Newcastle v Manchester City – our thoughts

Nicky Toon

Ahead of tomorrow night’s match-up with City, we were quizzed by a few university sports journalism students on our thoughts on Newcastle and their chances.

After being asked a series of questions regarding Tuesday night, we figured we may as well place our answers here for you all to enjoy.

So here we go…

How are you feeling ahead of tomorrow’s game?

More confident than I thought I’d be. Our 3-0 win against Swansea certainly gives us some hope but we know it won’t be easy after the way the Citizens took apart Chelsea at the weekend.

After a much needed victory over Swansea City, how much confidence does this give the players ahead of tomorrow?

It will be huge. It’s our first win under Rafa and you got the feeling things were really starting to come together for the lads at St James’ Park. Without sounding hyberbolic, last week’s win could be the catalyst for something good.

How will the Magpies line-up? Who will play and in what formation?

I imagine it will be pretty similar to last Saturday. Rafa will stick with two holding midfielders to give the back four extra protection (Colback and Tiote maybe?) and after starting Mitrovic on the bench at the weekend, I imagine he will probably get a start on Tuesday night.

You haven’t beat Manchester City at home since 2005, why do you think it stretches back this far?

The money of Sheikh Mansour and incompetence of Mike Ashley. Next.

How do you think Newcastle should approach this?

Although we kept a clean sheet against Swansea, I still don’t have too much faith in our back four. We should start cautiously for the first 20 minutes then take the game to them – we have no other option!

Where will the key battles take place? Who should both sides be wary of?

The Man City back four looked very solid against PSG last week and I imagine Mitro will have his work cut out tomorrow night. And whilst I’ve been suitably impressed by youngster Jamaal Lascelles recently, marking Sergio Aguero will certainly be a good litmus test of how far he’s come should Benitez start him at centre back.

What are your score predictions?

As ever the optimistic Magpies, I’m going go for a 1-1 draw.

Where do you think both teams will finish this season? Do you think avoiding relegation is still possible, despite still having to play Liverpool and Spurs?

If I had a gun to my head, I’d still say we’re going down but of course hope I’m proved wrong. City will likely finish third.

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314 thoughts on “Newcastle v Manchester City – our thoughts”

  5. It’s about the time now we’re I’m thinking blow your whistle ref as I’ll take a point!

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  17. Should of been 3 points but I’m pleased with a point and the performance.
    Well done lads Darlow motm two fab saves tonight

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  18. Well, this is a bonus point. I suppose the performance is the best thing. We still need to win three matches though.

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  19. Settle for that!

    Point again on Saturday and we will be set up nicely to to 36 points at least.

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  21. Will people in the press start talking about us being up for it now instead of talking about Sunderland being the only side who looks like staying up?

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  24. Excellent performance from the lads.

    Shame the linesman didn’t spot their offside…

    Defence were solid
    Tiote was back to when he first signed for us
    Tiote, Anita, Lascalles, mbemba, Sissoko and Townsend pick of the bunch

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  26. If one of them is gonna stay up and send us down then lets make them bloody well work for it instead of gifting it to them. Well done lads

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  27. That’s by far the best I’ve seen Tiote play. It’s as if he’s been at 75-80% until tonight. I like how Rafa has the authority to drop Shelvey and Gini. I thought Mbemba and Lascelles formed a good partnership as well bar the odd mistake. If we sign a good LB then Dummett can be the reserve CB. I’ve said that for a while now and it’s finally coming to fruition. If we can somehow play like that for four games then I think we’ll get 2-3 wins and a draw, which might keep us up.

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  29. I bloody love Rafa, what a breath of fresh air he is. No feeling sorry for ourselves over that offside goal, all down to the players performance. What a contrast from mr ego Pardew and the Grin reaper.

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  30. How the hell that linesman didn’t flag offside for Agueros goal is beyond me – the ****** should be fined and publicly whipped on monument Green IMO.

    Difficult to pick a MOTM for me coz I think they all done well. Huge credit to Rafa though coz he’s got Tiote, Colback and more importantly Sissoko playing and putting in big performances.
    He never stopped giving instructions from the sideline.

    Lascelles was a big presence in the back 4 again tonight as well I thought.

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  31. Gashley: that is one of many things the officials haven’t spotted. The handballs against Leicester and Norwich would have made a massive difference. Not to mention the Cattermole pen that wasn’t given and Colo’s rescinded sending off. I don’t think we have had any luck at all.

    The players seem to at least know what they are doing now and Liverpool have the Merseyside Derby tomorrow so hopefully that will take something out of them.

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  32. Want us to stay up so Rafa stays and gets the chance to build something if Jabba will let him

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  33. Liverpool have Everton-Us-Vallareal. If ever there was a game when they have their minds elsewhere it is this weekend (fingers crossed).

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  34. not confident of getting anything at their place, would have more chance at SJP and lets face it we are **** away from home. But we have some fight now at least so who knows.

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  35. Stuart79:
    Are you a believer yet, Gashley?

    When we perform like that it helps you believe.
    All teams have tough run ins. Ours is slightly easier.
    It depends on how Sunderland and Norwich handle their games.
    Ive said a few times Sunderland and Norwich might not gain many points.
    Two win v villa and palace might be enough I reckon

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  36. I’ve predicted nowt against Lpool and still get 35-36pts, so anything against them is a bonus.

    Play like we did tonight and I don’t see why it couldn’t be at least another point though.

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  37. Makes me more pissed off we didn’t get Rafa sooner and the players didn’t care for 3/4 of the season

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  38. It was good to see that Townsend is two footed. He put in a couple of great right footed crosses today. That and his little cut-in move and shoot with the left make him very dangerous. He also can do stepovers that actually work which you don’t see that often.

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  39. Gashley:
    Makes me more pissed off we didn’t get Rafa sooner and the players didn’t care for 3/4 of the season

    Gash a lot of people wrote the players of as not being good enough. But I think the last 2 games show that with the right manager going about things the right way, the players arn’t that bad.
    Yeah I know some will say that the players should be able to perform no matter what as they’re professionals , but at the end of the day they are still only human, and if you think your boss is doing things wrong and that your boss’s don’t give a shot well why should they care .

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  40. Eric Sykes:
    It was good to see that Townsend is two footed. He put in a couple of great right footed crosses today. That and his little cut-in move and shoot with the left make him very dangerous. He also can do stepovers that actually work which you don’t see that often.

    Townsend gives us great balance and is definitely a threat. It’s been while since we’ve been dangerous with crosses

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  41. I have been really impressed with Townsend and don’t understand Poch for sending him to the U21s. I saw something yesterday that Ben Arfa is carrying Nice and the French think he could be a star at the Euros. Maybe if he wasn’t sent to our U21s he might still be here. Anyway, Troysta agreed with that move by Pardew, so it must have been correct and he will tell us so 🙂

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  42. Gashley – That is the thing that really pisses me off! If only we’d have got him after the Chelsea debacle!

    I think we will get to 35 points by the time we play Spurs. Playing like that we have more of a good chance of getting something. It will just be a complete nightmare to watch!!

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  43. Big Dave: Gash a lot of people wrote the players of as not being good enough. But I think the last 2 games show that with the right manager going about things the right way, the players arn’t that bad.
    Yeah I know some will say that the players should be able to perform no matter what as they’re professionals , but at the end of the day they are still only human, and if you think your boss is doing things wrong and that your boss’s don’t give a shot well why should they care .

    Didn’t help having a coach giving them jollies 3 days of the week 😈

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  44. Stuart79:
    Gashley – That is the thing that really pisses me off! If only we’d have got him after the Chelsea debacle!

    I think we will get to 35 points by the time we play Spurs.Playing like that we have more of a good chance of getting something.It will just be a complete nightmare to watch!!

    Exactly. Good move eventually by Charnley but hope it wasn’t too late.

    Let’s hope Arsenal smash the unwashed and Norwich

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  47. Eric Sykes:
    And Sissoko looks like he is interested now.

    I think he is interested now because he has a manager that is strong enough to tell him what is expected of him, and what isn’t exceptable. ?

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  49. Looking at the fixtures, my biggest worry is Sunderland. Stoke away is tough but they looked useless the other night and Everton at home is a tough call. Hmmm very interesting

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  51. 😛 I do worry tho dave. After seeing what our players can offer I’d be very pissed if we went down and lost a great manager in Rafa..

    Anyway, off to bed happy 😎

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  52. I hate to think it but is Sissoko looking interested because he wants to be bought by a good club? He worked hard today but his finishing is atrocious. He shoots it straight at the keeper every time. Very poor. The whole team worked hard. Anita has been crucial in the last two matches. I wish Mitrovich had a lot more pace. He would be deadly. Their goal was a joke. What was the linesman doing? Having a coffee? At least a yard offside. Pathetic.

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  53. Now that was a very heart warming performance tonight.
    Credit has to go to Rafa and his staff for turning it round.
    Of course we were robbed by the officials, but it was good to see a team finally battling for something and coming away with a well deserved point. It may not be enough, with only 4 matches remaining, but ya never know.
    Credit where it’s due.
    Howay the Lads

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  55. Well bloody well done to the lads. Thats what a good manager cam do to a squad. Lascelles has grown up. Turning into a vital player. Great result. Shame Rafa did not come in a few weeks before he did. They gambled with our future and its touch and go. Completely avoidable. Tonight gives us hope the team can pull it off.

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  56. Great result. I’ll have to watch a recording of it as I missed it live.

    If the unbelievable happens at Anfield and we win, I’ll start to believe. Otherwise I think we’ll fall short on goal difference.

    Hoping Leicester wrap up the league before that last match.
    Hoping Chelsea and Arsenal win big against Sunderland and Norwich
    Hoping Sunderland and Norwich don’t pick up more than 3 points each
    Hoping we beat Palace and Villa by good margins.

    Hope is our best bet.

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  57. Well my run in simulator is not good news for us. I have Norwich on 34, us on 36 then Sunderland on 38.

    I have us beating villa and palace, drawing with spurs and losing to liverpool.

    Scum to draw at home with a hot and cold arsenal, beat Stoke away who have gone on holiday already, lose at home to chelsea, draw at home with everton then beat watford away who have gone off the boil and are safe.

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  58. sport/football/article-3548874/Newcastle-boss-Rafa-Benitez-loses-seat-Moussa-Sissoko-junior-ahead-Man-City.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490

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  59. Stuart79
    April 19, 2016 at 21:58
    Lascelles making a late run for player of the year!

    you are kiding right 😆 player of the year 😯 think ya will find thats elliot bud

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  60. Good to see Lascelles shouting and organising the defence. Got in some vital headers too. Just would like to get some lucky breaks. Two handballs by Norwich to rob us of a point and an offside goal for Man City. If we were getting the breaks we would have had four points from these two games instead of just one.

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  62. Well done to the lads for finally putting some effort in… So let’s now blow wind up their arses and say “hey, they are not that bad after all, they just needed motivation for a good manager”
    Bunch of shameless ****** if you ask me… still it’s nice to see that they are not motivated by money. They certainly haven’t felt any obligation to play well based on how much they earn.. They just need a manager that understands their precious little souls.. Well they can all get ****** as far as I am concerned… way too little too late.. 👿 👿

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  63. I really hope Lascelles does well and so too with Darlow who had a decent game yesterday. However, some people are very quick with the “I told you so’s” usually directed at no one in particular. Lascelles handled City pretty well but was lucky with that back pass. Here is how he started out at NUFC (and that is after having a bit of a nervous pre-season):

    Started the season as fifth-choice Newcastle centre-half, finally making it onto the pitch in October for 37 minutes. As a left-back in a 6-1 defeat to Manchester City. His first four appearances for Newcastle in the Premier League ended 1-6, 0-3, 0-0 and 1-5. It’s fair to say that things were not going well.

    But after a couple of decent performances some on here will say “I told you so” even when they didn’t 🙂

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  64. Glad to see the lads put in a shift and Stuart’s optimism. I am only up to about 30% on the Stuart-O-Meter. Beat Liverpool and I might get fully on board that train.

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  65. What I mean about Lascelles is that no one wrote him off that I saw. What I had seen was that there were complaints that we did not buy a proven centre back when that was our area of need. We had an unknown quantity in Lascelles as few had seen him play much. We had known quantities in Taylor and Coloccini (****, injured and limited) so Lascelles being one for the future was not an immediate solution.

    He has had a couple of decent games and hopefully that will continue. However, whenever I see him mentioned by Forest fans they are not very complimentary. Still, we can really only judge by what he does for us and so far I would rather have him than Steven Taylor 🙂

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  66. I am not confident in Darlow yet. He still looks nervous and flaps. He is a decent shot stopper though and is all we have at the moment.

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  67. Jack Colback was called for a foul yesterday and when the camera was on him he clearly told the Ref to f-off. How is that any different to Vardy? It happens in every game, but it looks like Vardy will get a game added to his ban. How is that fair?

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  68. Totally off the subject but worth a laugh! be careful when buying from eBay check out the seller a guy payed $95 for a ***** enlarger ,it came and was a magnifying glass with the warning “don’t” use in sunlight 😆 😆

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  69. So Siko has asked his agent to find him a new club in the summer,apart from the last couple of games he’s been **** imo.

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  70. Ice: he would need that magnifying glass you mentioned in your previous post to find his balls apart from maybe the last 2 games.

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  73. Eric Sykes:
    And who was that Tiote???????????? He was a man inspired. Where did that come from?

    He was like the player he was in his first yr,maybe it’s a bad time for his three wife’s ,only got his girlfriend to keep happy 😉

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  74. Icedog:
    So Siko has asked his agent to find him a new club in the summer,apart from the last couple of games he’s been **** imo.

    What a time for that to become common knowledge 🙄 Does he think being captain and scoring one goal since last may makes him a wanted man. Just when we get what looks like a wee bit of team spirit he comes out with that 😡 idiot.

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