladbach as they have CL footy.

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  15. Agreed AMF, which is why another “calming influence” type CB is high on my priority list for the summer. Either way you slice it though, taylor is an upgrade over Willo

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  16. I agree with what I have always said he is Toon through and through, and imo he is a future captain and if he didn’t get injuried we would have fought it out for 3rd.
    When he was in the side Colo was far calmer and he also kept Simmo right and was forever talking or shouting at the defence, which is something Colo badly lacks in as to me Colo finds it easier to try to cover the other rather that shout at them, so given the chance he wiuld be my captain now as he has what it takes to be captain.

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  17. MDS
    I don’t think that’s what we need. Two calming CBs doesn’t work, you need a tough tackling enforcer as well as a coloesque figure. That’s why Barca’s defence used to be do good, piqué as the ‘muscle’ and Puyol as the ‘brain’.

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  18. DAVE once he got shot of his dad as his agent doing his heed in,hes played well and settled doon.
    imo we will see gosling ganning out on loan too

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  19. Dave
    I don’t think Stevie can organise the defence and midfield as well as Fabricio can so I think Colo is a great choice as captain.

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  20. Whens Debuchy back off his holidays? ,about time he handed in a transfer request I reckon. 😉

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  21. @20. problem is we only have one of each at the moment. Willo is sort of in between I’d say…

    That douglass we’ve been after seems more in the Taylor mode so the club might agree with ya

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  22. dog even at the time me and dave couldnt beleive you were taking fattys word over saylors 😆 😆

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  23. I’m not sure we would have finished that much higher-maybe fourth but even then we’d be in the EL. Taylor is the better defender, I don’t think there can be that much arguing over that, however we as a team were far more defensive in general when he was fit, with ultra defensive wingers, both Tiote and Cabaye essentially defensively minded and relying on pot shots from Bestie and Ba.

    Plus he’s still prone to that minute of madness every now and then, which both Colo and Willo are as well to be fair, still, hopefully he’ll be injury free this season-if he’s not we’ll certainly need another top class defender through the doors asap.

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  24. I see Sky are saying if we wait til August then Demba’s buy out clause becomes 15mil and not 7? Interesting….wonder if he’d still get half? No idea how anyone knows the details though…

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  25. On topic – I couldn’t put it any better than Troy already has, so won’t even try. 😯 😉

    Off topic – So LDJ fancies MBG. Shame coz I think he’s a good player, But you win some and loose some.

    I asked on the last thread, would it be worth offering Crystal Palace £10m for Clyne and Zaha?
    Think we could land them both for that upfront, and they are 2 of the best English players coming through, IMO.

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  26. Batty yeah your right it was ‘WE’
    can you remember all the ones saying that Saylor was trying to screw the club and had no loyalty to the club and that Nolan was more loyal but that was before Nolan talked Carroll into leaving us then trying to screw the club and when he didn’t get what he wanted he dropped down to the hammers 😆 .
    Andy I think Colo is one of the best CBs we have had but he doesn’t organise the defence never mind MF, he doesn’t have it in him to shout at players, and sometimes a captain needs to do that and stop their heads from dropping.
    A few of the bad loses wesuffered last year imo was due to no one grabbing hold of the game and not letting the heads drop, and Colo was one of the players that dropped his head.

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  27. Agree dave. Collos a star but don’t think he an organizer. We were in disarray too many times on defence last year

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