Game On! Newcastle v Swansea

Game On an St James’ Park
A rare occurrence indeed, well in terms of this season anyway, as United play their first regulation Saturday 3pm home kick-off of the season against Swansea City this afternoon.

Hopefully with that we’ll end up with another rare occurrence this afternoon, that being three points for the home side and maybe, just maybe, a decent performance to go with it.

I dare say that the performance just doesn’t matter today though. The only thing that really matters is getting three points on the board whether that be through a good display of our own or from a dodgy deflected own goal I’m not overly fussed. We just need to start getting points on the board especially after the home defeat to West Ham last week.

However we have injury problems to contend with which you can read about in my match preview if you haven’t already done so. You can also read some stats and facts, a history of the fixture, any injury news for Swansea plus some random thoughts ahead of the game itself.

The game is not being shown live here in the UK but it is being broadcast on quite a few channels overseas. If you happen to come across a decent stream then by all means leave a link to it in the ‘comments’ section below.

Team news will, as ever, be published below as and when it becomes available. There might be a small delay in it being published as I don’t finish work until 1:45pm so I’m just leaving a bit of room for manoeuvre. It all depends on how kind Brussels and Amsterdam are to me.

Howay the lads!

Newcastle: Tim Krul; Danny Simpson, Mike Williamson, Steven Taylor, Davide Santon; Hatem Ben Arfa, Vurnon Anita, Cheik Tiote, Shane Ferguson; Sammy Ameobi, Demba Ba

Subs: Rob Elliot, James Tavernier, Mehdi Abeid, Gael Bigirimana, Sylvain Marveaux, Romain Amalfitano, Shola Ameobi

Swansea: Gerhard Tremmel; Angel Rangel, Ashley Williams, Garry Monk, Ben Davies; Leon Britton, Jonathan de Guzman, Pablo Hernandez; Michu, Itay Schechter, Nathan Dyer

Subs: David Cornell, Chico Flores, Dwight Tiendelli, Kenny Agustien, Danny Graham, Luke Moore, Danny Graham

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.

337 thoughts on “Game On! Newcastle v Swansea

  1. Big Dave @ 296 Here, here.
    Sharpy – good point
    HBA39 – I love your assessments for entertianment value and often agree with them. 😆 I love HBA too.

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  2. B&B

    “At what point did I say you said tv allows you to see everything 100% of the time? I said being at the match allows you to do that.”

    I misread.

    “Your stats, which you love to quote, would be absolutely not worth the paper they are written on if they were compiled by someone watching the game on tv. If you watch on tv, you need the stats to give you a much better idea. However, the tv and stats are nowhere near as telling as watching the whole game for yourself. I go to the game, watch the tv and look at the stats.”

    I agree, but highly doubt they are put together by someone watching on TV because as you said, they wouldn’t be very valid. I also do not deny that going to the game adds some value, but like I said earlier, I do not believe it’s as significant as you are making out – almost dismissive of anyone who didn’t watch live.

    Also, you seem to forget that I am not the only one with this view of Anita’s performance. Scan Google for websites/publications and their player ratings and you will see the general consensus is that he was steady, which is a massive contrast to your view that he had a nightmare. Should I dismiss their views, my take on the game and the stats just because you were at the game? It’s highly unlikely.

    “The kid, how many football matches do you watch live? I watch four or five games at a weekend alone, not including NUFC at SJP in EPL and Europa. I also have a good diet of tv coverage.” Oh dear, this isn’t going to turn into one of those, “I watch more football than you do” points, is it? 🙄

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  3. Taken from the Mirror page 3 of the football pullout.
    Vurnon Anita has vowed to become a heavyweight of Newcastles midfield- after embarking on early morning gym sessionsto adjust to life in the premier league.
    The £6.5m signing from Ajax admitted he has found the power and pace of the top flight a culture shock compared to Holland, but is discovering the answer by pumping iron. 😉
    So there you are we mostly agree he’s a bit lightweight at present ,hopefully the gym sessions pay off and he can adapt as he does look to have ability ,just needs the pace and stamina to go with it.

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  4. He goes on to say english footie is quicker and more physical than in Holland and more direct too. I think that translates to ,well the gaffer has us hoofing it up the pitch and opposition players are kicking lumps outta me 😉

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  5. In the last games Anita was really poor for me. At the moment he loses almost all his duals in the middle. His good performance was at right back. But in the middle last week and this week he is neither defensively or offensively good enought. For me Danny guthrie was far better than him as a central midfield. So i dont know for which position Pardew has bought him but if it was as a central midfield for me it was a big mistake.
    He made one good pass today a direct pass for Ba. For the rest a ghost.

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  6. I think the management’s determination for value for money has slightly botched perspective. Like HBA39 points out, Guthrie was FAR better in the middle for us than Anita has been so far, but we shunted Guthrie out for nothing to sign Anita for £6.5m – because he is foreign and thus must be better.

    Essentially, we assume foreign players are better and thus better value despite having to spend a lot of money to get less for what we already had at the club. I fully expect us to do the same for Simpson if/when we sign Debuchy.

    Cisse is beginning to look like a flash in the pan for this division (Shevchenko is a legend but didn’t work in England), Anita is bombing, Abeid and Amalfitano are missing in action apparently. I wonder what other “gems” Graham Carr is lining up for good value….

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  7. Funky ,I see your point but Carr has obviously been given a remit of get us a gem but make sure he’s- A ,young and B cheap 😉 Now to be fair sometimes that will work out but often you just got to pay market prices. Then ofcourse you get the players who are awesom abroad but can’t cut it here or they play great for a certain team only like Torres at the Dippers for instance and up to a point Carroll for us.

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  8. Still really scratching my head about Cisse .So many wonderfull goals and confidence last season but looks like a different guy now .

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  9. I am not having a big pop at Carr – I am just wondering if/when he is ever going to get any criticism from people. Pardew gets it – rightly so – and the players do – rightly so – but Carr doesn’t. Carr is the man Ashley seems to trust most and if you believe the stuff the club say, he is ridiculously thorough so if any player does not work out, surely it is on his head too?

    Hell, people seem keen to allocate Tiote to Carr over Hughton so surely his mental nature and missing over half a season each year is a fault on Carr too? Then again, we have no other option when the likes of Vuckic can’t avoid breaking a bone when they wake up in the morning. We’re stuffed.

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  10. I don’t think we buy foreign because we assume they’re better, that’s much too basic IMO. I think we buy players who we think will increase in value, rather than buying what we need. Either that or Carr really can’t find any good defenders in France..

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  11. Hba39 , Agree ,he’s starting to sound a little deluded but I suppose he needs to keep instilling confidence in the team whilst they are in this situation.

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  12. I actually don’t think Cisse is that different either.

    Even last year, he couldn’t pass, rarely scored the “easy” chances and his touch was pretty average. People complaining about those things now clearly weren’t watching him enough last year-imo.

    But he did score absolutely fantastic goals, often in very difficult situations. His movement definitely seems poorer, whether that’s all down to the formation or not I’m not really sure, but the pot shots he’s been taking so far this season have been shocking. He seems to sky 70% of his shots 😕 😕

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  13. Hope we will really improve in the next games.
    Until we will try to have 4 guys seeting deep in our defense because they know they are very slow, a midfield with 4 players in the same line and 2 guys upfron in the same line we cannot play.
    We need guys in between the line. For me today play Benny behind Ba, put a guy like marveaux in the team. You need to change some players if you wanna change the style.
    And to have a right foot as left back for me thats stupid.

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  14. Newkie ,Thing is we associate French and Dutch players with great skill and technical ability because of their acadamy structures same with Germany and spain too .In truth they put the English system to shame,in Germany they have around 3,000 pro coaches at youth level compared to our 300 odd 😉 But despite all of that the french players and Dutch arn’t any great amounts better than our English defenders.For me it’s in the MF and forward positions where the gap in skill is more evident.

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  15. HBA39 @ 305 and 308. Keep em coming. 😆 Tayls was vying with Pards for the daftest comments.

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  16. HBA39 – Marv just needs to up his game a bit and a place is there for the taking. He shows class and quality. I thought he had a good game in Bruges (from what I could tell from the TV) and did well today, albeit as a sub.

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  17. Kim-Nah I’d say defence is fairly similar as well, I agree with you that the English are terrible technically compared to most other nations in Midfield/Forward areas, but we rate our defenders like we do because they’re generally well suited to the PL’s style, big, strong, etc etc. This is why Colo is such revalation-to us and the rest of the PL because of his technical ability, even as a centre back.

    Plus, good English players will always be more expensive…

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  18. B+B-Agreed, if Marv get’s his head down he’ll be in the first 11, it’s that simple really. He has the talent.

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  19. He also showed a novel idea to the rest of the midfielders, why not get into the box and have a shot? Although maybe he felt the need to as we were 2-0 down 😆

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  20. @Newkie: I absolutely agree about Cisse. I was arguing this very fact last season but because of his goals it was easily overlooked and lost in debate.

    I am big enough to accept it even now I would accept a **** poor Cisse everywhere else but if he scores then all good. But without goals it is going to be hard.

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  21. kehttps://www.nufcblog.co.uk/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_neutral.gifbaba please 😛 😳 ➡ 😎 😥 😥 😥 😥 😳 😀 😀 😥 😥 😥 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 😈 😈 😈 😐 😐

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  22. Michael-Yeah, to be fair my comment looks like i’m being really critical of Cisse but what I meant was people made him into a much better player than he was imo. In the second half of the season when he was getting rave reviews, the jury was still very much out for me on whether Ba or Cisse were “better”

    Anyway, hopefully Cisse will be pissed off over the Senegal F.A decision and will come back angry, or something 😕 Just getting his shots on target would be nice, the goals will come from there 😆

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  23. wonder how many people woke up still thinking

    yeah u know what the fat man was right not to give pards the money for players…. “we wont be held to ransom”

    if i was pards id be sick of my life nee backing after the season he had bar the little jimmy crankey from ajax FFS woke up nee better than when i went to bed

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  24. I don’t think we are actually playing much worse than the start of last season, except Ba would have scored some of the 4-5 chances on offer to him and we had a settled back four and keeper in form. It’s worrying times when the strikers go off the boil. Relegation form at the min. There just isn’t enough strength or depth in the squad. Swansea played some nice stuff on the counter attack and were well worth the 3 points IMO. I’m not that angry at Pardew because he set the team up to have a go and a performance and it just didn’t come off. Well Lambias where are our ‘purple chips’ at?

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  25. Groucho – I really hope you’re joking mate.

    Ice Pup – totally agree, Pardew and Carr must be pulling their hair out that we didn’t do more in the Summer, on top of that Pardew must be worried about the uncertainty of Bas’ contract as well.
    Personally I see 5 areas that need improvement but I think we’ll be lucky if we see 2 come in.
    We needed/need additional players no doubt, but I’d still expect more from what we have in our current squad. They are not doing enough and that’s down to the players but also Pardew and his coaching staff.
    QPR showed yesterday that money for new players isn’t the absolute answer if the coaching staff don’t get them playing. That’s why Moyes and Martinez take so much credit, coz they seem to get the most out of what they have. Pardew did that last season, but for whatever reason isn’t this season. That’s what he needs to focus on rather than keep telling the press were a top 4 team!.

    Also, watching the QPR v Saints game yday, we seriously missed out on not getting Clyne for £2.5m. He’s only about 20 and has looked very impressive so far this season.

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  26. Me joking? Never! Nevertheless, somewhat tired of seeing Shola brought on as sub. Has Pardew looked at his scoring record? Why not Xisco? The subs are becoming a bit predictable, but at least we saw Marv yesterday. But was that because Obertan was injured? We say there is no depth in the squad but have we really tried Amalfitano or Abeid? How are we to know how good or bad they might be. Look how long it took Pardew to introduce Benny and Santon.

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  27. Someone rightly made the point that last year teams like Swansea and Norwich played passing football despite having less talented squads. The summer transfer dealings is a whole different argument imo.
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20329052
    We have played the most long passes in the league, and the have the highest % of all our passes made being long balls.
    I didn’t actually mind the long ball game when we had Carroll etc, but it actually worked. We are terrible at it now, so why do we persist.
    And none of this “because Willo/Simmo weren’t replaced blah etc” they are bloody premier league footballers, they should be able to pass the flipping ball.
    Yesterday we had Krul/Santon/Tiote/Anita/HBA/Ba, these are all international players, Simmo/Willo/Taylor all played extensively last year and we finished 5th, with a huge number of clean sheets. They are better than the players of Norwich/West Ham/Southampton etc so there is no reason they can’t pass the ball like others do.
    Something has seriously gone wrong this season, I would have rather Pards accepted on the 1st June that he wasn’t getting any players and focused on the team we have. If this loss of form continues our season will be over by xmas and it will be mid table mediocrity for this year.

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