Newcastle v Liverpool – Premier League match preview

Mags v Reds
Mags v Reds
Newcastle take on Liverpool at St James’ Park for the first time since the Reds handed out a walloping on Tyneside at the tail end of last season.

The final score was 6-0 that day and in all honesty it could have been more. We were woeful and even though it didn’t end up costing us our Premier League status a defeat like that hurts all the same.

However if it is still fresh in my mind then the chances are that it is still going to be fresh in the minds of others including, hopefully, the players that were embarrassed on that day. Most of them will more than likely be playing again tomorrow and if a defeat like that doesn’t inspire a reaction then I don’t know what will. The question is will a reaction be enough against a Liverpool side who have started the season extremely well?

Newcastle:

Fabricio Coloccini will miss the game after picking up a groin injury whilst away on international duty with Argentina while his compatriot Jonas Gutierrez is also unavailable after returning to his homeland for personal reasons.

Steven Taylor is available again leaving Ryan Taylor and Massadio Haidara as Alan Pardew’s only injury concerns.

Liverpool:

Glen Johnson, Aly Cissokho and Joe Allen should be available to Brendan Rodgers after recovering from injury. However Coutinho is unlikely to feature as he continues to recover from a shoulder operation.

Previously…

As mentioned earlier, the last meeting between the two sides ended in an embarrassing manner for the Magpies which kind of took the gloss off the point we managed to take away from Anfield in the early stages of last season.

Our record against Liverpool isn’t good. At home we’ve won three of the last four and generally we’ve had the upper hand at St James’ Park (P78, W31, D23, L24) but if you look at the overall record we tend to struggle. Out of 157 matches Liverpool have won 76 compared to only 43 victories for United with 38 draws roundign up the numbers.

Stats and facts…

Steven Gerrard is looking for his 100th Premier League goal.

Papiss Cisse has not scored a Premier League goal in over 1,000 minutes.

All of Newcastle’s league goals this season have been scored by French players.

Final thought…

I always hate playing Liverpool as they always seem to end up playing the best they have done for a while against us. We seem to bring out the best in them which is worrying when you look at how they’ve started the season.

In Daniel Sturridge they have a striker who will cause problems and partnered with Luis Suarez they have two strikers who are physical, full of energy and full of tricks which is exaclly the kind we seem to struggle against.

I’m not hopeful of a result or anything if truth be told, but what I do expect to see is more effort than we managed against them last season. Alan Pardew says that the team is in a completely different place psychologically this time around, which is fair enough, but they need to show it for a full 90 minutes to stand any chance of getting a result.

Howay the lads!

Date: Saturday, 19th October, 2013

Time: 12:45pm

Venue: St James’ Park

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.

104 thoughts on “Newcastle v Liverpool – Premier League match preview

  1. We’re 10/3 to win tomorrow, literally everyone has written us off. Doubt we’ll get much from the next 4, just really hope we smash the scum to be honest.

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  2. GEORGIO
    What I’ve seen of Liverpool this season they’ve been very, very good. One of the best sides so far and they break at lightening speed, then not to mention ‘SAS’. Never know in football though I agree, anything can happen, 2-0 with Enrique finishing in goal would be nice. 🙂

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  3. Definitely need a big performance from Mbiwa tomorrow, there’s gonna be no place to hide that’s for sure. NEWKIE agree mate, the 3 points at Cardiff were vital and we need 3 off the mackems as well but they arn’t just gonna roll over and give them to us and Man U had to work for the points at the Stadium of Plight.

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  4. Agree ,I could just about handle a loss to a good Liverpool side so long as it’s not too demoralising like, but the Scum are an entirely different matter that needs nothing less than thrashing handed out 😈

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  5. If a Frenchman scores for us tomorrow it will be a Premier League record (we are currently level with Arsenal) for the amount of consecutive goals scored by another nation. (Both France)

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  6. It’s an amazing story DJG. I can’t believe Cisse didn’t pot one in there somewhere. His streak of 13 league games without a goal is astounding to me. He looks like a long lost twin of the player who came to us. One that didn’t play football. More likely tiddly winks was his game.

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  7. We’ll need pace on defense tomorrow as well as attack TLR mate. I think Anita will play, along with Cabaye, Sissoko, and Tiote. Remy and Ben Arfa up front in a 4-4-2.

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  8. I really hope that Pardew has been watching videos of Liverpool so far this season. Yes they are quick on the break but I’ve been most impressed with their passing and understanding of each others movement.
    Pardews should have been working on our defensive positioning and communication across the back 4 and midfield.

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  9. Not feeling good about this one to be honest.. but the game is on at 7.30pm my time and i am wrapped with that 😆 im hoping for a surprise result!

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  10. Hey guys.

    Slightly off topic, but I was at Craven Cottage tonight to watch the U21s vs Fulham. Thought some of you might fancy a mini match report!

    The game finished 2-2 – Moussa Dembele twice gave them the lead, but Campbell and then Vuckic got us level.

    It was a little worrying to see the kids making the exact same mistakes as the grown-ups… no support in the box, slow to attack, generally lacking a plan B, inability to cross. That said, there were some encouraging signs.

    Armstrong looked good all game, until he came off mid-way through the second half. Looks confident, and was always looking to take his man on.

    Vuckic had an excellent second half, dropping into an AM/SS role and winning the ball high up the pitch on many occasions. In the first half he looked like he was playing too deep and slightly to the left and he looked anonymous. His goal was a decent header from a LW cross.

    Campbell is surprisingly strong for his size! But I felt sorry for him… he was somewhat starved of any service, aside from a few through balls for him to chase with his pace. Every time he did get to a hit-it-and-hope ball, he found himself isolated and without support. Can’t remember who played him through for the goal, but it was a calm, side-footed effort to beat the keeper at his near post.

    Haidara looked OK. Only played the first half, and I understand it’s his first taste of competetive football all season. Looked slightly nervous initially, but made some good forward runs. I would like to see him take on crossing duties more readily, though. There were a few runs where he seemed to hesitate, and instead passed short for someone else to play the ball in.

    Bigi had a bit of a ‘mare. He was constantly hassled for the ball in midfield, and lost the ball a number of times with a poor touch or a lack of strength. A shadow of the player we saw last season.

    Kemen started off in much the same vein as Bigi, but grew in stature as the game went on. I can’t really remember too much (good or bad), so his performance was a bit understated.

    I was impressed with Streete. He looked strong and composed.

    I was even more impressed with Jak Alnwick in goal. In truth, Fulham could have won by a couple of goals if not for this lad. Great game. His distribution looks better than Krul’s.

    Both of the Fulham goals were very poor, defensively. For the first, Bigi and someone else got into a muddle outside our box. Rather than one of them putting a boot through the ball, instead they let Dembele nick it and smash it into the net. The second was a low ball across the goalface that some body should have dealt with, but in the end Dembele timed his run well for a tap-in.

    I thought we looked tidy in midfield though we lacked pace in almost every position, which meant Fulham countered with a lot more menace than we did. Vuckic, Campbell and Armstrong worked hard upfront and the first two deserved their goals for effort alone. Especially Campbell.

    The defence was a worry. We apparently gave a debut to Morgan at RB, and he looked very apprehensive. In particular, there were a few long balls that I would have liked to see him deal better with, but instead he let it bounce and found himself on the back foot. Whoever replaced Haidara at LB (Aird?) was a similar story. Still, they’re all young and learning.

    Finally, we started the second-half well and had our best period from the 45th minute until Kemen and Armstrong came off midway through the half. After that we struggled to make a mark on the midfield battle, and basically played with 2 banks of 5 (upfront and at the back) at times. This is probably a pretty keen indication of the lack of depth we have throughout the club.

    *Phew* That about wraps it up.

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  11. Good read Blip cheers, maybe you can write some articles as our development squad correspondent? 😉
    Yeah, hairdryer’s been out injured for a while don’t know if it was a knock on effect of “that” tackle or something completely different.

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  12. Blip , Nice write up on the game mate, thanks. Bit disturbing in truth though if your reports on Bigi are right, that lad looked class when he first arrived , what the hell has happened to the apprentice of the year 😯 worrying. Glad Haidara is playing and not disappeared into the ether 🙄 bit concerned as Richie said that the Mac tackle has done real harm mentally if not physically 😕 . Better news on the Campbell though, have high hopes for the lad eventually and good to hear Krul has real competition in Alnwick.

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  13. Aussie ,Those wild fires in Oz look like hell fire mate, just seen it on the news, bloody terrifying . 🙁

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  14. My neighbour is a Pool fan and really looking forward to watching the game , just been in the garden feeding the fish and got ambushed by him, think it’s safe to say he feels the points are in the bag. 🙁

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  15. To be honest Kim, I might have been a little harsh on Bigi. It’s true he didn’t look good, but it looked like he was being asked to play a box-to-box game, rather than just mopping up as a DM. He looked worst in the second half, when he had no one in front of him to do the running/creative work so he ended up trying too much himself.

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  16. Prem , 😆 good.

    Blip , Right, bit of the round peg square hole thing going on again then with Bigi.

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  17. Blip – did you say Moussa Dembele scored for Fulham?. I take it not the Spurs midfielder then.

    I think we have to have realistic expectation for the U21s to be honest, coz there haven’t been many break through so far. But if we can have 3-4 come through then I’d be over the moon to be honest. Bigi has to pull his socks up for me though coz he hasn’t been great from what I’ve seen so far this season. Thanks for the report though mate 😉

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  18. Pardew again,
    If he left the forward set up as with Remy. and Cisse, they would of beat Liverpool. He is absolutely hopeless case scenario.

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