Haris in the hole – Game On! Liverpool v Newcastle

This is Anfield! It's also a dump!
Welcome one and all to the ‘Game On’ article which will take up through every twist and turn of the match this evening as Newcastle take on Liverpool at Anfield.

Haris Vuckic is handed a start and will play just behind lone striker Demba Ba which may come as a surprise to some who expected to see Hatem Ben Arfa start the match after an impressive scoring cameo against Bolton at the weekend. Other than that, Newcastle are unchanged. Ryan Taylor retains his place and even though Davide Santon is fit to return he must make do with a space on the bench.

For Liverpool it’s an ex-Newcastle forward line as Craig Bellamy is paired with Andy Carroll in the absence of Luis Suarez who sits out the match courtesy of a one game suspension for his contemptuous hand gesture at Craven Cottage a few weeks back. Steven Gerrard takes a place on the bench while another former Mag, Jose Enrique, starts.

For a bit more information why give Shamrock’s most excellent match preview a look by clicking here. It’s always a good read and is a good way of spending a few minutes before the big kick-off.

If you can fins a decent stream then please share it with your fellow Mags. The game is on Sky this evening but not everyone has it or is in the pub so if you can find a good’un make you you leave a link to it below.

Right now though, it’s Game On!

Howay the lads!

Liverpool: Pepe Reina; Glen Johnson, Martin Skrtel, Daniel Agger, Jose Enrique; Jordan Henderson, Charlie Adam, Jay Spearing, Stewart Downing; Andy Carroll, Craig Bellamy

Subs: Alexander Doni, Martin Kelly, Jamie Carragher, Jonjo Shelvey, Maxi Rodriguez, Steven Gerrard, Dirk Kuyt

Newcastle:Tim Krul; Danny Simpson, Mike Williamson, Fabricio Coloccini, Ryan Taylor; Gabriel Obertan, Cheik Tiote, Yohan Cabaye, Jonas Gutierrez; Haris Vuckic; Demba Ba

Subs: Rob Elliot, Davide Santon, James Perch, Hatem Ben Arfa, Sammy Ameobi, Shola Ameobi, Leon Best

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.

466 thoughts on “Haris in the hole – Game On! Liverpool v Newcastle

  1. I’m already downing the Laphroiag c/w beer swisher. Oh well, Man U at home next lets hope Al’s learned something finally from tonight I dont wanna stand in the rain for a hammering from them. 🙁

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  2. I’m afraid the feel-good factor has disappeared from the team. We really seem to lack conviction over the last games…

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  3. @Big dave
    I just say the type of players we need. I really think Marveaux can be good, because I have seen a lot of his games at Rennes and he has talent. In my opininon Benny can play in the wing, maybe he will defend less (even if i think than Obertan defensive work is very poor) but at least when he will receive the ball in a good position he will be dangerous.
    I don’t know if someone can find the sats of the passes we made tonight but in my opinion 60 or 70% of our passes was back, so its impossible to be dangerous like that. The back passes is the easises pass to make you don’t take risk but our wingers our even our number need to take this risk. he need to say ok maybe i will loose the ball but i take the risk to control the ball and try eliminate..Benny does that all the time

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  4. I’m downing nothing as I have work for 13 hours tomorrow and finish at 22:30 👿

    Happy fricking New Year!

    Also back at work on New Years Day so no booze when I finish! Mind you, that particular shift is worth a few hundred quid so it eases the pain 😆

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  5. HBA39 – Good point about Marveaux. I reckon his impact is lost at the moment. Even when he wasn’t playing and was just a sub it didn’t matter, he was there breathing down the neck of Jonas and Obertan. Jonas especially responded to that and was playing really well. Lose the competition and Jonas gets pants. Same when Benny was about last season, Jonas played well for a few games then when Benny got injured he played ***** as he had no competition

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  6. hba you dont know how gutierez is a pro player??? 😆 😆 😆 just cos hes been off form alot have been slating him , he was our best player with col at the start of the season imo

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  7. Obertan had the excuse he was up against the best LB in the league. Also, he is tracking back a lot more nowadays to help Simpson. It’s pathetic. Simpson is about 33% of NUFC’s problem right now.

    Jonas, well, I am sick to death of him. Constantly giving away possession and then pulling that dumb face he always does. Winds me right up. He offers nothing going forward and is a bench player at most. We need a winger, CB and LB before next season.

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  8. Bloke on SSN just said: “Craig Bellamy’s night ended on a sour note after a clash with Carlo Coloccini” 🙄

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  9. Big Dave @ 373 “I didn’t expect any points tonight but I expected more from the players”
    Bang on mate. Dont mind losing to a good team, but cesspoo were shyte at ko and only came into it after we scored. We let them off the hook with our own poor performance, and as soon as Gerrard came on we gave up completely.
    Pardew was beaten before ko and was more worried about Judas than our own players.
    How the **** can he justify starting Vuckic over HBA or even Besty.
    Utter tosh from Pardew tonight. I cant wait to hear what he has to say.
    Demba is far more effective with Besty alongside him, not up on his own.
    We had no width and only one tactic. Hoof the ball up to Ba. Nery lame.
    Sitterpool were ripe for the taking and we blew it big style. Nay excuses are good enough. The buck stops with Pardew.

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  10. Army69

    In my opinion, he is. Said it before he left and won’t change my tune now he is gone. He is awesome. This season he has been outstanding for Liverpool too. No other LB comes close.

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  11. How long is Marveaux out for, As for Jonas he looks real drained over the last handfull of games, I still think the amount of running he has been doing over this season is getting to him, as we all know he is capable of more.
    but Gabby doesn’t have that excuse, I know he needs time but for me he just doesn’t look like the answer, infact IMHO Routers done as much and was as good 😕

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  12. maybe you are wrong Army69, he has done maybe 3 good games this season when he plays really like a winger and was dangerous. And it seems that this guys when he does not have favor cons he cannot eliminate an opponent.
    really tonight it was one of the poorest game of Liverpool (because i watch almost all games of Liverpool this season, 2 of my friends are big fan), and we was not able to take profit of that and beat them or get a draw. Maybe before the game he result is not surprising but very poor performance from most of the players tonight especially our wingers and it starts to be a bad habit

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  13. I dont think we have heard the last of that elbow from Colo on bellers.
    Sky already highlighted it. Retro red card wouldn’t be a shock.
    I dont think there was any intent myself, but the FA like to put the boot into NUFC and haven’t had the chance recently. Dont be surprised when it happens 👿

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  14. Truth is we been going down hill last 6 games ,last weeks result just papered over the cracks ,it was Bolton after all and gave us a wee bit of respite. We really miss Saylor him and Collo have great understanding and defence looks weak though i thought Willo did o.k but Simmo is gash he really is . As for obertan and jonas looks like their confidence is shot. Reality check time ,thankgod we got the 30 early doors. Happy new year lads and lasses i’m off to drown sorrows.

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  15. I think we look like a shattered team that has played out of its skin for half a season and Alans motivational skills wont help now – this is the bit where he needs to use tactics and I am beginning to think that aint in his repertoire. I fear that we will be getting sick of the hoofball stuff before long and if we get stuffed by Man U doing the same old thing the crowd will be begging for his head on a stick. Get the defender situation sorted in Jan and lets forget our crossing ambitions cos we havent got anyone to head it in anyway. 🙂

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  16. Its easy to sit here and slag off individual players for being **** etc, but tbh they were all poor tonight. Altho I would not level any criticism at Demba, as we never played to his strengths tonight.
    I am very worried about Pardews ability tho. Can he learn from this game? I’m not so sure anymore.

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  17. Demba Ba had one bit of proper service and it resulted in a goal line clearance. He is a monster!

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  18. im still angry about there 2nd goal . it was never a freekick , tiote got the ball and the freekick led to a daft goal which finished the game!! ba was so unlucky with his shot cleared off the line

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  19. agree el toro hes brilliant when he gets service , i think benny will give him that once he gets the chance

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  20. dannysimpson12 Danny Simpson
    Disapointin night 4 every1.. There freekick is something that is worked on in training n just went (cont) tl.gd/f1tcvj
    26 minutes ago Favorite Retweet Reply

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  21. We were very poor tonight, very unadventorous and gave the ball away constantly, one of our worst displays of the season for me

    Nice to see Carroll not celebrating any of the goals

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  22. Batty-not surprised, called it. Thought it was a training ground technique that he was told to do, wouldn’t make any sense otherwise.

    Stupid idea? Maybe? Even so I wouldn’t really blame him for either, our team were just *****.

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  23. Batts I said earlier Pards has to take some of the blame but the players have to take most of it as there was to many player didn’t play well enough plain and simple, if the players arn’t playing what can pards do ?

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  24. Big Dave – the players need a game plan, and there just didn’t seem to be one tonight.
    The wingers were all over the place. Where was the neet passing game?
    No width whatsoever. Pointless having a player in the hole if you dont get the ball to him but just keep hoofing it long or more often backwards.
    We just seemed a bit lost, clueless even.
    Agree we were unlucky with Tiote’s free kick, but we were fannying around in dangerous areas far too much.
    I’ll be getting the flags out if Tiote gets sold, but tbh I just cant see anyone coming in and paying over the odds for him. He really isn’t that good. Well not on tonights performance anyway.

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  25. I try to avoid unwarranted criticism of our players ,But Simpson was totally at fault for the second goal,Krul punch him out of the way, Given would have flattened him.We need a full back a centre half and a striker for next season at the latest ,if we got these we could compete 3.1 flattered to deceive.

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  26. FFS, did some of you EXPECT us to win tonight 😯

    What can you expect with playing FOUR full backs, we have no attacking outlet’s as both winger’s have to constantly provide cover for our ***** full backs…………. 👿

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  27. “What can you expect with playing FOUR full backs, we have no attacking outlet’s as both winger’s have to constantly provide cover for our ***** full backs…………. ”

    Exactly! Thing is, Jonas has been hiding behind the ‘protects fullbacks’ tag for so long, but when Santon came on I don’t think he needed to cover as much. He does so to make up for his **** poor contribution going the other way.

    Obertan has begun protecting Simpson more, probably because he gets such unwarranted slack from the fans and he is just trying to at least show he is working hard. Feel really sorry for him. He played some good stuff today, but was never going to get the better of Enrique.

    Simpson, well, he is just plain **** and I will no longer sugar coat my words about him. He is 24 and showing no signs of improvement. Get rid.

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  28. TGS – I think some fans did expect a win 😕

    Nice to see some of our fans abusing the players directly on Twitter tonight. Dead classy

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  29. Speaking of Obertan, if you want to see just what the fans are doing for the lads confidence, check his reaction/celebration for Ben Arfa’s goal against Bolton. He almost looks scared to celebrate with the fans. Disgraceful.

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  30. The combination of Bellamy and then Gerrard for 18 minutes at the end did us in. Gerrard just took the game over. They could have ended up with 4 or 5 if Carroll had even a little technical ability. It wasn’t good to watch and exposed a lot of our weaknesses. Our wingers both had poor games and really other than Ba’s attempt we had no attack at all. They had 7 corners to our 0 as well which also points out the weaknesses of our wingers again. Overall quite worrisome. With Ba gone we will really struggle to score goals. I thought Tiote had an off and on game as well. Ben Arfa had little impact. Why did we not start 4-4-1-1 with Ben Arfa just off Ba’s shoulder? Surely Ben Arfa is not still struggling for match fitness?

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  31. This game in particular exposes how far we are from being a top 6 team. It doesn’t worry me to lose to a slightly better side but we played so poorly for most of the game. Several weaker sides than us have gone there and taken away a point! That’s what bothers me most. And the fact that they dominated us so easily! It’s up to Pardew to have a plan going forward especially with Ba away. This is what I feared most. Lose our only real striker for a month with no plan in place to deal with it. Agree with BB @409 and El Toro @412 and 415. What do supporters think they accomplishing attacking our own players on Twitter?

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  32. right we got beat of Liverpool, did we really expect to go there a win tonight? The way some people have went on its embarrassing. I thought Tiote was by far our best player on the pitch, Ryan Taylor showed once again why we cant play him full back I’ve said it before if Pardew wants to play him play him on the WING! The lad isnt a defender.

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  33. Actually Andrewnufc yes I do think we could have gone to annfield and won. But not playing the way we did. Liverpool were **** poor to start and were there for the taking, but we were negative from the off. why? we have been far better just going out and attacking from the wings and with 2 strikers.
    This was not a game to reintroduce Harris Vuckic ffs and Sameobi aint no game changer.
    Pardew got us beat with his tictacs or lack there of. The players didn’t know what to do. At one point Obertan was on the left wing ffs.
    Headless chickens all over the park.
    I strongly disagree that their fullbacks were too good for us. Christ we didn’t even have a good go at them just to find out.
    Pardew gave them far too much respect and had us beat before a ball was kicked.

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  34. If you think Tiote was the best player on the pitch, then there is no hope for you. He was utter garbage, more spins and circles than Parker and always a negative backpass if possible. He played us into more than enough trouble.
    I cant see any other club coming in for him based on that performance. But it wasn’t just him, it was all of them.

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  35. Again have to agree with BB @419, What was Pardew thinking starting Vuckic in this game? We should have started with Ben Arfa beside or slightly behind Ba or with Ba and Shola up front. The attacking wing play was nonexistent. Even with 5 in the midfield we were stripped of the ball constantly. Again very strange tactics from Pardew. He must have almost no faith in Ben Arfa. Jonas is about as far off his game as I have seen him at Newcastle. Both our fullbacks were exposed again defensively as being too weak. The thin squad will be more and more exposed in the second half leading to many unnecessarily droppped points. Pardew will need to take a strong hand now and really lift the lads spirits before Man U.

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  36. I don’t think I or many others expected a win, but to throw away a lead in the manner in which we did was disappointing. To be fair one of the goals was very soft and the other was just stupid to give away.

    Some of the performances were good, Tiote, Cabaye, Demba and Vuckic couldn’t do too much, Santon and Colo were good.

    Some were disappointing in an offensive manner though, Jonas against Johnson for example. We do need some wingers, unless we start playing our central ones out wide? Gosling maybe 😕

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  37. I think we need to bring on Barfa on the left wing, just to stick a boot up Jonas’ ****. The competition last year spurred him into action, he seems to be getting worse as each game goes now.

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  38. HOWMAN!!!

    DAGDSAG!

    …WILL YEE AND YE FKIN gimp DAFDSA, GET THE FUK OOT NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

    …ORAM CAHLIN THE FKIN BIZZEEZ< YE KKKKOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNT! 😎

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  39. “>>>$%%^^

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    much yes

    please visit – nice you like,

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  40. Come on the ‘dagdsag’ you fucking ***, OOTFKINSIDE NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

    …fulloshit these spammers like, Divnt ye panic Toons, al keep the fkazoot. 😎

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  41. Indeed normal service has resumed! Just got home from a hard shift. My last job was milking Troy’s ornamental cow. Anyway there I am sweating my bolox off squeezing away when all of a sudden a wild boar, bill oddie, matthew kelly and the bananaman jump out of the nearby sloe bush and start trying to gang rape us 😯

    Oddie just kept saying he’s been waiting years for a chance like this. I got out of there, but Troy’s cow liked it and stayed. Dont know what Troy did to that cow to make it leave, but it’s a wrong’un now….

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  42. I’ve been sat here hours and it’s only just dawned on me that whiskey is the root of all evil. So I better have one.

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  43. …if I don’t get some fresh bread soon, gona punch in yer face and bark at the moon.

    AYE
    AYE
    AYE

    …sharpen yer boots, and bludgeon yer eye.

    😎

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  44. =FGDSADFGDS

    😛 BUY!… = yes/FuN

    grest>much>FUN SANDAL!!!

    Hot hot holiday FUN!!!

    🙄 FgasatdYTASDDFY’

    (33percent off, if you say ‘Toonsy’s a ****’)

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  45. Too slow mate. I can lend you my time machine should you wish to correct that little mishap, however you are then messing with the fabric of the time/space continuum…

    I’ve never used it, just use it as a book stopper really. You are welcome to it if you want though?

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  46. HONESTLY, NEE ****, ….”Shaun Goater’s mate’s mate coaxed out of retirement by his mate’s mate’s mate. Thorty pund a pund.

    WOOOOO- HOOOOOOOO – 25MILLLLLYOOOOONNNNNnnnnnnnn……yeyeeeeeeeeeee—–yikunt.

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