Liverpool v Newcastle – Premier League match preview

This is Anfield! It’s also a dump!
Whenever Liverpool and Newcastle meet at Anfield, memories almost inevitably cast back to that now famous night in 1996.

The game ended 4-3 to Liverpool on that occasion and is fondly looked back on as one of the best games the Premier League has ever seen. There was even a repeat of that same scoreline the very next season although that game wasn’t so close.

However, whichever way you look back on that night in 1996, or however fondly that game is remembered, the fact remains that it ultimately ended in defeat, which is a recurring theme of our trips to Anfield.

In fact you have to go back nearly two decades (well, 18 years anyway) to find our last league victory at Anfield, which came in 1994 courtesy of goals from Rob Lee and Andy Cole. Since then we’ve tried to replicate that 17 times and have only two draws to shows for our efforts, with 15 defeats making up the rest of the stats.

Liverpool:

Brad Jones is likely to retain his place in goal as Pepe Reina recovers from a hamstring strain that has kept him out of the last four games. Glen Johnson is suffering from a similar ailment although neither are ruled out as yet and both will be fitness tested prior to the game. Fabio Borini, Jon Flanagan, Marton Kelly and Lucas Leiva are all out.

Newcastle:

Cheik Tiote serves the second game of his three match ban for his indiscretion against the Mackems. Dan Gosling, Ryan Taylor and Haris Vuckic are all out long term while Rob Elliot recovers from a groin injury.

Demba Ba is the big question mark. He was rated as “50-50” by Alan Pardew in midweek as he attempts to shrug off a slight calf injury which forced him off against West Brom last week. However I wonder if it is mind games or whether Ba really is struggling?

Previously…

As you may have guessed, our record against Liverpool is not good. Granted we beat them last time out at St James’ Park, but once again they beat us at Anfield and once again they scored three goals. In fact our last four trips to Anfield have seen us ship three goals in each of them.

Overall there have been 163 meetings between the two sides. Liverpool have won 78, Newcastle 47 with the other 38 games ending in a draw. Liverpool have scored 282 goals against us with us finding the back of the Liverpool net on 200 occasions.

Stats and facts

Liverpool are unbeaten in the league in four matches – their longest unbeaten streak of the year.

Luis Suarez has scored or assisted nine of Liverpool’s 12 league goals so far this term.

Demba Ba has scored seven of Newcastle’s 11 goals this term.

Newcastle haven’t won in eight away games. The last away victory recorded was at Chelsea at the back end of last season. Since then we’ve lost three and drawn five matches away from St James’ Park.

Final thought…

I talked last week about “write off” games which include those against the likes of Manchester United etc etc. To me this game is another one of those write off games, but not because Liverpool are some form of force to be reckoned with, but because we are just so **** awful there time and time again. For that reason I’m expecting nothing yet again tomorrow.

Having said that there is nothing to suggest that we might not just go and get a result. Whilst unspectacular so far this season, we have for the most part been hard to beat which is something that doesn’t attract so many plaudits but should still be lauded all the same.

If we go there and perform as we can then we can take at least a point back to the North-East, but I’m not holding any breath on that one. It’s up to the team to prove me wrong I guess…

Howay the lads!

Date: Sunday, 4th November, 2012

Time: 4pm – Live on Sky Sports 1

Venue: Anfield, Liverpool

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.

141 thoughts on “Liverpool v Newcastle – Premier League match preview

  1. I think we wont have a better chance of coming away from anfield than we do now. Liverpool are under a complete rebuild so no reason why we cant get a result and hopefully the 3 points!

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  2. Good read Toonsy, I hate this game and can’t wait till it’s over.
    I would be happy with a point, but we really need to sort our ***** out or I fear we will be on the recieving end of a hammering, if we don’t sort it out

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  3. if we can get going from the first whistle and not give them a 45 minute start attack them on the off we can come away with a good win and reverse last season score and im going for 3-1 toon win H W T L

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  4. Cant see Liverpool giving us a hammering , Im pretty sure Rodgers tells his team they need to shoot 100 times before they are allowed to score 🙂 So they would need about 500 shots to score 5 goals 😆

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  5. Johno I never said they will give us a hammering, I was just making the point that we need to sort our game out or it could happen.
    I haven’t seen much from us this season to give me hope of beating a team that normally loves to take points of us.

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  6. I said I hoped we got 4-5 points from Sunderland, WBA and Liverpool games and we have 4 so a point would be good, a win would be outstanding!.
    I have no great expectations though coz we always seem to choke down there and remember being seriously pissed off with last seasons fixture coz Pardew fielded a seriously defence minded team and just let them come at us.

    Newkie – re that article. That’s unnecessary pressure to put on himself. It’s too earlier to be talking about finishing spots and we really haven’t been playing well enough to be taken seriously as top 4 contenders IMO.
    Also, slightly annoying that Pardew is comments on Rodgers not getting the ‘tools to work with in the summer’. That’s rich coming from a manager who got a net spent of less than £4m like!! 👿

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  7. Big Negger – what have you seen from Liverpool this season to suggest they might “give us a hammering”? Bearing in mind they’re below us in the table and have only managed to win one of the previous five home league games – scoring 4 goals in the process?

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  8. Sorry I didnt mean to sound like that was just trying ( badly ) to make some humor on a cold Sat morning! I know what you mean , we have rarely got out of second gear this season so we really need to get going. I think we will get a result tomorrow and I think we have a run of games coming up that we should be winning the majority of them so hopefully it will see us rise up the table. However this is Newcastle and we rarely do what we are meant to!

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  9. What’s Pardz talkng about, Rodgers has plenty of tools to work with.. Suarez and Jose come readily to mind 🙂 🙂

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  10. They always seem to find an extra 10% at Anfield. I think in this game if we a) have a go at them and b) stop Suarez, we could get something this season but neither will be easy and I just don’t think we are playing well enough.

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  11. Sharpy-Indeed, we lost the plot whenever we started talking about CL last season, so why he’s doing it now is beyond me… 😕

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  12. SHARPY17
    I know what you mean, and I hope the silver one doesn’t field another negative, 4-4-2 with defensive wingers, ‘come and get us’ formation. Why can’t we start the game attacking the other team and take the game to them. Fair enough they might hit us on the break and score but so what, we aren’t gonna score by sitting back and pumping long balls, especially if Ba is out.

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  13. Newkie – I don’t know whether he thinks that he has to say this stuff for the fans, like if he said ‘its to earlier to think about top 4’ and we’d be pissed off or something. Alternatively is that he ACTUALLY believes it?!. Don’t get me wrong, I want our club to be positive, Pardew and the players in particular but it has to be realistic.

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  14. Pardew should keep his mouth shut about Liverpool and get his own house in order.

    Football wise we have been really poor this season, and only half the team are putting in the effort, 3 or 4 are just going through the motions. That is more of a concern to me than blathering about Liverpool.

    Suarez is a class act, and perhaps the media are trying to put him off his game with this constant attention seeking regarding his diving etc etc. He has an excellent record of goals and assists. Take him out of the Liverpool side and they’d be really struggling. A bit like taking Demba Ba out of the Newcastle side…

    Like big Dave, I hate Liverpool away. No matter how well we think we have been performing, or what chance we may have, we invariably play ***** there and end up on the losing side.

    I predicted 2 points from the last 3 games, draws against the makkems and WBA and defeat at Liverpool. We’re 2 points up on that so far, but more due to luck than skill…

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  15. Sharpy17 I genuinely believe that Pardew has no tactics of his own. He is always reacting to stifle the other team in my opinion, then relying on HBA or Demba to conjure up some magic.

    At the end of the day, look at the attacking resources he has available, including a midfield made up of at least 3 internationals. Not to be sniffed at ? But yet we’re playing labourious unattractive football… similar to last season in fact, but without the 120% effort…

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  16. Pardz says the fans would be happy with a top eight finish earlier this season and he get slammed for it by fans for being negative. Then he says we can finish top 4 and he gets slammed again for being a dreamer.. make up you mind people…..

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  17. MM
    Didn’t Pardew say along the lines of, ‘I am a manager that likes to play attacking football’, and ‘I am Newcastle manager, we have to believe we can win every game’. BS, we will be trying for a point tomorrow and we all know it, Pardew is one of the most reactive managers I have ever seen. We spend the entire time defending.

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  18. Aussie Mag@17…, where do you stand on that one mate ? 😉

    From what I’ve seen of us so far this season we may just sneak a top 8 finish.

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  19. DJG I agree 100%. Of course we need to respect the opposing team, but in my opinion we tend to be outplayed way too often, and give up the midfield in a lot of games. Then there’s the issue of us starting the games so slowly, which again are a source of concern.

    Pardew may say he likes to play attacking football, but as yet I haven’t seen it.

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  20. Eminem, I take any pre game media talks from Pardz with a grain of salt mate.. It’s all ducks and drakes as far as I am concerned.

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  21. I’m not slamming Pards, and I’ve made the same points Aussie. He’s already said it once though, there’s no need to say it again imo. Especially when it worked so badly last year, unless he’s worked out the players’ psychology and he thinks it’ll work this time 😉

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  22. Not looking forward to the game ,like others ,I hate it as we always lose. Will never forget that night and THAT game ,Keegans slumped frame as that bloody final goal was scored was a picture, like us all , he was emotionally drained. It really can be exhausting watching the Toon at times and tommorow we must start with intent ,not be too defensive. It’s no good inviting pressure from the first whistle as the players will be done in by the end of the first half. 😉 Cisse to start for me ,give him that important vote of confidence and we must mark the racist out the game or he will surely punish us.

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  23. Newkie@22, I suppose Pardew is a bit like Ryder at the Chronicle. He needs to regurgitate the same old stories time and time again, the media, i.e. us, expect it 😆 😆

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  24. Aussie-Pretty sure he mentioned it before Wigan, and afterwards ” we’re very much in it, we’ve got to keep challenging, we can show the same intensity” etc, and then some disappointing performances against City and Everton.

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  25. Newkie, there is a bloody good chance that we would have still lost those games if Pardz had said nothing mate 🙂

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  26. Munich-Aye I guess 😕 I’m sure in part it is to appease those fans who actually expect us to be challenging for it this year, and they’re the most likely to cause trouble. But really, I don’t care what they think, and Pards is only giving them more ammunition should it go wrong 🙄

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  27. Aussie-Of course, but I would have liked to have seen our side at 100% or close to for those matches and we weren’t. For me it’s generally better to underplay your hand/chances, unless of course there’s a moment when it might be to your advantage-in terms of motivating your players or throwing off your rivals. For me, all our best performances were when we were still very much “outside chances” despite the fact we weren’t that far behind points wise. I don’t think Colo is a great one for playing under pressure either. And if it gets to him, we’re ****** as a team.

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  28. Newkie…Pardz is also “bigging” himself, and ultimately, the club up with his ramblings. As long as the results are ok I suppose he’s entitled to talk that way… Maybe it’s naivety or ego, but he shouldn’t be dipping his toe into other clubs dealings imo.. not until he has a proven track record at least…

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  29. MM-Yeah, don’t get me wrong, confidence in your own ability is great but I thought Pards had thrown off the whole arrogant tag because he’s actually (imo) quite a likeable guy. But it doesn’t do him any favours…

    Well, unless he predicted that we’d be seen as lunatics and people would write us off again, and in turn we’ll be playing without pressure and playing our best footie! Could be a fergie masterstroke ❗ ❗

    Doubt it tho 😆

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  30. well we have had a full week to prepare for this match, so no excuses for starting poorly or slowly.
    Now we started well against the mackems after a week break, so I expect much the same.
    Suarez is the danger man tho and will undoubtedly score, either by diving and getting a pen, or out-foxing our defence.
    I just hope we attack better, with passing and movement, and score more goals than them for a change.
    Howay the Lads.

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  31. Yeah, not sure whether I’d start Bigi or Perch for this one…tempted to say Bigi really, at least then if Cabs doesn’t feel like playing we’ll have someone who can pass.

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  32. why is he missing MM?
    Because he is a fooking waste of space imho
    No use to us sat on the bench.
    So I dont think we will miss him.
    I would play Jonas in his position anyway and young ferguson on the LW
    Think Jonas would be alright in the DM role. Probs win us more freekicks than Tiote gives away. Which is alot.

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  33. I dont think Bigi will get a start in this one.
    most likely Perch, and the same old tried and failed 4-4-2. 🙁

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  34. I see our U18’s and U21’s both took a royal tonking down at spurs today.
    ffs
    6-0 and 4-1 😳 😳
    A long way to go with these kids.

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  35. Well, my country just send a talented kid Adam Swandi to academy newcastle. 😳

    Hope he do catch the eyes of the coaches and offered a contract.

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  36. BB, I think Perch should do o.k in the dmf slot vacated by Tiote ,he’s shown himself an able deputy of late and I’m a lot less worried he’ll get his marching orders than Tiote would of. 😉 .
    We will need to get to grips with the racist he’s a tricky fecker at best and an outright cheat (diving) at worst. Don’t rule out young Sterling either, he’s got buckets of talent and of course Stevie G who loves playing against us 👿 No , I’m very restless about this game ,not confident at all. 🙁

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  37. A win could make a massive difference to our league position.
    It would also have a massive impact on cesspool if they lose.
    Its a real 6 pointer. I think we have the players to get the win, but only if they put in a decent performance, and if Pardews tactics are better.
    I said on here last year, that they were there for the taking, but Pardew got his tactics and team selection all wrong and we bottled it in the end.
    The same goes for this season. The points are there for the taking.
    Its time for the Lads to step up and be counted.

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  38. A win will do a lot for our season, and all the neggers will have to crawl back under their stones.
    Howay the Lads. ffs

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  39. Tell you what, if anyone needs any proof while we need to sort out Bas contract and make sure he stays at Newcastle – just watch the Man Utd v Arsenal game today. Ba is as big a player for us as RVP was for Arsenal. I’m not suggesting one man makes a team, but they certainly make a big difference. Ba makes a huge difference to us and we have to keep him.

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  40. Sharpy17 @48, spot on there, football is a team game, but strikers make all the difference. There again, if Ba’s head has gone, then sell him on. Only the club insiders know if he still believes in the toon cause.

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  41. Newkie
    The scum need Ba to get a shot on target for them 😉
    MM (on the last article)
    Lahm seems a solid player and I will try and watch more bundesliga highlights on itv4 when its on. Dortmund’s three poles are class but can’t help feel that Lewandowski’s prussian dominance has been usurped by Reus who looks like he could be a better player for Germany than Klose. If Germany had the money pumped into their league as it has been here, teams would probably spend the majority of it on their academies instead of what we as country do and just spend ridiculous amounts on average players.
    Despite some already considering that Ba has left I believe he will stay just as he did in the summer.

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  42. My dream relegatio for this season would be
    West Ham
    Aston Villa
    Liverpool
    Would rather we finished 10th and this happened than finished 5th and none of these things happened.

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  43. Andymag….. Reus is a class act, and will be a big player for Dortmund and Germany. Miro Klose, one of Poland’s finest, has just completed 100 games for Germany and is closing in on Gerd Müllers goalscoring record. Reus has a long way to go to be compared with Klose…

    Hope Ba will stay, we need him big time…

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  44. Sorry to those who responded to my last post, had to go get the boy – didn’t realise how much parenthood would interfere with my blogging man!

    MM – Ba certainly does seem to have lost interest, and to be fair, he could have left in the summer if he no longer believe in NUFC. He’s also the type of player that, if he did intent to leave in Jan – his team would have came out and said by now to generate the interest.

    😆 😆 😆 dirty mackems getting beat. Normally I hate going to work but I’m actually looking forward to Monday now, just to see the look on ******* faces who banged on about the Fletcher and Johnson signings 😆 they worked out well then didn’t they 😆 😆

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  45. Munich-It would be a real shame, I’ll miss the hammerings we’d give them on a good day.

    Andy-Reus does look tasty, but as well as investing in their academies, maybe the Germans should scout Poland a bit more, that’s where they got Klose and Podolski from anyway 😆 😉

    Aaaand Villa have scored, make me some money boys!

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  46. Munich Mag @ 51 – Not really No. But for a variety of reasons.
    But I still think we have some very good players who are capable of getting us a result tomorrow.
    Our problems this season have stemmed from injuries, pre season transfer bullshit, being over stretched with euro games, not enough quality in depth, lack of investment in players for key areas – defenders particularly – and some baffling tactics from Pardew.
    We haven’t managed to build any momentum, like we did last season, even tho we were playing poorly in our first 11 games.
    We were hardly out of the top 5 all last season, yet hand on heart we rarely played scintilating football.
    I think we had a better mentality last season, and we have yet to find that yet this one.
    Its not just about how well you play, but rather its all about the points. Thats all that matters. Once we get on a roll, we will be fine.
    well thats what I think anyhoo.

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  47. Actually yeah looking at the table now, the Villa/Mackem match up is a big game in the relegation dogfight 😆

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  48. Really not looking forward to tomorrow. Pards said Ba is now 70-30 to play tomorrow. I figure Ba could be a great impact sub for us. I just hope Shola doesn’t start, cuz he’s just not up for playing even 60 minutes.
    I’d like to see Cisse supported by the skills of Ben Arfa, Sammeobi, Ferguson, and Cabaye. Actually think Cabaye could be more effective right now as a holding midfielder in a 4231

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  49. “If any other team were playing as badly as Sunderland they’d be getting lynched – MO’N seemingly immune from media criticism.”

    😆

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  50. Andy/MM – I’ve always been a huge fan of Italian football with Roberto Baggio and Paulo Maldini in particular heroes of mine growing up. Think Italia ’90 had a lot to do with it.
    Anyway, since the signing of Santon I’ve been looking out for talented young Italian players that wouldn’t cost a fortune. 2 in particular stand out for me a kid called Andrea Bertolucci in midfield and a CF called Francesco Grandolfo.
    Bertolucci would cost no more that £2.5m I reckon and would be good competition as an attacking midfield – he’s about 22-23yrs old from Roma.
    Grandolfo could be about the same I reckon, he’s at Bari and is only about 20-21yrs so would replace Xisco or Ranger when they leave.

    With Santon doing so well it may be worth looking at the Italian market again I think.

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  51. Sharpie, good point about Italians. Santon could be a decent enough draw for them.

    Man, it would be stupendous if we could get 3 points tomorrow to get above Arsenal. Could be just what we need to really start pushing on

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