Seeing as Wednesday’s win marked our 10th game in what will hopefully be our second and last stint in the Championship, today, I thought it would be good to make a comparison to the last time we plyed our trade in the second tier back in 2010.
Of course, the Magpies bounced straight back after being relegated to the Football League in 2009 under Chris Hughton, and with an arguably stronger squad and manager this time round, signs would point to us doing much the same.
But just how are we faring compared to last time out?
League Position
The data after 10 games as to where we were placed in the Championship back in 2009 is patchy, but my deductions are, that we were in 1st position and 4 points clear of nearest rivals West Brom. Just a single defeat to Blackpool marred what was otherwise a solid start to the season.
Now, we’re third and have already suffered three defeats. Cause for concern? Or is the only stat worth discussing, the one that we see after 46 games?
2009/2010
Played: 10
Won: 8
Drawn: 1
Lost: 1
2016/2017
Played: 10
Won: 6
Drawn: 1
Lost: 3
Goalscorers
Signed from Palace for what many believe to be an over the odds price, Dwight Gayle has become our main source of goals so far this season. His hat trick against Norwich this week was hopefully the first of many, but the pedants amongst us will still argue that he needs to be less wasteful in front of goal. With 7 goals so far, should the Eagles man continue scoring at the same rate, he’d hit over 30 goals by the end of the season.
Back in 2009, Andy Carroll came to the fore for Newcastle, scoring 17 goals in his first full season for the club. Being much more youthful and inexperienced than what Gayle is now, it is perhaps not fair to compare him directly. An apt comparison, if he hadn’t have gone on loan to Barnsley, would have been to put Adam Armstrong and Carroll side by side.
Geordie Two raised concerns about our front line in his post the other day (as did others in the comments) but when you consider the fact (at the time of writing) that are we now the division’s top scorers with 21, to an outsider looking in, our concerns seem unfounded under the circumstances.
The Opposition
Both 2009/2010 & 2016/2017 campaigns will turn out to be difficult for very different reasons. In the former season, a strong West Brom side who were still in the process of shaking off that ‘yo-yo club’ tag, kept pace with us until the last few games. A nervy 1-1 draw on the opening game of the season (which I watched from the comfort of an expat bar in Majorca) against them was the perfect barometer to assess how strong our ‘strongest’ opposition would be. Further defeats to Nottingham Forest and Blackpool, two sides who both made the play-offs (the latter of which won the play-offs) would be small blots on what was otherwise a stellar season for the club.
This time around, defeats to the likes of Huddersfield, who have been a real surprise package under David Wagner this year, have more than kept our expectations in check. The plight of Aston Villa has certainly helped, as they, along with Norwich were fully expected to challenge for the automatic promotion spots this year. But seeing as Roberto Di Matteo’s men are now some way off the pace, it would appear our nearest rivals for the course of the season will in fact be Norwich.
Huddersfield, as good as they’ve been, shouldn’t be expected to maintain the sort of form they’ve had for the course of the season and as a result, can be tentatively discounted.
Conclusion
We’ve lost games but we’ve almost never failed to create chances. The stats don’t lie – we’re faring worse this time around but with a lot of personnel changes this summer, the bedding-in time for the squad is always going to be longer.
On paper, I believe this year’s Newcastle side (on-song) would win-out against the class of 2009. For some reason, things just clicked quicker than they did under Hughton, but that’s no slight on the good job Rafa has done so far. As I said, the disruption caused this summer can certainly be attributed to our ‘stuttering start’.
With the amount of money in football growing year-on-year exponentially, it wouldn’t be out the realms of possibility to consider that second flight teams of this season are inherently a lot stronger than those of 2009/2010 as well. Bulging parachute payments and increasing foreign ownership has only lended itself to a higher standard of football in the English Championship as the years have wore on.
All that said, this season’s squad, under the stewardship of Rafa should still have no problem. I believe we will go up, but the jury really is out as to whether we can do it in the same comfort we did back in 2009.
Villa mate, I feel for you. In your position I’d be tearing my hair out. It’s got to be beyond frustrating to watch. I really expected Villa to be up with us by now. There’s still a long way to go yet, lots of games to still be played and smaller sides will suffer injuries and suspensions which will ultimately have a huge impact on the table come may.
Villa, Question mate, If he doesn’t get banned from football, would you have Fat Sam?
Kimtoon(Quote)
Dubai Toon,
yes mate,
i enjoy coming on here to share views,at least once a week.
in fact,i am on our blog at the same time,and its going into meltdown.
a villa fan(Quote)
As we’re on a compare / contrast thread with the team from 09/10 here’s a direct comparison from the spotlight kid on Ed’s blog.
Not too far away
RAFA NARROWS THE GAP…
Hoots’ Heroes (09-10) P11 W7 D3 L1 (F18 A5) pts24
Rafa’s Rotators (16-17): P11 W7 D1 L3 (F22 A10) Pts22
GlosMag(Quote)
Not bad for ashiny new team when compared with a well establushed crew in what is commonly perceived as an exceptional season.
I’ll take it for now
GlosMag(Quote)
Kimtoon,
hi mate,
i think our manager has lost the plot and the dressing room.
as for big sam,ive never been a fan of his to be honest.but i think hes finished in this league.
how anybody on £3 mill a year plus bonuses,would give it all away for £400 grand is just plain greedy.
hints of Harry to me.
but for us,id go for tony pullis,can get promoted and has never been relegated.
it may not always be pretty.but for us with what we have seen these last few years.
it would belike winning the league. 🙂 🙂
a villa fan(Quote)
Villa , Agree about Sam, I’m still dumbfounded that he could be so stupid. Dream job, £3m a year for not doing very much and throws it all away!. Greedy git for sure. Pulis would be a good shout for you actually, would defo steady the ship like.
Kimtoon(Quote)
we will see a lot of these types of games all season,until maybe the last half a dozen wil be more open,its just most of the clubs will get in our faces and close down every ball they can as its NUFC they put a extra 20% into their game,i would put up with as many one nil games as it takes to go up,just have to put up with it fans
icedog(Quote)
Cheers for the posts mate. I agree. We are right on cue.
Shamrock(Quote)
Sky pundit Paul Merson, “toon will will by cricket score, at least 4-0”. Yeah right… it’s never that easy away kidda, thank’s for the optimism for once though. 😛
DJG(Quote)
Villa were never going to be chasing the top 3. They’re as good as qpr..very average.
Although I love seeing goals I’d take clean sheets and 1-0’s all season.
Huddersfield seem to be here for the long haul
Gashley(Quote)
Motm ….Fans Should Own the Club for posting the link ?
Followed by Lascelles, totally owned his area…shelvey for mostly controlling the game and Darlow for commanding his box
Gashley(Quote)
Huddersfield 1-5 Brentford Sat 7 May
Bristol City 4-0 Huddersfield Sat 30 Apr
Huddersfield 1-1 Birmingham Sat 23 Apr
Rotherham 1-1 Huddersfield
‘Udders last four results of 15/16 season. 😕
DJG(Quote)
I think we need to take Huddersfield seriously now. They are keeping it up and after what Leicester did, nobody should be dismissed. Good luck to ’em.
Shamrock(Quote)
YES! My first MOTM.
Fans Should Own the Club(Quote)
Although I love seeing goals I’d take clean sheets and 1-0’s all season
me too mate
icedog(Quote)
you need more praise than that,your the fan that came up with Jabba years ago 😆 😆
icedog(Quote)
Yeah–playing at ours will be probably the biggest game many of the players will ever get, so they’re likely to give that extra little bit.
Also, managers will set up to frustrate.
I haven’t seen Rotherham play before. Do they always do that pressing game? They seemed quite good at it and were a little unlucky not to get a draw out of us.
Fans Should Own the Club(Quote)
From Wiki on David Wagner, he’s already said how Klopp is a great influence on his managerial career .
Wagner was appointed as Borussia Dortmund II manager with effect from July 1, 2011.[2] He left the role on November 1, 2015, amidst rumours that he was going to join Jürgen Klopp’s backroom staff at Liverpool.[3][4] However, on November 5, 2015, he was appointed head coach of Huddersfield Town following the departure of Chris Powell.[5] Wagner brought Christoph Bühler, who also left Borussia Dortmund on November 1, 2015, with him as his assistant.[3][6]
In the summer of 2016, Wagner brought in 13 players from across the continent – with Danny Ward, Chris Löwe and Aaron Mooy amongst these. Wagner took his players on a bonding tour of Sweden, where they had to survive with only basic equipment for a few days.[7] The team’s success in the early 2016/17 season was largely accredited to the squad’s tight bond, something that Wagner claimed was a direct result of this Sweden trip. A few weeks later, they visited Austria and kept two clean sheets for matches against Bundesliga sides Werder Bremen and FC Ingolstadt 04.[8]
After an unbeaten start to the 2016/17 season, Huddersfield Town were top of the table at the start of September,[9] including a win at St James’ Park against Newcastle United,[10] and Wagner was awarded the Sky Bet Championship manager of the month.
I think Huddersfield will up in the top 4 all season
Kimtoon(Quote)
Fans,Huddersfield at home only beat Rotherham by one goal also, it was 2.1
Kimtoon(Quote)
No doubt about it, Rotherham were a real handful today, and an excellent defensive display won us through. Could easily have ended in a draw or a toon defeat.
As an attacking force we were poor today.
Munich Mag(Quote)
Wolves could easily have beat Norwich today and it’s no fluke that they beat our complacent side at home. There are no easy games but 5-6 teams are starting to win regularly. It’s going to be a tough season and even with 4-5 wins, we won’t just pull away from the pack. 🙁
DJG(Quote)
https://www.nufcblog.co.uk/2016/10/01/so-you-think-the-current-scouts-are-no-use-then/
New article by Tom Page >>>>>>>>>>>>>
Shamrock(Quote)