The two teams sit 16th and 15th respectively with only goal difference separating the two clubs. Both managers will be acutely aware of the importance of the victory as the term “breathing space” comes into the equation with league games starting to run out and safety still to fight for.
Both teams have undergone an upturn in form in recent weeks. We’ve lost just one match out of the last of five since our French invasion gathered pace at the end of January whilst Southampton seem to have got over their poor start to the season by losing just one of their last nine league outings (although six have been draws), with their 3-1 victory over Manchester City last time out showing how far they’ve come recently.
Newcastle:
Tim Krul is out and could be sidelined for as many as five weeks after picking up an ankle injury on Thursday. He will see a specialist on Monday to determine the severity of his injury. Hatem Ben Arfa is back in full training although judging by the words of Alan Pardew it looks as though this match will be too soon for him and he’ll have to wait until next Saturday at Swansea before making his return. Ryan Taylor and Haris Vuckic are both unavailable.
In better news, Mathieu Debuchy should return to the starting line up after being ineligible for the Europa League fixtures. Yoan Gouffran has trained for a week now following on from his injury at Tottenham and should be fine to start, as should Cheik Tiote who withdrew from the match in Ukraine with illness. Davide Santon should also be fine to play after recovering from an ankle knock.
Southampton:
Gaston Ramirez and Luke Shaw are available after missing the win against Manchester City through injury. Guly do Prado is doubtful for the trip to St James’ Park while Jose Fonte remains out with a knee problem.
Previously…
Newcastle lost the reverse fixture 2-0 earlier on in the season in what was the first clash between the two sides since 2005.
On home soil there have been 37 matches contested between the two sides with Southampton running out victorious at St James’ Park on just four of those occasions compared to United’s 28 victories. The last St James’ Park victory for the Saints came in March 1997.
Overall the record is a bit closer but it’s still United who shade it. There have been 75 matches between the two sides, home and away and in all competitions, with United winning 33 times compared to Southampton’s 26 victories. A total of 16 draws between the two sides make up the numbers.
Stats and facts:
Mike Williamson could make his 100th appearance for United while James Perch could make his 250th career league appearance.
Newcastle are yet to win a game after conceding the first goal this season. Of the 11 occasions United have conceded first we’ve managed to rescue two draws with the other nine games ending in defeat.
Southampton have lost just once on the road in their last five games and have taken 19 of their 27 points this season against bottom-half opposition.
Only Wigan and QPR have a worse first-half record in the Premier League than Southampton.
Rickie Lambert is looking for his 100th goal for Southampton.
Final thought:
Winning in midweek was great and prolongs our participation in Europe for another four weeks at least, but for me it won’t matter if we fail to register a win in this game. Southampton have had 15 days without a game while United have made a 3,000 mile trip to Ukraine and back and will have just two days to recover before going again. Professional athletes they may be, but even still we face a fully rested team when ours isn’t.
We’ve looked much better since being bolstered by our January signings and with it being “French Day” (honestly, I’m cringing right now!) at St James’ Park tomorrow hopefully our Gallic contingent can continue to impress and show that je ne sais quoi that has had people raving about them so far.
I really can’t stress the importance of this game. Win and we can look up. We’d be on 30 points with a bit of breathing space between us and the relegation spots. Lose or draw and we’re in danger of being sucked right in to the relegation mix, and no matter how much quality we have or how many people say that we have a squad to compete on two fronts, that will hurt.
Howay the lads!
Date: Sunday, 24th February, 2013
Time: 1:30pm
Venue: St James’ Park
got to win this one would be happy with a scrapy one nowt,by the way if the game is on,the snow is bad and still coming down heavy,horse racing off,airport closed
icedog(Quote)
MM – From last thread about Suarez, have a look at the first post here
http://boards.footymad.net/forum.php?tno=386&fid=185&sty=2&act=1&mid=2113185230&page=1
Also how about this for a tackle by Suarez? 😯
http://strackattack.com/gifs/_soccer/2010-2011/luis%20suarez%20outrageous%20tackle.gif
toonsy(Quote)
Toonsy
Looked at that second link but didn’t see Suarez, only a bunch of Dutch guys in green. What’s it supposed to show?
Andymag(Quote)
I know sports are like soap operas for men, but I still can’t help falling for the “Suarez is a villain” story line. I really can’t stand that fucking *****.
I don’t want to give this any more oxygen than it deserves, but I ran across a headline yesterday that said Mbiwa is not happy with his role so far. I figure it for media ****-stirring. Is there anything more in the story? Gotta just be ******* journalist speculation, right? I mean, maybe the kid wants to start, but he’s just arrived and understands that Colo and Saylor haven’t really done much wrong since he arrived, right?
Fans Should Own The Club(Quote)
Toonsy@2, that second link of the tackle from his Ajax days is just MENTAL. The no 3 just carries on as if nowt has happened, whereas the cheating Suarez starts rolling round like a squealing pig. What a low-life 👿 👿 👿
Munich Mag(Quote)
Andy, somebody beats Suarez to the ball and Suarez goes in two-footed, in the air and comes down on the calf OF THE TRAILING LEG on the player who just beat him. He really is scum.
Fans Should Own The Club(Quote)
FSOC you mean “Suarez is a victim” ? We all know he is a villain 👿
I don’t want any of the toon players courting controversy, thank goodness it seems as if we have bunch of steady lads at the club (there again, Tiote, Collo and Cabaye like to hoy it about a bit … 😳 )
Munich Mag(Quote)
Just read the comments on the forum 😆 . Interesting that the scouser reckons that he won’t go to Bayern, I reckon he will, he’ll get top dollar, the club can afford him and the Bundesliga is on the up whereas La liga (and to an extent the PL) aren’t.
Andymag(Quote)
I didn’t see the game on Thursday. How did M’biwa play?
Fans Should Own The Club(Quote)
FSOTC
Sounds horrible, the man is a giant *****.
Andymag(Quote)
Does anyone think that we would be better off if tomorrow’s game get’s postponed ? 😉
Munich Mag(Quote)
FSOTC@9, I saw the game live and the lad had a canny game, first half at least he was exceleent, despite getting elbowed a couple of times by the Argy striker…
Second half he did ok to, the pace seemed to catch up with him..
Munich Mag(Quote)
There’s a lot of drama fluffing in sports these days, but Suarez is a legitimate piece of ****. He’s the kind of guy I expect to beat up a woman in the near future.
Fans Should Own The Club(Quote)
I’m curious to see how Elliot will do with distribution. Is he sure to play, or might we actually see Harper?
Fans Should Own The Club(Quote)
MM
So we can have a rest and play midweek instead? Suppose we’d have Benny back but Krul would still be out.
Andymag(Quote)
FSOTC
Was listening to total sport yesterday and they said Harps is also out, so that might mean that Alnwick(?) is on the bench.
Andymag(Quote)
Andymag@8, you might find that FC Bayern are on the up, not so much the Bundesliga, with Dortmund hanging onto there shirt tails this season at least. The rest are trailing well behind Bayern…
FC Bayern are currently tooling up for next season, Pep Guardiola will take over as manager next season, with Raul backing him up as chief trainer. Matthias Sammer was brought in last summer to act as director of football. When you also consider the rest of the world stars beavering away in the background, Ulli Höness, Paul Breitner, Franz Beckenbauer, Rummenigge et al then they are going to be a real force to be reckoned with. FC Bayern are one of the richest and best run clubs in european football with very little debt and a shed load of cash in the bank. Plus Guardiola will be given money to spend this summer. FC Bayern go about things the right way, not like these clubs just throwing money at everything then complaining. Laugh I nearly got the bers in. I read Mancini was complaining cos he never got the cash he wanted to bring in new players. FFS get real man 🙁
Munich Mag(Quote)
Andymag, nah, the next game would be Swansea the following week, which would give our players a better chance to recover. Krul is knackered anyway, no matter what… 🙁
Actually I have been impressed with Elliot when he has been called upon. It’s a close second between him and Harper imo…
Munich Mag(Quote)
So Elliot’s a shoo-in.
I’m in the sad position or rooting for Stoke against Fulham because Putrid’s playing two American players. Life is not easy.
Fans Should Own The Club(Quote)
MM
Aye Bayern are clearly ahead but the quality in each team is undisputed. If Bayern do go after all the players they’ve been linked with then their summer total will be in excess of £150m, they’ll also have to sell a few of their attackers. Can’t see Gomez getting a game, muller will be pushed back, same with Robben and maybe Ribery. Shaquiri will have to go (we should get him).
Andymag(Quote)
Andymag, who have FC Bayern been linked with ? Mario Gomez despite scoring 40 Bundesliga goals last season is being linked with Athletico Madrid (cos he’s half Spanish), so that will bring them some spondoolicks in the bank. Cannot see Bayern dropping Müller, he’s a local lad and the trainers love him. Robben might struggle, and at the moment Shaquiri is just a squad player. I reckon Ribery will last at least one more season, other than that I’m sure they will look at reinforcing the defence which is still brilliant, but the achilles heel at the moment.
Munich Mag(Quote)
Holy ****, did anybody see that Berbatov goal?
Fans Should Own The Club(Quote)
BM’s possibly team
——————————Neuer————————-
–Lahm———-Badstuber–Dante———-Alaba–
———–Schweinsteiger—Javi Martinez———–
———-Suarez———-Müller———–Bale——–
————————-Lewandowski——————–
Subs
GK(?)
Boateng
DF(?)
Ribery
Robben
Kroos
Manduzkic(spelling)
Andymag(Quote)
MM
Just the players I included in the team there. Granted bale is likely to go to real and Lewandowski might come to the PL but those are the only players that I’ve heard linked to them.
Andymag(Quote)
If they were however able to pull off those transfers I’d argue they’d have the strongest team in the world, more so than ‘one plan’ Barca.
Andymag(Quote)
snow still a-coming doon
icedog(Quote)
Tomorrow is a massive game another 6 pointer for us.
Johno Toon(Quote)
Bloody hell have I wandered onto a Bayern/ Suarez forum? Couldn’t care less about either of them tbh…..
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
AMF
Your obviously not a toon supporter then are you? 😡 😡 😡 😉
Andymag(Quote)
I know how you feel Ice, extreme weather can be terrible, I don’t even want to talk about the sunburn I got today… 🙂 🙂
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
AMF tw*t
icedog(Quote)
Calm down Andy or I will go Suarez on yo ***!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Ice 🙂
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
AMF
Imagine if Vinnie Jones came across Suarez on the pitch. 😯
Andymag(Quote)
Old Pochettino should stroll out tomorrow feeling pretty good. Under Cortese’s logic Pardew is 3rd tier, Adkins 2nd, while he’s the real deal! No wonder Pardew wants to win.
Tough game but we’ll have 6 starting changes and a good bench, no excuses. It’s going to be a whoever wants it more kind of game, with an element of taken chances and luck thrown in. No different to normal then really.
Massive game, love it!
Allons viens! Vas-y!
Lionel Speed(Quote)
Munich, you still on here? That Freiburg defense is still holding up–2nd best in the Bundesliga, behind Bayern (by a considerable distance, yes, but pretty high above the 3rd best defense). I was thinking we could go shopping there for another CB for the inevitable Colo departure.
Fans Should Own The Club(Quote)
Good afternoon lads.
Will be a close game on Sunday. Though i think home advantage should get us the 3 points.
Hope results go our way today to ease the pressure from the other bottom clubs. Oh i see Villa are losing already 😀
Santii(Quote)
Personally I’d like to see this line up tomorrow:
————– Elliott ————
— Saylor – Colo – MYM —
Debuchy —————santon
—————-Tiote ————-
—– Cabaye —- Sissoko —–
——- Cisse —– Gouffran —–
I think Saylor and MYM could pick up Rodriguez and Puncheon and Colo could have the physical battle with Lambert. Tiote could pick up Lallana or Davis whichever plays. Our fullbacks would press their fullbacks of Shaw and Clyne and with Cabs and Sissoko creating for the pace of Cisse and Gouffran we could easily score goals with this formation. It could be easily change back to 4-2-3-1 if he wanted to introduce Benny at any stage as well. I suggest this, not for one second expecting it to be the team or formation, but there you have it 😉
Sharpy17(Quote)
FSOTC
Might not be the players as much as the coaches. Think Alderweild, Sakho or Ismirit Mirin (?) are the main choices, though I’m sure Carr has an eye looking over the German league.
Andymag(Quote)
Sharpy
How wide would Cabs and Sissy play?
Andymag(Quote)
Yeah, Andy, I think that manager at Freiburg is doing very well since we bought Cisse off them. Can’t remember his name, but Munich once implied he was a lunatic.
Fans Should Own The Club(Quote)
Anybody seen Charlie Austin at Burnley or Jordan Rhodes at Blackburn? Both young, and scoring lots of goals. Thought about them as striker options but haven’t actually watched them.
Fans Should Own The Club(Quote)
FSOTC
The Ian Hollaway of Germany? 😆
I heard someone say that Rhodes wasn’t good enough to be a PL player, Austin I don’t know.
Andymag(Quote)
Andy – width of the centre circle mate, encourage the wingbacks to provide the touchline width. That’s what I’d do anyway.
FSOTC – I’ve said recently that we should sign PEA and Austin as CF options in the summer. Rhodes is quality too but Bburn only just spent £8m on him in the summer – which we should have IMO – so I don’t expect Bburn to sell him so soon for anything like the money we’d expect to pay. I’d offer £5m plus player for Austin.
Sharpy17(Quote)
I wonder if it’s just snobbery about Rhodes because he played in League One. As I said, I haven’t seen him play, but he had 37 goals last season and 20 this season so far. He’s doing something right! And he’s only 23–prime time to buy him according to the soccernomics whiz kids.
Fans Should Own The Club(Quote)
How do you think the Championship compares with, say, the French league or the Eredivisie?
Fans Should Own The Club(Quote)
Rhodes definitely is good enough to be a PL player but would cost far to much.
Austin, i don’t know to much about but his goal scoring record speaks for itself really. I think he would cost to much as well though.
I know its hard to compare but Rhodes is better than Zaha and look how much he went for.
Santii(Quote)
@46
I think both those leagues are better than the Championship. Football and player wise. Cheaper as well.
The wages in the Championship are probably better than both them as well.
Santii(Quote)
Think the prob with Rhodes is as an English player who clearly has some ability and a great scoring record and you pay a premuim price for such a service. I dont think he is worth £8 million now even with 20 goals in this season. And it does stiffle young players in the lower leagues on getting a big move becasue clubs are looking for far too much money, which they are entitled to charge , but it does scare clubs off.
Johno Toon(Quote)
Sharpy
Aye could work I guess, have been fond of the back three with wingbacks for some time now.
Andymag(Quote)
Johno
He’s Scottish mate
Andymag(Quote)
@Johno Rhodes is Scottish but the premium still applies to him. I think he is worth £8m but it would take far more than that to get him off Blackburn.
I agree about the prices as well but the Big clubs are to blame (i think) for the price increase’s.
Santii(Quote)
In the summer
-£8.5m+ Marveaux for PEA
-£6m + Obertan for Rhodes/Austin
-Puncheon free but loan Sammy to Soton who might be able to turn his raw pace and ability into something.
Andymag(Quote)
Vydra at Watford has 19 goals this season. He’s Czech and only 20 years old. Would that cut the “domestic player premium” or does that still work against his price since he’s already on English soil?
Fans Should Own The Club(Quote)
I guess at that age and relative lack of experience, he’s still an unknown quantity.
Fans Should Own The Club(Quote)
What a dreadful thing to have said. And yet there are still people out there who continue to praise Pardew’s man management / motivational skills 😳
“I’ve now got the luxury of having four centre-halves, three of whom are really playing well. The other guy (Mike Williamson) isn’t really going to get a chance now because the other three are playing so well”
http://www.journallive.co.uk/nufc/newcastle-united-news/2013/02/23/alan-pardew-magpies-stronger-for-trip-to-ukraine-61634-32864262/#ixzz2Ljvg7YqU
Chris G(Quote)
Lmao Lukaku just scored the greatest Goal ever vs Sunderland (Sarcasm wait till you see this). Bramble again lmao
Santii(Quote)
Pathetic Everton
😕
Tomorrow’s match is massive, Wigan aren’t dead and buried like so many were saying either 🙄
Newkie(Quote)
Chris G
Seems very weird to refer to Willo as the other guy (he’s not the hulk 🙄 ), I reckon they have had a big fall out, can be the only explanation why he’d address him as such.
Andymag(Quote)
Santii
MOTD should be good tonight then, Berbatov wonder goal and a rafael belter, now we can see a bumbling bramble.
Andymag(Quote)
I hope we dont have 2 CB’s injured or the ‘Other Guy’ will have to down a full bottle of motivational pills just to run on the pitch. As if he didnt need to before……
Tsunki(Quote)
Andy – 3 at the back would work against Saints I think, and may be the way forward if it worked well. Love those summer moves you’ve suggested and would be great business if they could pull that off.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Newkie – aye the toffees have done us nee favours today like have they?!, and could have done with a draw at Reading today.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Andymag says:
February 23, 2013 at 15:48
Johno
He’s Scottish mate
Oops 😳
Johno Toon(Quote)
Sharpy
Well best Soton tomorrow and WH lose to spurs on Monday by a couple and we’re 13th. Not bad at all.
Andymag(Quote)
Sharpy
The only issue with my summer transfers idea is would Marv want to go back to ligue 1?
Andymag(Quote)
That Bony in the Eredivisie is a goal machine. He’s got one and an assist already for Vitesse today.
Fans Should Own The Club(Quote)
FSOTC
Think he’s off to Italy in the summer 😕 , mind you I’d rather we get PEA
Andymag(Quote)
Andy – 13th position would look a lot healthier mate. As for Marv, I don’t think he’d mind too much if it meant more game time for him and St Ettiene are a decent outfit to be fair, he’d be going to a good team.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Andy, is there a clear link to Italy for him? I didn’t see anything, but I stopped tracking rumors after the transfer window.
I’ve written it before, but I’d like to see us go after Altidore. He’s 23 and has 16 goals in 22 starts for AZ–a career-to-date season for him. He scored 15 last season in 34 appearances, including subs. He doesn’t seem to be the same player he was in that season at Hull back in 2009-10 when he was only 19-20. He’d draw in a lot of American viewers and fans too. When Donovan was at Everton on that loan, all the soccer fans I know in the states were watching him whenever they could.
Fans Should Own The Club(Quote)
FSOTC
I’ve heard of him but didn’t know much about him. Is stoke getting much coverage over there with Shea playing in their team.
Andymag(Quote)
Not so much for Shea that I’m aware of, but I think Altidore’s more of a known quantity here, having played for the national team frequently. Shea’s newer on the national scene.
Fans Should Own The Club(Quote)
Brek Shea the lad who plays for Stoke does he have a brother called Ricko
Toby le Rhone(Quote)
TLR
Aye, but he’s a basketball player 😆
Andymag(Quote)
I’d like him to change his last name to “Fast.”
Fans Should Own The Club(Quote)