Game On! Newcastle v Southampton

toonsy

Game on at SJP!
Game on at SJP!
After the joy of progressing in the Europa League midweek, Newcastle United must now quickly focus their attention to domestic matters as Southampton visit St James’ Park.

The results yesterday mean that it’s easy to see what a win will do for each team. Three points for either side will extend the gap to six points between themselves and the relegation spaces.

If you want to get a bit more technical and look a little bit deeper, then a win for Southampton will take them above Sunderland and West Ham into 13th place whilst a win for Newcastle will be enough to propel us above the Mackems into 14th place. United could jump into 13th place aswell but they’d need to win by three clear goals and would then go above West Ham on goals scored. A draw for either side is no good to anyone.

Southampton go into the game having not played a competitive game for over two weeks whilst United, who named a strong side in Ukraine in midweek, have played twice in the period with a break of only two days between playing in Kharkiv and playing in Newcastle. Tiredness could play a part, but then by the same token the opposite could be true and Southampton could be rusty whilst we’ve continued to grease the machine with competitive games. We shall see.

The match preview is online and can be viewed by clicking here. It features injury news for both sides, a look at the history of the fixture between the two clubs, some stats and facts along with some of my random rambling at the end.

The game itself is not being broadcast live here in the UK as the TV moguls have opted to show Manchester City v Chelsea instead. That means a lot of people who aren’t going to the game today will be looking for a stream so if you happen to stumble across a good one then by all means feel free to leave a link to it in the ‘comments’ section below.

Team news will be published below as and when it becomes available and is once again being provided by Big Dave, who is doing sterling work keeping you guys updated with team sheets in my enforced absence through work. Not good for me, but probably good for United as they always seem to win when I’m at work. Hopefully that streak continues today.

Howay the lads!

Newcastle: Elliot Debuchy Colo S Taylor Santon Tiote Cabaye Jonas Sissoko Gouffran Cisse

Subs: Anita Yanga-Mbiwa Marveaux Sho Ameobi Alnwick Perch Obertan

Southampton: Boruc, Clyne, Yoshida, Hooiveld, Shaw, Schneiderlin, Cork, S Davis, Rodriguez, Lallana, Lambert

Subs: Davis, Fonte, Ramirez, Fox, Prowse, Mayuka, Puncheon

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.

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446 thoughts on “Game On! Newcastle v Southampton”

  1. Any news on Coloccini?

    Just seen this which is an awesome thing from Cisse. His celebration

    Cisse formed a “C” with his hand in recognition of Cory Davison, a young cancer-stricken Newcastle fan who has become close with the Senegalese striker since they met on Twitter in November.

    Didn’t notice that during the game.

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  2. Santii

    Yes, he dedicated the goal to him in his post-match interview.

    Colo isn’t serious by the sounds of things. Pardew said he should be fine.

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  4. Santii
    I don’t know whether Haidara is better defensively having only seen him play against metalist. It is just a hypothetical situation, I personally like Santon and think he has time to work on his defensive game. My query arouse because of the interest in him from Italian clubs and I wondered what the consensus would be on selling him.

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  6. @Andy

    If it was to happen i would be sad because i really like Santon but i would get over it 😀

    Just look at our transfer success the past couple of years 😀

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  7. What a great bloke Cissé is, you wouldn’t see VP or the racist doing that they’d probably laugh about 😡 . Though you never now, they might be supporting some orphanage back in Holland/Uruguay with some of their ridiculously inflated wages.

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  8. What a great bloke Cissé is, you wouldn’t see VP or the racist doing that they’d probably laugh about 😡 . Though you never now, they might be supporting some orphanage back in Holland/Uruguay with some of their ridiculously inflated wages, I doubt it though.

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  10. DJG I agree with you. Still cautious as its only a short period of time and we could lose collo and maybe cabaye or HBA in the summer and then who knows how the replacements will fill in.

    What really has me excited is that we a lot of goals coming from around the pitch. Even last year, we were so reliant on Cisse/ Ba. This year there’s Cisse, Sissoko, Gouffran, HBA when he gets back, Cabaye. If Pardew can get that big centre back that will go and attack set pieces, we really could get them from everywhere

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  12. Cabaye is a class act. Quality pass led to Sissoko’s goal, won the foul for Cisse’s goal, another quality pass to Debuchy led to the pen.
    Unfortunately these link passes will never matter in terms of assist pass – see Wilshire/Modric etc.
    He now also has as many goals as Nolan this year, despite playing half the time, in defensive midfield! :mrgreen:
    Where’s Michael12 when you need him? Does 12 stand for 12 years old by any chance?

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  13. SolanosTrumpet

    Good ol’ Michael, eh? He does come out with some corkers. He was wondering where Ben Arfa would fit in when he returns from injury earlier 😆

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  14. Why are some people assuming we are going to sign another top striker who will have to form a partner with Cisse?

    At the moment I would suggest the available evidence points towards

    Ben Arfa—–Sissoko——Gouffran

    —————Cisse—————

    being the way we are planning to set up for most matches in the future.
    I, for one, am pleased we seem to be moving away from the 4-4-2 ***** that didn’t seem to suit any of our midfielders or forwards anyway.

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  15. Having raised the issue earlier I feel compelled to weigh in. Santon may improve, however defending is a mentality. I think it will take more time (and age) before he understands this. Haidara on the other hand look interesting indeed. Good to have competition for places!

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  16. Pootle

    Agreed.

    However, I do feel Gouffran was initially bought as a strong squad player and has just performed better than expected. Still think PEA is our main target and will play LW if he’s signed.

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  24. SOLANOSTRUMPET

    The Cabaye slagging crew are absolutely fecking clueless mate. 🙂 I will keep telling them every game he plays, every goal he sets up or scores and all the donkey work he does. He pulls the strings for us in our best games, absolute top playmaker in my opinion.

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  25. @FSOTC

    Lol yeah thats what i think as well.

    It would be funny as hell if Pardew does his next press conference with a black eye 😀

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  32. The Kid @ 391
    That may well be a possibility. If Gouffran continues in his current form Ashley may well see someone like PEA as less of a neccessity though.
    Either way I think the evidence suggests whoever we get will be expected to be able to play in the formation layout above rather than someone to play upfront in a ‘partnership’ with Cisse.

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  33. FSOTC

    I think Taylor has a mistake or two left before he’s dropped.

    OL/BVB – Olympique Lyonaise & Borussia Dortmand.

    They have a specific way of running their club when it comes to transfers and tend to be viewed as selling clubs. However, they use the funds wisely and normally end up stronger after the sale of the player.

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  37. “The Cabaye slagging crew are absolutely fecking clueless mate”

    Aye, but so are the ‘Cisse is ****’, the ‘Shola is great’, the ‘Willo is good’, the ‘Guti is a scapegoat and hasn’t seriously underperformed’ and the ‘we should play a second string squad in Europe or we’ll get relegated’ brigades.

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  40. As Big Dave said earlier, I once again got the call right once again in regards to us having a win… I predicted a 3-1 victory, I went for a two goal margin and was right in that regards.. It’s nice to see Big Dave finaly recognize the fact that I get these call right :mrgreen: 😆

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  42. Don’t get those saying Cisse wouldn’t be able to form a partnership.
    He already has…

    He links up superbly with Sissoko.

    In fact Sissoko played higher up the pitch than Cisse against Southampton. They basically played as a front two.

    He has been the key playmaker in several moves since moving to the centre.

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  43. JJ…It’s a blog, people need something to complain…er I mean discuss, leave them be man, leave them! 😉 😆

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  44. Worst player by far yesterday was Steven Taylor – he looked like he’d been taking lessons from mike Williamson – definitely a bad day at the office and responsible for both Southampton goals – Mbiwa and Collo should be our 1st choice CB pairing for rest of season

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  45. So Saylor has one poor game, after having been excellent since his return and he’s now compared to Williamson. Not much room for human erring at the Toon is there?

    Also, Cisse has scored four goals in his last eight premiership games.

    He might not be completely up to speed but he is certainly getting there. So happy he scored and what a corker. Hopefully keeps some people off his back for a while. Can’t believe some were asking for Shola to start ahead of him. Insane.

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  46. Craig,
    You remind me of that episode of South Park were Stan gets depressed and sees and hears everything in the world as ****. 😉

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  48. In Craig’s defence, he did say he’d think we’d win yesterday…unlike some on here 😉 😆

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  51. Southampton – scored
    Tottenham – didn’t score
    Chelsea – didn’t score
    Aston Villa – scored
    Reading – didn’t score
    Norwich – didn’t score
    Everton – scored
    Arsenal – didn’t score
    Man United – scored

    Its ok Richie. 😉 I still prefer your version…

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  53. JJ… I can count perfectly well, my mistake was even worse, when flicking through the stats it had Cisse 2, I counted that as 2 goals but it was the 2nd minute he scored in 🙄 😳 😳 😆

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  56. Even the Pardew haters have given it a rest on here, now that we have won a couple of games – eh JJ 😉

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  58. Richie was that whats known in the game as hedging your bet 😆
    Can’t believe some want to put all the blame for their goals on Saylor amd he should ne dropped for that maybe if we played that way Colo would have been dropped for some of his fuk ups but I neber heard them calling for Colo to be dropped.

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  59. spot on cuda… he is **** tactically when we lose and feckin lucky when we win 😆 😆

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  60. Dave…It’s called being drunk last night and a hungover this morning…oh and just not very bright generally …if Statto needs an assistant he should give me and JJ a miss 😆

    Aussie…exactly 😉

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  61. Big Dave, glad to see you have come aroung to Aussies way of thinking with my game predictions. You are going to make a fair to good wingman 🙂 🙂

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  62. Aussie,
    I’m delighted with the win. But honestly. I think we were very fortunate.

    Cisse’s goal was offsides, the penalty was very lucky and the own goal was even luckier.

    I think Pardew’s team selection was ok. But with the individual players we at compared to Southhamptons. Plus the fact that we were at home. I really don’t think the performance matched the result.

    There were several cracks, and I think the biggest one is that Pardew is tactically very poor.

    It took indivual brillance to win us the game.

    The set pieces are still pathetic. Both defensively and offensively. The team dynamic still isn’t quite clicking. I didn’t like Perch coming on for Cabaye (although he did ok), I thought it was very negative with 15 minutes remaining. I thought Anita was the obvious replacement.

    It matters little now because we got the rub of the green and got the three points. But Pardew has got a lot to do to win me over I’m afraid. I don’t have much confidence in his ability to take us further in the long term.

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  64. Fair enough JJ, I disagree with you but that’s cool. We were not lucky for the pen, clear cut to me. Cisse got lucky with the offside, cracking finish tho.. one thing I have noticed is that you never factor how well the opp team plays and how It can effect the style of our play. You can have the best game plan but if the opp team is playing really well and pressing hard, it can throw your plans out the window..

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  65. I think what Pardew does have on his side, is the time to learn from previous mistakes.
    Not many managers have that luxury. So hopefully he gets it right.
    It also might not be all him. Perhaps there just isn’t a technical or tactical coach good enough in the ranks to sort the problem out – does he need more help?

    He seems to be a good man manager, very good in fact, a good motivator and he along with Carr have signed some terrific players. But tactically, he is far behind the level he should be.

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  66. Aussie -We have THE most FICKLE set of fans out of the lot mate. Easily. Not even comparable.

    Either fickle or far too quick to form an opinion. Either can apply 🙂

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  68. Aussie,
    I agree sometimes the opposition can effect strategy. If they are on top form that day.
    That is why I defended Pardew after the Spurs game. I didn’t think there was anything he could do about that performance from Bale – others felt there was.

    I praised him during the Chelsea game because I thought he did very well.

    But it is agaist opposition like Reading, Southampton, West Brom, Norwich, Aston Villa etc where I think they came out second half and he has struggled to adjust his tactics to counter their changes that have given them the impetus.

    He then just waits for something to happen. Instead of being proactive, he is reactive. For me, that isn’t how a top manager works.

    If Pardew had Fergie’s squad he wouldn’t win the league. He’d struggle into the top three. Simply because he is reactive to changes in the game, and often, too often, his reaction is to go on the defensive rather than attack new weaknesses in the opposition which may open up due to changes they have made.

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  70. JJ, so what part do the players have in those plans?? If they get dominated who’s fault is that? You are not privy to the game plans so you have no real idea how far off track the players are drifting when under pressure. As far as the corners, surely it is the players fault, it’s a fecken corner, not chinese arithmetic. Cross the ball, attack it hard and feckin bury it….

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  71. Aussie,
    THe bottom line is that Pardew can be a master tactitian and the players may not listen or buckle under pressure.
    However, it is the managers job to get the best out of his players. His job to use their talents and get the best out of them in a team dynamic.
    If he isn’t getting them to do what he wants them to, or they don’t listen. Then one has to question his leadership abilities.
    Can you imagine if the players at Man United didn’t follow Fergies instructions.
    I don’t think they’d last very long…

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