Well I think it’s fair to say that the two weeks just gone has seemed like a proverbial lifetime.
The reason – no NUFC action!
That changes of course this afternoon as we return to Premier League action and look to put behind us a horror show at White Hart Lane last time out. It’s not the only sub plot to the game today though as Wolves will be trying exorcise their own demons after going down 5-1 to their local rivals last time out.
I must confess that I don’t actually know what it is like to be thumped 5-1 by your closest rivals. I’d ask a Mackem but I can’t stand the smell of them so couldn’t get close enough, plus I don’t think they’d be able to answer without covering me in some form of mouth froth.
Anyway, I’ll save that malarkey for next week. Right now it’s managerless (sort of!) Wolves to contend with. I say ‘sort of’ because Caretaker Manager Terry Connor has been handed the Molineux managerial reins until the end of the season. Will that lead to the “new manager” effect on his players? We’ll find out this afternoon I guess…
For more background on the match you can peruse my match preview by clicking here or you can take a look at NUFC stats’ number crunching stat attack by clicking here.
That’s enough talking for now anyway as we prepare for battle against Wolverhampton Wanderers. Can Alan Pardew’s men keep the Wolves from the door? Or will Terry Connor’s men huff and puff and blow the house down?
Howay the lads!
Newcastle: Krul; Simpson, Williamson, Coloccini, Santon; R Taylor, Cabaye, Tiote, Gutierrez; Ba, Cisse
Subs: Elliot, Ferguson, Perch, Guthrie, Obertan, Ben Arfa, Ameobi
Wolves: Wayne Hennessey; Ronald Zubar, Christophe Berra, Richard Stearman, Stephen Ward; Kevin Foley, Karl Henry, David Edwards, Jamie O’Hara, Matt Jarvis; Kevin Doyle
Subs: Dorus De Vries, Jody Craddock, Roger Johnson, Nenad Milijas, Stephen Hunt, Michael Kightly, Sylvan Ebanks-Blake
Williamson had a nightmare. gotta be some alternative. The guthrie fans please now realise he is not up to scratch
Toby le Rhone(Quote)
yeah three-hundredth comment “this is sparta!”
andymag(Quote)
TLR
he’s only back-up, like perch. He can’t handle these ‘high-profile’ games 🙄
andymag(Quote)
Must admit Pardew is starting to get found out a bit and that is coming from a Pardew fan. He is getting out boxed tactically a bit at the minute. It’s okay saying ‘in hindsight’ we would get it right but he sould be more often than not getting it right in real time, that is why he is payed a lot of money as a premier league manager. A couple of times now he has made a right mess of it from a winning position and I’m not just blaming the players because it was his half time team talk (or lack of) and his sustitutions that fcked it up today. Ben Arfa was a mess and Guthrie just **** himself.
DJG(Quote)
ANDY… I know mate, and who could blame us? Its like the players think we are suddenly man utd and just need to show up to win, forgetting that it was effort and determation that got us thus far.
valle(Quote)
***** today. This long ball tactic/hoofball needs to stop, we just kept inviting pressure onto ourselves.
Saying that Ba got no protection at all today from the ref, he was an old, slow biased ****.
EvilFranky(Quote)
valle
we were far too complacent, didn’t help that everyone, even the southern-pundits had us down to hammer them 😐
andymag(Quote)
didn’t help that pardew took cisse off for benny, when both should have been on at the same time to show what the dembas can do from benny’s crosses and passes 👿
andymag(Quote)
a positive out of this is i only have to watch twenty minutes of football first 😆
andymag(Quote)
all we need is for spurs to be **** 13-0
andymag(Quote)
I agree with Keith R, we haven’t drew today because of 1 position or because Williamson was the the only player who was below par.
Our passing was terrible and we gave Wolves too much of the ball.
We were at home with a 2 goal lead and as a team took our foot off the pedal.
Its easy to say that because we didn’t get a CB but for me that’s not the reason. The truth is that the TEAM did not show me that they really want the 3 points!!!
Sharpy17(Quote)
we wouldnt be as upset if we’d lost and the players gave their all, but if we lost a two goal lead cus the players couldn’t be bothered to put the shift in despite having 2 weeks off then they don’t deserve to be proffesional athletes 🙁
andymag(Quote)
For the fans who expect a cross from Benny that will almost never happen when he plays in the right, when he plays there he can make some nice passes otherwise his game is just limited to try to eliminate and shoot. And he comes when Wolwes egalise, so the guy has no chance to do nothing, always 2 opponents against him. But I think he understands that he will never play until Pardew is here and wanna play a 4-4-2, so today he doesn’t care about the strategy he just try to do all the staff by himself, and I completely agree with him. Pardew now will never change his first XI and we will keep our style of play until the end of the season.
HBA39(Quote)
Apart from the 2 goals we were very poor for the entire game – HBA may have overran the ball a couple of times but at least he was attacking with intent
Cabaye, Tiote, Simmo and Willo were really poor today, Taylor wasn’t much better
4411(Quote)
Bollicks- HBA is over-rated end of, he isn’t good enough for this team at the moment as Pardew has us playing in a rigid system, lacking the ideas and defensive strength to cater for him. I’m suprised Carver is letting all this go on, PARDEW WE FACE SUNDERLAND AT HOME NEXT, WAKE UP.
DJG(Quote)
Just back from the game. Has it become a thing to criticize Ben Arfa for losing the ball when others are doing it all game. At least he livened up the ritght wing where Raylor contributed nothing. And what about Guthrie? For the number of passes he made to Wolves players in dangerous positions he might have worn a tangerine shirt. Having said all that it was a poor ref who seemed to think putting your arms around a player is within the rules of the game. I raised the question recently as to whether our players are fully fit. They are frequently outpaced and rarely get the second ball.
Groucho(Quote)
You can blame Guthrie for a shocking performance, but you can’t blame him for the team shipping 2 goals as he jogged on to the pitch.
DJG(Quote)
I solely blame on pardew decision of bringing sub’s when we defending a lead/set piece. 🙄
AngelOfDeath(Quote)
dont understand the slating of benny, he lost the ball a few times but at least he was trying to force the issue, other players were giving it away all the time needlessly. my team for the mackems would be
Krul
santon willo colo fergie
oberton tiote cabaye ben arfa
cisse demba
ballsy i know and it won’t happen with pardew but simpson is useless imo and guti has bin awful, i would drop will but we have no one else.
Alex(Quote)
Nah. he is a selfish little so and so. Two or three times he could have chipped it into the far post and he wasted it with a shot.
DJG(Quote)
Complete ***** from start to finish, badly timed substitutes, Ben Afra & Guthrie were **** when they did come on, the conclusion…a lucky point 🙁
witters(Quote)
Simpson has been improving and he even had a decent shot and first half and has cleared a few off the line this season… BUT he is still a total liability in terms of deflecting the ball. FFS either get a proper BLOCK in or get your foot out of the way. The first goal would have been saved or wide had he not done this, and he gave a corner away like this today as well.
DJG(Quote)
😆 very funny.. anyway.. Alex.. agree with maybe taking Simmo out for the next game, maybe Gutierrez but would probably start him and take him off for Obertan.. personally think moving Raylor back into full back might help with the possession.. Two of our four at the back can’t play out of defence unless it’s hoof ball.. At least with Raylor there we’d have himself, Colo and Santon who can keep the ball a bit better, feed and link with midfield
KeithR(Quote)
I think Demba Ba’s goals have carried us to where we are in the league. They have been covering up for certain inadequacies we have in the final third of the field. We don’t look like creating chances at all..
Munich Mag(Quote)
aye keith know what you mean, but the mackems are slow at the back obertan and benny will scare the living day lights out of them, DJG you’re right about us not being strong enough at the back to compensate ben arfa but when you have wingers who are constantly looking to defend it takes the sting out of our attacking play. and par dew trying to hang on to 2 nil when we were at home, we had a great opportunity to smash them today.
Alex(Quote)
Too fizzin to post my full views but briefly like I’ve been saying for a while that we don’t play football but create goals out of half chances .
Troy Stavers(Quote)
we were total ***** and everyone has to take blame Pardew should never make subs when we are defending a free kick, and I cant understand how Guthrie and Benny are getting stick ? when the team had allready threw the game away.
Again this is another game were the players have let themselfs down, and no harm to Wolves a genuine top team would have took them apart in the 1st half, but as usual we take the lead then set back and invite them to come at us.
I said today when there was a lot on here saying that it was going to be an easy game that it would be a hard fought game.
Big Dave(Quote)
Anyway I’m going out to drown my pathetic life, thanks again Newcastle, you useless b#.’;/?;’#s. 🙂
DJG(Quote)
Meant to add that we are a bit of a oneman team because I dread to think where we would be without Ba 👿
Big Dave(Quote)
Troy give me a quick summary of how you seen it close up ❓
Big Dave(Quote)
Can we get Tavernier back?
Groucho(Quote)
simpson and willo were poor today…hope simmo leaves and good luck to the lad.
stevo(Quote)
Alex, nail on the head re:wingers.. wolves today prime example of opposition mindset when they know wingers are going to sit deep.. Zubar played like a right winger for them, as did Ward on the left.. but when Ben Arfa came on, regardless of what people think about how well or bad he played, and I don’t think he played particularly well at all, but you could see a clear change of tactics on their left side, Jarvis was all of a sudden running back to help rather than running at Simpson and Ward was pinned at left back. Actually took a bit of pressure off when we looked like capitulating completely. Understand the frustrations at him overrunning the ball a couple of times but the lad tried to play ball and caused them problems, had 3 of our 6 shots in the 2nd half and on another day one of them could easily have creeped in, and if they had we’d have 3 points and everyone would be kissing his ****.. Gutierrez was much worse, gave us nothing apart from the early goal, in attack or defence, Cabaye had 2 great chances and basically passed them back to their keeper, Guthrie was diabolical when he came on. Could go on all day about the poor performances, just think it’s ridiculous to lay the blame on a lads door that played what? 20mins at most? was not good by his standards, but he gave us a threat in a game we had absolutely none. Too much expected of the lad. Obertan and Gutierrez get away with murder when they play worse and it was a team performance that cost us points today, not some lad running the ball out of play a few times.
Anyway rant over.. one thing I think we’re guaranteed is we won’t see a half-arsed performance against the mackems, derby games guarantee that much.. I hope!
KeithR(Quote)
Ben Arfa and Guthrie are being given a disproportionate amount of blame. While Guthrie did give the ball away too much and Benny tried to do too much we were awful enough in the first 50 odd minutes without them. 2-0 at half time didn’t really reflect the game and others must take some of the blame.
We just didn’t seem to take the time to kill the game by holding on to the ball.
SJP14(Quote)
Keith the problem is we thought we wouldn’t see a half arsed performance after the Spuds game when the team didn’t turn up, the same **** today 👿
Big Dave(Quote)
Is Kadar really that poor? he used to be ok.
Groucho(Quote)
Thank flock I never saw the Spuds game… 😯
Munich Mag(Quote)
Dave.. very true
KeithR(Quote)
when i saw a lot of fans saying we are going to win 4/5/6 nowt i couldnt belive it we are no spurs,m.u ect i said i hope the players dont come out thinking its “just”wolves we started slow were nearly down in the first minute once you start slow you will never pick the pace up when needed, in the frame of mind the players were in i think the two goals made it look easy to them,never is PL
icedog(Quote)
@Big Dave
I said on the blog before the game, that it would be an easy victory.
I really believed it and it should have been. In fact, after 20 mins or so and we were 2-0 up then we should have had the cigars and whiskey out!
What a shambles from there on in.
I’ve mentioned this since the Man Utd game.
We simply do not play football but create the odd few chances which Ba has coverted and today it was Cisse.
The cracks are showing big style now. 🙄
Troy Stavers(Quote)
Ice your right mate 😉
Troy what did you think of Benny I know he lost the ball a few times but from what I seen Benny done more in the short time he was on than Cabaye did ?? am I right or did the link just highlight more of Cabaye’s errors ❓
Big Dave(Quote)
Meant to add that I think if we had off kept pressing them after the 2nd instead of sitting back thinking it was over I really believe we could have adjusted our goal difference 👿
Big Dave(Quote)
@Big Dave
I submitted an article to Toonsy last week, giving a critical analysis of Cabaye but I’ve never seen it published.
I believe he flatters to deceive and is not as effective as many suggest.
Behind his tidy touch, work ethic and always looking for a long pass, not much actually comes out of him offensively wise.
He’s not an attacking midfielder in my opinion and sits far to deep.
He almost plays alongside Tiote instead of supporting the front two.
For me, an attacking midfielder is someone who occasionally gets in the box and gets on the end of a ball to slot home. Rarely do you see him cause problems in the box.
God forbid do I mention he is a replacement for Nolan! Don’t get me wrong, Cabaye is more polished in his own half but causes no where near the problems Nolan did in the oppositions half!
😯
Troy Stavers(Quote)
@Big Dave
Regarding Benny. Can’t blame him at all.
He had a go and tried to create something whilst others did nowt !
Troy Stavers(Quote)
Troy maybe Toonsy was saving it for a time like now 😆
But I sort of agree with you he can look good at times aand can play a lovely pass etc but other times he just looks average, but never seems to get any criticism, I thought he looked poor today and I thought with him having a 3 game lay off he’d be raring to go
Big Dave(Quote)
Well, I was saying at 2-0 up I felt embarrest for saying it but I didn’t think we deserved to be ahead and thought we were playing ****…
Wolves, 18th place, key players out, in chaos and they completely outplayed us…
We have got so many ugly wins, this season, and now that is turning into ugly loses and ugly draws…
25 points from our first 11 games, and 18 points from our next 15…
I’d say on our current performances, 18 points from a possible 45 is about fair… because we are playing possibly the shittest football in the league!!
Its a disgrace to see players play like they did today. Full strength bar Taylor and we were ****.
Cabaye, Tiote, Raylor, Simpson, Williamson and Guthrie especially should hand their heads in shame, they were absolutely pathetic.
Jonas was decent but should have come off in the second half, because he was clearly knackered.
I don’t mind losing but in this manner. I am ashamed… Pathetic Pathetic Pathetic.
JJ(Quote)
@BD
I just don’t think he’s as good as some suggest.
As an attacking force, he’s fallen short.
Despite that, like you say, no one says a bad word about him.
Troy Stavers(Quote)
Those blaming Benny are completely in the wrong.
He got thrown in the deep end, he had to try make something happen, and he created two decent chances for himself, which was more than the others could manage all game.
I’d still like to see him on the left, not the right. As I’d like to see Jonas on the right.
Today I saw Benny set up Simpson for a cross… and the plonker cut inside to cross with his left foot… it was ridiculous.
Ba was so frustrated as how slow the ball was getting into the box and I completely understand.
The entire midfield, Tiote, Cabaye included were beyond pathetic today.
JJ(Quote)
Troy @343
I think Pardew is partly to blame for that. He was known as an attacking flowing style football manager.
The problem is lately he has got more and more negative.
Its like the players are under instruction not to lose rather than to go out there and win… and in any sport, when you play not to lose… you seldom win… 18 points from our last 15 games says it all.
JJ(Quote)
@ Tory Stavers: I remember when the season began and I was the lone voice being critical of Cabaye. Members slated me for not giving him praise he supposedly deserved. Against Tottenham when I was especially critical of our performance people cited the fact that Cabaye and Tiote were absent and that had they been present we could have competed with spurs! Today we had every advantage:
-We played against a team with a caretaker manager just appointed!
-Man for man we are far superior to Wolves!
-We were at home!
This performance is as bad as the spurs performance.
I have been the most critical of Pardew and his lack of tactics which is why every second half we appear on the brink of capitulation when our opponents change tactics we remain with what we started with Pardew unable or unwilling to respond to address the new threats and the new opportunities.
I declare this now for all to read and see: The cat is now out for the bag Pardew has enjoyed a lucky squad gifted enough to cover his absolute lack of knowledge and application of tactics. He cannot identify a weakness and thus is unable to exploit it. His one tactic fits all teams is like trying to fit a square into a triangle shaped hole it just won’t fit no matter how hard you try.
People keep saying how well we are doing rather say how well we started because what matters is not where you were 10 games ago but rather where you are when the season is over. Do you realise we could still finish in the bottom half of the table?
Michael12(Quote)
@JJ
Again, I’ve pointed out for a while, there’s been an alarming deteriation in our style of play as the season has progressed.
We started off keeping the ball and frustrating the opposition but the second half of the season, bar the Man Utd game, we just struggle to control the game.
Troy Stavers(Quote)
Watching it now on football first after having been at St James today.
I am a critcic of Williamson and it just wasn’t the goals I get upset with it is his general play. He is just incompetent.
The manager got it wrong today going five in midfield. The central fee all played deep which meant Ba was the only one the box on many ocassions.
Poor from pardew today. He needs to be smarter
I can switch over now Jonas has just scored
Toby le Rhone(Quote)
Troy – Toonsys probably still correcting all the spelling mistakes mate 😉 😆
I’m a fan of Cabaye but don’t think he was at his best today. Maybe he has deceived me?! My favourite toon player ever is Rob Lee and Cabaye reminder me alot of him earlier in the season but maybe that’s why were being linked with other French attacking midfielder players. I certainly expected more goals from him. Still a big fan though and he and Tiote would still be my starting CMs.
I agree with Pardew though, today has felt more like a defeat, which hopefully is a good thing bearing in mind who we play next (and the kicking they took today)
Sharpy17(Quote)
The game was lost by the time we brought the subs on, the players had already thrown the game away. Fucking joke, you can rule out Champions League on that show everyone.
Newkie(Quote)
Dear God we’ve been looking gradually worse and worse for a while now.
I thought (well, hoped) we might try a more attacking 4-3-3 seeing as how we’ve been uncreative recently and particularly poor from the flanks.
To be honest we were so bad today even at basic passing I’m not sure changing formation would have helped.
Williamson and Simpson were very bad.
Tiote, Cabaye and Raylor were merely bad.
Gutierrez was ok for a short period in the first half and completely ineffective the rest of the time.
Santon, Colo, Ba and Cisse were the least bad.
Guthrie was poor when he came on. Ben Arfa lost the ball unnecessarily a few times but on the flip side he wad the only one of our plays posing any sort of threat.
I think we’ve been found out, our weaknesses in defence and on the wings are being regularly exploited now.
Pootle(Quote)
Sorry lads but i don’t want us anywhere near the CL ,every game would be an embarrassing loss on todays showing. Europa league is most we should be aiming for and i would be over the moon with that.
kimtoon(Quote)
Well I wouldn’t build your hopes up based on the last few performances.
Pootle(Quote)
What a terrible shame that we didn’t get a decent CB in January too.
👿
Pootle(Quote)
Key to our great start was our great defensive work which won many pludits and rightly so.Along with that we owe a great deal to Ba’s prowess in front of goal ,but since Saylor got injured it’s gone pear shaped .I believe Saylor was the one shouting at the others to keep shape and position and much as i rate Colo he don’t seem to be doing much yelling at the others around him. We need a real gobby get to gee up everyone .Theyr’e all so laid back theyr’e in danger of falling off the perch. It would be a travesty if we throw away such a great start and utterly unforgivable too. Today reminded me of relegation season ,no heart ,no impetus ,pathetic all round. 😡
kimtoon(Quote)
In many respects we now see what Obertan brings to the team. We are exposed without him in the team. The right side combo of Raylor, Simmo and Willo is weak and is exploited.
Stardust(Quote)
tbh i reckon teams have cabaye figured out, he needs space to do smart passes and long shots, close him down and he ***** himself. tiote was quite poor except from his closing down at the start of the match, though his passing was abysmal. rtaylor can’t attack well enough so should remain a full-back preferably for simpson with benarfa playing rw instead, as he was the only player creating chances and fighting for the team when we were drawing. willo is **** and not good enough for a top-half team. jonas i felt played ok in the first half as did santon, though havnt seen much of the second half so am not sure how they did for the rest of the match. Cisse did well and was working to win the ball back when he lost it. ba was rarely seen so im assuming was uncharacteristically poor. colo was the captain and should have bossed the team more so was annoyed with him about that. Pardew was rubbish as he made the wrong subs at the wrong time. so all in all was disapointing considering this is what pardew called hie “strongest team”.
andymag(Quote)
Keith – If you don’t think a better centre half than Williamson would have dealt with the free kick that led to their second goal better than he did I think you’ve had a stroke! A John Smith cardboard cut out would have dealt with it better.
In my opinion Williamson looks shot to pieces and it’s having an effect on the rest of the defence.
For me also Simpson needs replaced in the summer, he’s got us to a certain position but he’s clearly not a good defender. Great heart but not good enough.
This season needs to be used as a stepping stone and move forward with improving the squad with a right back, centre half and striker top of the list. We’ll probably need to sell Tiote to do it though.
All in all it’s been a great season of over achievement but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have expectations.
Today the performance fell way below the expectations we have and we should have too. A club who gets 52,000 at home brings expectations. That’s life.
Stuart79(Quote)
Remember the days when steven taylor was in defence and our defence was the best in the league? I miss those days 🙁 Agree with stuart, willo has a negative impact on the rest of defence, when taylor was in it colo had them all drilled perfectly, willo though doesn’t have the brain and skill of steven to partner coloccini and break down attacks.
andymag(Quote)
Stuart79@362-Exactly ,52,000, if you can’t raise your’e game for that then god help us.
kimtoon(Quote)
Troy Stavers
February 25, 2012 at 20:09
@Big Dave
“I submitted an article to Toonsy last week, giving a critical analysis of Cabaye but I’ve never seen it published.”
Really? 😯 First I’ve heard of it. I bet it’s the first Dave has heard of it also on the grounds that he has access to everything I have access to 😆
Gonna leave match report until the morning anyway. Not long got in from work and have to watch the match first 👿 before getting an opinion on it.
toonsy(Quote)
stuart we shouldnt have to sell tiote. loads of players contracts expire both young fringe/reserves and old which will free up over ten million. if we finish 6th or 7th thats 5/6 places more than last season thats £7.5/9m more than last season. plus we could sell simpson for £2/3m, so we should have just over twenty million for transfers(includes wages).
andymag(Quote)
Lot of people saying the players struggled to even find a team-mate with a pass? Is this true?
Is that down to tactics these days? 😕
toonsy(Quote)
Andy If you ask Stardy he will tell you that Saylor made our defence ****,
Stuart I agree mate Willo has been awful and has been at fault quite a few times, and I don’t think it helps anyone else when he is flapping about.
Big Dave(Quote)
toonsy
no just poor choice of players to play. if only footbal could be like FIFA 08 when you assign training sessions and tell them what you want improved i.e. crossing, marking, finshing 😐
andymag(Quote)
dave
do you believe that though ❓
andymag(Quote)
just realised FIFA 08 was five years ago now (made/sold in 2007), christ even i feel old now.
andymag(Quote)
we are really missing saylor at the back.
but fkin hey ho we are 6th.
as for stardy the man has canned saylor from day one,funny that.
clueless 😕
hitman(Quote)
hitman
we’re sixth cus of saylor and with him still in the squad we could have been higher. 🙁
andymag(Quote)
Toonsy @ 365 😆 😆 😆 I agree with you there still seems to be a few fans that no matter how bad the players are they still blame Pards, I will say that I was always a believer that you don’t make a sub when your defending a free kick, but apart from that I have been pretty happy with him. You can’t take the blame of the players otherwise your letting them away scott free
Big Dave(Quote)
Andy @ 370 ?? ❓
Big Dave(Quote)