Why is Dan Gosling “out of the picture” at NUFC?

Dan Gosling

Dan Gosling
Gosling shines for the ressies.
Dan Gosling has become our very own Scarlet Pimpernel in recent weeks, which is strange considering that he was probably one of our best performers during pre-season.

We seek him here, we seek him there. Those Frenchies seek him everywhere, but where has Scarlet Gosling been hiding?

Well it seems as though he has been plying his trade in the reserves mainly. A cup appearance against Scunthorpe aside, Gosling is yet to really have a sniff of the starting XI. He was outstanding for the reserves yesterday and scored two goals against the Norwich reserves. He could have had another two had the woodwork not come into play.

I don’t read too much into reserve games. To me they are purely for fitness purposes, so on that score it seems as though Gosling is fine. Granted he’s been out a long time, but he played most of pre-season and came through it unscathed. Why be so careful now?

It’s this quote from John Carver which has me more perplexed than anything else though. Read on.

“Dan’s out of the picture at the moment, but he’s doing the right things, and he needs to keep on doing them,” Carver told The Chronicle.

Peter Beardsley hasn’t helped things either by saying that Gosling was in a “lull” after leading his reserves to a 6-0 victory at Whitley Park yesterday afternoon.

“That will do Dan Gosling a lot of good and give him a lot of confidence,” said Pedro. “We have to be realistic and realise the kid has been out for around 14 months. He’s worked hard to get back.”

“He did well in America in pre-season, and when you come back from injury your initial burst is always exciting and positive. There’s then always a lull, which is normal for a long injury, but hopefully he’ll come again.”

What is this lull? Why is he out of the picture?

Maybe I’ve missed something here, but how do you go from being one of the better performers in a disjointed pre-season and earning praise for looking sharp, fit, and fast, to being in a lull or finding yourself out of the picture?

I just don’t get it.

In my mind Gosling should be knocking on the door of the first team given the way that he has performed. He’s effectively earned the chance to be in with a shout after his performances for the reserves and away with the England U21 team.

I understand that he is young and has been out for a while, but there has been no comeback so far in terms of his injury so it can’t be anything to do with that.

The problem is competition in my opinion. Gosling wants to play in the middle of the park, but with so many players in front if him he is going to find it tough to break into the team. Competition is great, healthy competition is better, but there will come a point where players just can’t be bothered to wait around.

That is the flipside of having so many options in midfield, and it’s also a flipside of not playing a formation which suits the players better. There is not enough room to fit everyone in so as a consequence there will be players who have to sit out and bide their time before getting a run in the team.

The question is, how long before these players get fed of waiting?

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.

98 thoughts on “Why is Dan Gosling “out of the picture” at NUFC?

  1. Me neither Troy, fair point Toonsy but he has seen plenty of the ball for me, just not done much with it. It is early doors though, and he has shown glimpses. I just ain’t seen that much from him. Still think the root of the problem lies with our full backs.

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  2. There’s been glimpses of potential/class/technique/ability from all our new signings but not consistency.

    I guess they need to bed in & that will take time…

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  3. @witters

    I’m sorry but a lot of people keep mentioning class.

    These are premiership footballers. If you call a decent pass once or twice during 90mins class , then I won’t accept that. That should be the bare minimum IMO .

    Obertan, Ba, Marveaux, Cabaye, Gosling have been underwhelming IMO .

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  4. @rodzilla

    Aren’t we all….:-(

    @Troy

    Class in permenant, form is temporary 😉

    Oh & give the fcukers a chance…except Cabaye the others have hardly played.

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  5. @witters

    I certainly havent wrote any of them off. They all need to be given plenty of time.

    I don’t know why you suggest that.

    I’m talking about what I’ve seen so far. Surely that’s all we can judge them on.

    Stop twisting my words because you are struggling with your theory.

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  6. Troy Stavers
    September 14, 2011 at 17:37

    “@toon chicken

    The thing is I know you believe it .

    He’s been absolutely ineffectual so far and in a class with his other midfielders. So much for the creative midfield you predicted.
    Woo hoo hoo hoo”

    Oh dear, you appear so desperate to brand Cabaye a failure you seem to have completely overlooked the fact that he has created a third of all our Premier League goals and contributed to 3 clean sheets!

    Batty was right about you.

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  7. Pardew needs to change something to stop us lumping the ball from back to front all the time. I think Gosling deserves a chance in either a 4-2-3-1 or a 4-3-3 formation. 4-4-2 doesn’t work especially when we have no pace up front.

    ————————–T Krul——————————-

    D Simpson—S Taylor—F Colloccini—D Santon

    ————————- C Tiote——————————
    —————-D Gosling—-Y Cabaye——————-

    ————G Obertan———-S Marveaux————–
    —————————L Best——————————-

    —————————-T Krul—————————–

    D Simpson—S Taylor—F Colloccini—D Santon

    —————–Y Cabaye—C Tiote———————

    ——-J Gutierrez—D Gosling—S Marveaux——-

    —————————L Best—————————–

    Pointless us signing these so called “Pacey” “Flair” players if we are going bypass them with long balls.

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  8. @Troy

    And I’m saying I’ve seen glimpses that they could be very good players, they haven’t consistently performed to the level i believe they could & they need time to settle in. I think my theory is perfectly clear…

    I believe you’re saying I’ve seen nothing to suggest they are any good & I’ll give them time but will criticise them until they prove me wrong (god i hope your not a parent). If they don’t prove me wrong then ive been right all along & I’ll make sure every fcuker knows about it. If they do prove me wrong then I’ll change my story such that I’m right anyway…

    Nighty night…

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  9. …anyway, maybe a tad controversial, but in light of our performances I’d actually play Gutierrez at RB:

    —————–Krul—————–
    Spidey—Saylor—Colo—Santon
    —————–Tiote——————
    Obertan—–Cabaye—–Marveaux
    —-Vuckic or Gosling or Barfa—–
    ————–Best or Ba——————

    ….I know it ain’t gona happen like.

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  10. @toon chicken

    Woo hoo hoo hoo!

    Brilliance! Cabaye has made a third of our goals.
    We’ve only scored 3!

    You really are a special case. 😉

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  11. Gosling wont get a game unless we change 4-4-2 formation, he needs to play the Ben arfa role I.e 4-4-1-1 – we’ve created fook all so far and have been lucky – easy to see a game where luck goes the other way and we get hammered ala bolten last season 🙁

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  12. From what i saw of him vs Scunthorpe wasn’t very good. A lot of Hollywood passes that went into touch and he got caught it possession a few times as well. We really knew very little about the lads qualities when he signed and perhaps he was eager to show what he could do in a competitive game. Hopefully he can get it together and start to affect the first team soon. In losing Barton and Nolan we were counting heavily on Gosling and BenArfa to come good and be new signings for us. It was, perhaps, overly optimistic.

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