We’re just minutes away from kick-off in the Magpies’ crucial match-up with fellow relegation strugglers Norwich City.
United boss Rafa Benitez has named his starting eleven and looks like this:
After recovering from his knock during the Tyne and Wear Derby almost two weeks ago, Dutchman Daryl Janmaat returns to the starting eleven in his familiar right back position.
Further up the field, striker Pappis Cisse starts a game for the first time since the 19th of December 2015.
What’s your opinion of Rafa’s team selection then folks? Voice your opinion below and get behind the Magpies this afternoon!
Or after yesterday’s surrender by Tiote the fans should yell “get out of our club and fck off to China, you mercenary, 3 mothers-in-law, big-foreheaded git”.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Rafa definitely dropped a ******* selecting Taylor, Cisse and Tiote. Taylor is too slow and can’t jump anymore. Worse than that it unsettled Mbemba having to play on the left. Cisse remains rubbish. How he missed that chance after the goalie block is unbelievable. He just had to dink it in but instead blasted a yard wide. ****. Tiote????
We can still do it. Will we? No.
Georgio(Quote)
@Eric.
Shelvey doesnt tackle enough for me. his best attribute is his passing but rarely do the long balls come off. he sits deep making comfortable passes that colback / Anita use to do.
He doesnt actually defend much, he gets into the position but doesnt get stuck in, just acts like a shield / body in the way. Ive noticed this a lot about him
We’ll have an ok team in the Championship with Toney / Arma back. hopefully Mitro Perez will still be here.
Gashley(Quote)
the last time we went down we had the same problem. team of individuals playing for themselves.
We got rid of Duff / owen etc last time and need to do the same again.
Not sure why we’re in this position again but Norwich / Sunderland seem to play for each other and have a better spirit.
Too many French players ? splits in the camp?
Gashley(Quote)
Gash: I think I would recall Armstrong now. At least he is used to scoring, play him off Mitro.
Cisse is snatching at his chances now. He did well when he first came but now that looks more like luck than judgement. I hate being so negative and only hope Rafa has enough games to figure out who our best players are. As I said and Georgia reiterated, I don’t think Cisse, Tiote and Taylor should be anywhere near the team. Send them to train with the U21s. If Pardew can do that to our best player of the last 9 years (Ben Arfa) then surely Rafa can send them bunch of sicknotes to purgatory.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Gash: we only have one Frenchy who plays regularly – Sissoko – although he only plays one good game in 15 now, down from 1 in 10 a few years ago.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
One of my last comments for a while as Ime fed up.
Fans will say if we go down our best players will leave,we’ll all I can say what have our best players done for us to get us in this position sweet fanny Adams so let them go and be somebody else’s best player,spineless money grabbing gits
Icedog(Quote)
@Eric Sykes
ive been saying this since sack SM was in full swing. He’s better on the bench than the likes of Doumbia / Riviere. what a joke of a side we are.
To get anywhere tho, we need to get rid of Mike. we can’t do it all again under Fatties control. We’ll be in the same position in 3 years time.
Can’t believe we’ve got a manager like Rafa for only 7 more games..
Gashley(Quote)
@Eric. yes but the spirit of the team has been poor for a couple of years now.
I’m not saying this is the case, just considering it as one of many possibilities.
Tiote is meant to be a bad apple (i know he’s not French)
but with a squad of subs like Goofran, Marv, Riviere, Saviet etc not starting it can’t be a happy camp.
Gashley(Quote)
Gash and Ice: I am not giving up yet. Rafa is smart enough and has been around the block enough to realise his mistake yesterday. He actually did change mid-game when he took off Tiote. We were lucky to go in only 1 down at HT but it was heartbreaking that we lost the way we did.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
player that will leave / be sold
It will be too much work for Charnley to do. theres enough money / quality to make cash available for a championship team.
We also need a new chairman and manager 😳
Janmaat
Sissoko
Anita ?
Perez?
Saviet
Marv
Thauvin
Goofran
Riviere
Gini
Mbemba
Aarons
Cisse
Mitro? hope he stays. could see him scoring a lot in the championship
Gashley(Quote)
@Eric. If Norwich beat sunderland @ carrow road theyll be 3 wins away from us and a better goal difference.
So we need 3 wins and a couple of draws without Norwich drawing any more. We can’t even beat villa @home, Sunderland / Norwich away..
we’re finished mate. Thre isnt enough goals in the team and defending is poor
Gashley(Quote)
Gashley: Tiote is from The Ivory Coast/Cote d’Ivoire so I am sure he speaks French, smokes Gauloises and has a superiority complex.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Until Ashley either sells or realises that he needs proper footballing people and a good manager who picks his own players; then this cycle will be repeated every 3-4 years. Actually it won’t because he will run out of money hopefully. We should have been down last season but for Hull City.
DJG(Quote)
ERIC I admire your faith but we are six points away,we have to rely on other teams losing games,plus can you really see us winning at Southamton at the week-end as I cannot,
Cheers lads and lasses
Icedog(Quote)
And Cisse is from Senegal. Another French connection. Maybe you are right about the French clique because they are all either not playing, are/have been injured or are playing *****.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Icedog: hang in there for a bit longer. You contribute a lot to this blog and I would hate to see you go.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Gashley
Totally agree mate. We can’t beat/draw with the like of S’land, Norwich & Bournemouth (who were hammered yesterday) yet people think we could go on a run against the likes of Southampton, Liverpool, Man City and Tottenham? Forget it, we’re finished.
DJG(Quote)
Rafa has done exactly what I would have done which is select experienced premier league players, change the formation and try to restore their spirit. Unfortunately Taylor is not good enough and Cisse and Tiote have their heads elsewhere. I hope he realises this. After yesterday as well I think I have had all I can take of Sissoko.
Sorry to moan.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
dont want to sound like a **** but as stupid as it sounds, I said losing Willo so freely would come back to haunt us.
hes better than Taylor and we could of switched lascelles / Mbemba or Taylor to fullbacks.
another poor decision by Lee
Gashley(Quote)
You have to trust Benitez because he has had success everywhere he has been. Even Real Madrid were second in La Liga and only 2 points off Barcelona when he was sacked. He might not have enough time to sort our **** out though 🙁
Eric Sykes(Quote)
aye, hes had success with quality players and a team of winners. not weak links and wankers 😉
Gashley(Quote)
Ok ERIC if you have the faith I’ll hang in there with you,hope is about all we have left
Icedog(Quote)
Right I’m off to do some Sunday Shopping. Peace out everyone and see you in the John Smiths stadium in Huddersfield and whatever ground Rotherham play in. 🙁
DJG(Quote)
Our only hope is Mitro keeping his scoring run and scoring 5/6 more goals and win us games.
Leicester were in a worse position than us this time last year.
Stuart79(Quote)
Stuart you’re not suggesting we are going to do a Leicester and stay up ?
Are you also suggesting that we will win the league next season as well ?
Terry(Quote)
Terry: maybe not the the whole league but at least 2nd. I am not giving up. I hope Rafa has learned not to play Tiote and Taylor and maybe not Cisse. I know I am repeating myself 🙂
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eric
I agree with the three names above but is there anybody else you would axe from yesterday. Janmaat, Wijnaldum and Sissoko have been awful for months
Toby le Rhone(Quote)
Eric I hope we stay up mate but if I’m being truthfully honest I can’t see it happening but that doesn’t mean I want the team to give up without a fight.
Terry(Quote)
Why do all other teams look hard to breakdown and we look a total shambles
Toby le Rhone(Quote)
Maybe as a short term fix we should have got Neil Warnock in.
Groucho(Quote)
observations from yesterday.
1) Tiote and Cisse should never be in a match day squad again.
2) Saylor is well past it. Lascelles had been doing well. Why replace him?
3) Mbemba had a nightmare. Awful passing and positioning, maybe the latter was compensating for Saylors lack of mobility?
4) Anita was bloody awful yesterday. Normally stick up for him but I lost count of the amou t of times the Norwich RW was completely unchallenged when attacking us because Anita was so central.
5) Sissoko actually did very well when he dropped to LB. He should stay there.
6) Janmaat allowed the Norwich LW too much space time and again and did not physically challenge at all.
7) darlow is a rookie, but as much as I think he should have saved the last goal, he kept us in the vame with other fine saves.
8) Shelvey is a scapegoat. The defenders were not looking up and not passing into space. They were inviting pressure on us by not being aware of their surroundings and passing backwards or sideways all the time. Shelvey had to keep dropping back to collect the ball, so any through balls were forced to be long distance in an effort to get us moving. If the defenders had passed to players making themselves available in space in midfield, Shelvey could have received the ball further up and would have made things happen. He is one of the only players that actually thinks 2 or 3 moves ahead instead of whats immediately under his nose. In short- the majority of our squad is thick.
9) Mitro is hungry and cares. He has to starg every game from now on.
10) Team for next game would be;
…………………………….Darlow……………………………
Janmaat……Mbemba…….Lascelles……Sissoko..
…………………………Saivet………………………………..
…………………………………Shelvey……………………..
Wijnaldum……………………………………Townsend.
……………………………….De Jong……………………….
………………………Mitrovic………………………………..
Saivet as link between awful defense and Shelvey, who will be able to make things happen when not sucked into defense all the time. Sissy actually has displayed good timing in tackling as a defender and offers genuine threat going forward. Gini needs to be left to attack. De Jong brings intelligence and better ball retention in the final third. Play him ffs.
Shamrock(Quote)
I am as depressed as anyone as to where we are but reading this blog is the one bright spot associated with NUFC. I hope people will still contribute even if it is just to have a good moan and let off steam. Do not leave me to seek refuge in Ed’s blog. Things are depressing enough.
Groucho(Quote)
TLR: Sissoko, mate.
We don’t have another right back so we can’t really drop Janmaat and at least Wijnaldum is our top scorer. He looks like he has a goal in him sometimes which is more than I can say for Sissoko and (Shooooot) Tiote.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Sham: I agree with most of what you said except I don’t think Sissoko had a good game yesterday.
I also didn’t see if Darlow was at fault for the last goal. I watched it in real time but was so dismayed that I couldn’t watch the replay.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Shamrock it went through Saylors legs like a missile into the bottom corner. 😯 Bit harsh to expect him to save that, especially when he probably couldn’t see it for Taylor.
DJG(Quote)
Darlow wasn’t at fault for any of the goals imo. He played well actually but when a defence let’s the attackers have so many opportunities it’s inevitable they will score.
I agree about Tiote, he’s just rubbish and if Cisse isn’t scoring he’s a liability and it’s like playing with ten men. I would certainly find a place for De Jong in the team and I would like to see us play two up front from now on as we need to win – draws aren’t enough.
Terry – No I am not suggesting we will stay up and I am not suggesting we will win the league next year. I said Leicester put a run of games together last season from a worse position that we were so it’s possible. Do I think we will do it? No, but there’s 21 points to play for and that’s a lot of points.
Stuart79(Quote)
Well, what a total thunderf*** yesterday was, first the Toon lose then I let the bath water out after bathing lew and it starts raining through my living room ceiling rose 👿 🙁
A plumber today, ( couldn’t get an emergency one last night, all busy )and a load of floorboards up and lighter purse later, think it’s fixed now, fingers crossed. It literally never rains but it pours 🙄
Anyway, still 21 points up for grabs, but you would have to be an eternal optimist to believe we’ll survive.
kimtoon(Quote)
Stuart: we need like 12 points to have a chance of staying up. That gets us to 37 which is touch and go.
So it is 4 wins as you said ages ago (but when we had 13 games to go 🙂 ). If you check the teams we play we will definitely have a couple of losses. Could be Southampton, City or Liverpool but we will lose at least 2. Therefore draws aren’t good enough because we only have 7 games and need AT LEAST 12 points. I think we will need 38 to stay up so it is getting pretty fckin deseprate tight now.
That would be 4 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses from 7. I think the Stuart-O-Meter is being optimistic at 15% 🙂
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Fraser Forster just pulled off a wonderful save. Remind me of who he used to play for? A local lad as well.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
And who is this 6 year old Leicester have playing for them? I think his name is N’Golo Kante.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
@DJG. Re: third goal. You are right. I am wrong.
Shamrock(Quote)
Oh **** for next week. Fraser Forster is literally and figuratively a giant for Southampton.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I would just play two upfront and go for it. Nothing to lose, goal difference is the worst and draws won’t do. Mitro and Cisse can’t play alone upfront but maybe Mitro could feed Cisse and they coil make space for each other by attracting defenders. I would play Mitro + either Cisse, De Jong or Perez. But pushed forward, not as a no.10.
——————–Darlow—————–
Janmaat-Mbemba-Lascelles-Sissoko
Townsend-Saviet-Shelvey—Perez
————-Cisse–Mitrovic————
I agree if Cisse isn’t scoring it’s like playing with 10 men as he does nothing else but if he could form a partnership with Mitro I think he is more of a goal scorer than anyone else in the side. We need to go **** or bust anyway and we wont keep a clean sheet.
DJG(Quote)
FFS Leicester.
The only story bigger than this is Brain Clough and Peter Taylor winning the league after promotion and then going on to win 2 European Cups.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eric I don’t want to scare you but John Carver has applied for the Villa job. We will have to play them in the championship next year.
Terry(Quote)
Nah Terry: Ugly John is much more likely to take over from Clarky at Kilmarnock so we have no chance of playing against his team. I was shocked that Carver has an Agent. A really stupid Agent apparently, as he thought his client had a shot at the Villa job. Only NUFC are dumb enough to appoint a pickled walnut with hair as “head coach”. Although Villa did appoint McCleish who is almost as ugly as Wor John.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Also Terry: you don’t scare me!!! Although, if you put on a Carver mask you might.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eric 😆
Terry(Quote)
What’s happened to Troy ? Normally his on cheering everyone up reminding us of the good old days when wor Alan was here.
Terry(Quote)
Eric if Carver beat us with a Villa side it would just be our luck. Kim are Bristol City safe ? It would be a good home game to watch.
Terry(Quote)
I’m prepared for the worst. I don’t mind going into the championship anyway. Hopefully it will only be for one season.
Terry(Quote)
Hopefully when we go down Ashley will sale up for a more realistic price.
Terry(Quote)
just to cheer myself up, heres my final predictions
Southampton v Newcastle United 2-1
Newcastle United v Swansea City 1- 0
Newcastle United v Manchester City 1 -3
Liverpool v Newcastle United 3 – 0
Newcastle United v Crystal Palace 1 – 1
Aston Villa v Newcastle United 1 – 2
Newcastle United v Tottenham Hotspur 1 – 2
So there we have it. 7 more points! and thats being optimistic
Gashley(Quote)
They have 43points in 19th place, 6 off bottom 3rd slot. Got stuffed by Hull yesterday. If we do drop, you’ll like Ashton gate now it’s got a make over and a new stand, it’s looking really nice, still working on it at the mo though. Hate the thought of us playing B.City, last time we had two draws so it was ok.
kimtoon(Quote)
If Villa, Toon and Scum drop, that’s 3 massive clubs gonna be scrapping it out down there, it won’t be pretty that’s for sure. If we go with the current crop we have, there is no chance of a come back.
kimtoon(Quote)
Norwich Cities form over the last 6 games W2 L3 D1
Sunderlands W1 L1 D4
Toons D1 L5
Come on guys. face the facts. stop hanging onto mission impossibles.
Lets take a look at the teams we will face next year. some proper battle-hardened experienced teams
Hull City
Sheffield Wednesday
Derby County
Cardiff City
Ipswich Town
Birmingham City
Preston North End
Queens Park Rangers
Wolverhampton Wanderers
Reading
Leeds United
Blackburn Rovers
Nottingham Forest
Brentford
Huddersfield Town
Bristol City
Rotherham United
Fulham
Burton Albion
Wigan
Gillingham
Gashley(Quote)
I wasn’t sure this weekend could get any worse but boy was I wrong! We lose yesterday and grab defeat from the jaws of victory and England do the same today! Awesome hitting from the WI lad.
Stuart79(Quote)
I’ll 2nd that. there are some teams there that’s been through the mill for years. We had Colo, Barton, Nolan, shola, Carroll etc the last time.
If it takes 2 seasons to get rid of the fat tw@t taking the **** out of us and our club then I’ll go with it.
Gashley(Quote)
Gashley: I am not worried about any of those teams except Sheffield Wednesday reserves at SJP.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Only hope we have is this;
Southampton have nothing to play for – but will still beat us…
Swansea – Nothing to play for.
City – Big game at home we tend to do well.
Liverpool – Nothing to play for and could have Europa league game which is more important to them. Plus can Rafa go back and get a win?
Palace – Either still on a **** run or have nothing to play for.
Villa – They’re just pathetic
Spurs – Nothing to play for.
Whether it works out like that I’m not to sure but it will be all irrelevant anyway if Norwich keep picking up wins. Haven’t seen their run in but reckon they have another couple of wins in them which will be a huge problem for us.
Stuart79(Quote)
@Eric 😉
I’m worried mate.
We need to start thinking about a new manager / head coach again
Then buying / selling players experienced for the Championship
at least we have that 25 mil we could of wasted on berahino.. phew! 🙄
Gashley(Quote)
@Stu
Man city beat us 6-1 and 2-0 last season & 5-0 the season before
we’ll get another hiding with this defence
Gashley(Quote)
Gashley – Do you really believe this regime have even thought about next season? A normal football club would be making plans – even Villa are doing that but us? We will do nothing and then panic next season.
Stuart79(Quote)
I know who I would be trying to keep for the Championship:
Elliot, Darlow, Woodman
Mbemba, Lascelles, Dummett (good enough for Champs), Mbabu, Anita (good enough),Shelvey, Aarons, Perez, Haidara, Saivet, Townsend (probably will leave), Armstrong, Toney, Satka, Mitrovic (probably will leave). That’s 18 players. Perez and Armstrong would be the core of the attack unless Mitro stays. We would need another 2 CB’s, a decent winger, a DM and another utility forward/AM. This side would be in the top half but that’s about it.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
no Stu
We’ll have nothing in place. we’re in a worse position than the last relegation
we need to replace Rafa, Carr, Charnley and about 80% of the team
we’ve been **** for years. we’ve been lucky to escape relegation for a few years
Ashley deserves relegation, the fans obviously dont
Gashley(Quote)
Anybody fancy our chances of getting promoted straight away?
GeordieTwo(Quote)
The big challenge is to rebuild the club with an idiot at the top. Villa are trying to do it as well.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
@G2
I reckon Mitro will want to stay (if we can afford his wages) he seems committed here although his dad might have something to say about playing in the Championship
I also reckon Townsend will defo stay. hes played Championship footy almost all of his career.
I think Mbemba is too good for the Championship and Saviet will want away. he was worried about us being relegated and hasnt had a sniff since his first 2 appearances
Perez might be tempted to leave for Spurs / west ham etc
Gashley(Quote)
Unfortunately we will once again be at the behest and whims of Ashley. If he invests and commits to getting us back up then we should do, but if he continues employing poor people in key places and ignoring the club then we won’t go up and could really struggle.
Big test for Jabba!
Stuart79(Quote)
no – we need too many players with Championship experience and a manager who can choose the players. thats where we’ll fail.
Last time we had the same team to get us back up, this team couldnt get us back up and most will leave. so Its down to Charnley and Carr to buy players we need not who’s on some agencies books or who’ll make a profit… this is where we’ll mess up.
Will we pick a manager to manage a team? probably not
Gashley(Quote)
Stuart only a complete an utter idiot would believe in this regrime . I can see us handling Burton Albion next season, 6 pts in the bag. I thought Millwall would be another easy 6 pts for us but they must have gone down.
Terry(Quote)
tbh I’m not even sure if Rafa is equipped to work in the Championship?
it takes a certain type of manager and he’ll know this. probably too risky for his career for him to consider it
Gashley(Quote)
Well baring in mind jabba said the financial cupboard is bare, it’s a sure bet we will sell all our decent players as we’ll have to cut cost . I sense real doom if we drop I really do.
kimtoon(Quote)
The best we can hope for is a complete clearout of the board. Get those idiots out of there. They all have to go to give us a chance. Has Ashley got the nads to do it? I doubt it. Surely he sees they have been a complete disaster by now. What does Charnley know about football? Get him out. Carr has been terrible for years now. Get him out. Moncur is a **** licker. Get him out. Beardsley is a **** licker. Get him out.
GeordieTwo(Quote)