With four wins on the spin expectations for United are running slightly higher than they were after the defeat to Sunderland. Confidence is high and the team are playing well together but Swansea will present their own problems for us this evening.
It’s been a rollercoaster for Swansea in recent years with the main trajectory being upwards from scrapping around in the bottom tier of the league pyramid to the Premier League bagging a League Cup success and qualification for Europe along the way. Michael Laudrup is tasked with keeping that momemtum up which when you look at it in certain perspectives isn’t as easy as some make it out too be. That’s longer term though. This is purely about tonight.
As covered in my match preview injury news is pretty good for United at the moment although the same can’t be said for Swansea who are missing both this seasons top scorer and last seasons top scorer through injury. Maybe there was something in the Europa League excuses that were used by Alan Pardew last season?
The game itself is live on BT Sport here in the UK and is also being shown live on a host of overseas channels so picking up a stream shouldn’t be too difficult. Once again if you do happen to find a good stream then by all means feel free leave a link to it in the ‘comments’ section below. Team news will be updated as soon as I get my lad to bed unless Big Dave steams in and bridges the gap once more.
That’s just about it and now it’s over to the lads to do their business. Can they make it five wins out five ahead of trip to Old Trafford on Sunday? Or will December start off like usual and signal a month of struggle for the Magpies?
Howay the lads!
Swansea: Michel Vorm, Dwight Tiendalli, Chico Flores, Ashley Williams, Ben Davies, Jose Canas, Jonathan de Guzman, Jonjo Shelvey, Alejandro Pozuelo, Pablo Hernandez, Alvaro Vazquez
Subs: Gerhard Tremmel, Jordi Amat, Neil Taylor, Leon Britton, Wayne Routledge, Roland Lamah, Nathan Dyer
Newcastle: Tim Krul; Mathieu Debuchy, Mike Williamson, Fabricio Coloccini, Davide Santon; Moussa Sissoko, Cheik Tiote, Yohan Cabaye, Yoan Gouffran; Shola Ameobi, Loic Remy
Subs: Rob Elliot, Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa, Massadio Haidara, Paul Dummett, Vurnon Anita, Gabriel Obertan, Sammy Ameobi
Oh well at least the Laudrup envy doing the rounds makes a nice change from the Martinez envy that we usually get on here 😆
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Aussie,
You still think Martinez is average and can’t get his team to defend? Looks to me like they have the second best defensive record in the league.
JJ(Quote)
Not a great performance so a bit disappointed but it had to happen sooner or later, winning 5 off the bounce is a huge ask for any team.
… oh wait hang on, what I meant to say is how dare the mighty Newcastle United lose a game away from home in the Premier League God dammit and that feckin Cisse was totally anonymous the worst game he hasn’t played since he signed…Pardew oot!!! 👿
richietoon(Quote)
lol theres another manager that some said was ****, Martinez 🙄
mark(Quote)
Aussie – I’ve seen penalties given when the ball has initially hit the defenders thigh then bounced up and hit their hands – so for neither handball to be given was a disgrace IMO.
The first one Ashley Williams hands are above his head FFS!, the 2nd one Ben Davies has clearly moved towards the ball to make the block and its hit his hand.
The linesman should have seen the first and Webb should have seen the 2nd.
Sharpy17(Quote)
still do JJ – Long season ahead mate.. give it time 😉
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Sharpy, that’s the thing.. Call them penalties and be done with it… then there can be no doubt for all involved..
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Sharpy,
I have lost count of the penalties we should have had, and “offside” goals that have been onside decisions against us.
Its become the norm. Yet when it comes to teams like Man United and Liverpool they always seem to get the benefit of the doubt. Even though their teams have players renowned for diving and cheating.
JJ(Quote)
ha ha, everyone has said that Pardew is **** and he won as many games as Martinez and two more than Laudrup 😆 😆
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Another thing that irritates me with referees is this pulling of shirts in the penalty area and players pushing each other.
Make a decision. If pushing or tugging a shirt is a penalty, then give the decision EVERY TIME. Not just on the day when you feel like you want to.
If you are consistant and strict, players will stop doing it!!
Also, if players cheat or dive, then give them a six match ban and months fine. If you do it every time on video evidence then it will stop.
Another thing is certain refs get sworn at and body checked, yet the players get away with it. Yet certain times players will argue and decision and get a yellow card.
There is zero consistency.
JJ(Quote)
Aussie,
Pardew has the strongest squad on paper and he isn’t competing in Europa.
When he was we were sitting in the relegation zone.
JJ(Quote)
We also have the most goals conceded and the least goals scored of all the teams in the top 11 apart from Villa.
Our results have been far better than our performances. Which is fine, but eventually it catches up to you.
JJ(Quote)
JJ, Swansea strengthened their team in the summer, we didn’t.. 😛
It seems that some managers can have excuses made for them and others can’t.. Anyone that mangers Newcastle… can’t 😆
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
*manages Newcastle*
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Pardew has had a lot of excuses made for him.
Some valid. But most aren’t. Pardew constantly used Europa as an excuse, where Laudrup openly and upfront said that it could not be used as an excuse for poor league performances.
Swansea did invest yes. But would you swap their squad for ours?
JJ(Quote)
You want to look at over rated managers. Look no further than Jose “The special one” and “AVB”.
I still rate Moyes, but I don’t think anybody was big enough to step into Fergie’s shoes. Impossible task.
JJ(Quote)
The special one has won a few titles over his time JJ…. agree about AVB and Moyes is out of his depth.. all traces of ginger in his hair have disappeared in the past few months., it ‘s all grey 😆
All this swap manager and team talk is nonsense to me mate.. sorry 😉
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
I’m not saying Jose isn’t a very good manager. I just don’t think he’s as good as is made out.
He’s spent more than any manager I can think of.
JJ(Quote)
nobody is as good as Jose makes himself out to be mate, not even Jesus! 😆
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
I do think 3.0 flattered them in the end tbh, first half we sat back far too much and looked pretty toothless save for a couple of Remy attempts, one bringing an amazing save which had it gone in would of put us 1 up and then who knows. Remy had his shirt pulled on more than one occasion last night and we should have had 2 pens for sure especially the first. Shelvey made a head in motion toward Debs which he should of walked for and the fact he didn’t meant he went on to score the 3rd and get MOTM, go figure. Can you imagine if Tiote had made that gesture , I think Webb had an awful game and the lino’s just as bad. Swansea play a lovely possession game but in truth are a bit weak in the finish , we gifted them the first from the corner and once in front we had to chase the game which gave them the space needed to make the counter attack work. The two pens or even just one would of changed the course of the game and Shelvey is a lucky boy as he should of gone .
KIMTOON(Quote)
Ah well, we were always going to lose at some point, and it was always going to come when fans, players, manager got complacent and started to expect it 😉 Bring on Manchester!
On the bright side, Aussie, weren’t you mentioning something about fantasy football scores… 🙂
Newkie(Quote)
I agree with JJ that recent results have been better than our performances. We have played some attractive football at times but we have also fallen back to desperate defending too often. Everybody knows Shola lacks stamina. Even Pardew singled him out for possibly being tired before the match. Why didn’t Campbell or Armstrong travel with the squad as insurance. Anyone would be better than Obertan. Why does Pardew persist with him? Is it because he bought him? And why wasn’t Anita used as a sub? Sorry, but I am still not convinced by Pardew. In my opinion his judgment is not good and he is too defensively minded.
Groucho(Quote)
JJ/Aussie – ill forgive the 2nd pen claim coz in fairness it’s usually Saylor or Willo climbing all over a CF in our box (Willo not so much lately). But the first is just blatant!, plus with the sending off it was poor refereeing for me.
It was quite clear that we were happy for them to have the lions share of possession and hit them on the break and it nearly worked a couple of times. Their goal was a blow but not game over coz I thought we looked better offensively in the 2nd half. The penalty miss clearly played on afew players minds and their 2nd was game over.
In a way in pleased Shola struggled a bit last night and Cisse was injured – simply because it shows JFK and fat lad that we need to strengthen in Jan. And if Pardew refers to Obertan as his strength in depth we defo need to strengthen!!!
Sharpy17(Quote)
I don’t know why he persist with Oba, the guy is never gonna cut it and it’s a shame cause he has so much pace, just no end product.
KIMTOON(Quote)
Sharpy-pretty much agree with that.
Newkie(Quote)
Sharpy@323, Agree, if Remy isn’t scoring I feel we’ll struggle as no one else is consistent enough apart from maybe Goofy . Money needs spending on a quality forward cause if you aren’t scoring in this league you’ve had it.
KIMTOON(Quote)
JJ@315-I imagine if you asked a Swansea supporter the same question, they wouldn’t be in a hurry to switch squads either. Remy is the obvious one they would take, and he isn’t even ours. Be fecked would they swap Cisse for Bony. Michu, Williams, Vorm would all be chosen as a stronger spine. Players like Colo, Goof, Krul, Tiote that we rate are not seen as highly by fans of other clubs. They find Willo and Shola starting hilarious.
Trust me, I was told so in the pub plenty enough yesterday 😉
In my experience fans tend to overrate their own players and disregard those from clubs on a similar level but will pick up on individuals being better than counterparts in the top 4.
Newkie(Quote)
Newkie, how can you brag about fantasy footy after such a defeat, have you no shame ! 😛
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Newkie
Definitely. I think we have a marginally better squad than the Swans and Southampton, but there’s not much in it. Everton’s is easily better than ours according to 99% of impartial fans.
I think these teams have players that are more consistent in general as well.
Jagielka, Coleman, Howard, Barry etc, you don’t see them have as many shocker games as our players.
SolanosTrumpet(Quote)
Aussie 😆
I was tempted to have another moan this morning and then I read some of the responses on here/tooniverse and realised the world was ending, so thought I’d try and enjoy my last few hours being a **** 😆
HOW DARE WE LOSE TO SWANSEA AWAY, EVEN THOUGH PARDEW IS **** AND LAUDRUPP IS GOD.
There, is that better? 🙂
Newkie(Quote)
Solano-I agree, I definitely think we have a better squad not even just marginal. My point is though that fans, give or take a few players, do become very attatched to their players and they will over rate them compared to other teams or individuals “considered” better. And when those players leave, or “betray”, they become ****. Carroll, Enrique, Ba, blimey even Ranger! All of them were seen as pure quality at one stage or another, “best in the league” at some aspects. But they move on and if they struggle, we laugh and call them ****. I ain’t digging at anyone though cause we all do it 😉
We are worse than Everton, better than Swansea and Saints. But Swans and Saints have splashed their cash while we haven’t.
Newkie(Quote)
Bad and very unlucky day at the office. There were so many little things that didn’t fall our way last night. Pens not given, openings not quite working out, Krul’s flap could have gone anywhere, unlucky Debuchy etc etc.
Having said that we got into some great positions and just squandered them. I had trouble believing Pardew brought Obertan on and within minutes he proved he’s absolute pants. He should never play again!!!!
So poor Benny’s ill, Cisse’s nicked his ankle, Rooney’s banned. No idea what will happen at OT just like last year!
georgio(Quote)
The first goal was key. I think if Remy had scored with his header across goal which was only stopped by a worldie from Vorm, then our game plan would have been set and we would have picked them off on the break as they committed bodies forward. Just couldn’t get it, and there’s came from a woeful set piece all round and bad luck sealed it.
Newkie(Quote)
Newkie
You need to calm down, how can you say Ranger was anything other than quality 👿
SolanosTrumpet(Quote)
I think a few of us are just hoping fans don’t try and throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Pardew should be getting top 9th/10th.
A third of the season in and we are well in the hunt for Europa.
Do I want more from Newcastle? Obviously. Do I see that while people like Willo and Ameobi as two of our best performing players expecting anything else is a bit nuts? Yes…
SolanosTrumpet(Quote)
Another thing was really apparent last night. The way every Swans player is comfortable on the ball and they always have several options to pass with really good off ball movement. We’re poor at it and have too many players who aren’t comfortable with the ball. Willo, Shola, Sissoko, Cisse, Jonas, Obertan are never truly in control, Remy and Goof and Cabaye too sometimes. Harsh but true. We’re a mid table team who are desperate for good ball players and a real striker to improve. Swansea were just the latest team to prove that.
georgio(Quote)
Georgio you are right about our players not being comfortable on the ball. Some of this I believe is that we do not pass and move forward and the player with the ball is left with no options other than pass backwards.
Groucho(Quote)
Well Cisse a **** player anyway unless his off side. 19 hours of premiership football and no goals from him. Okay he didn’t play, fair point but he is *****.
stem(Quote)
Our squad is pretty much at the same level as everton. It’s alot better than southampton & swansea.
Southampton have a good manager. He is still learning & will get better.
Swansea are doing well because of the work martinez & rodgers did there. I’m not convinced laudrup is much better than pardew.
Everton have another good manager on the way up. He’s already as good as moyes & is still so young.
I’ve not seen anything to show avb is a very good manager. This season he gets a little slack because it’s difficult with so many new players. Last season bale bailed them out way too many times.
Pardew us one of the better english managers but that is a really poor standard. He is unable to get the best out of the players, we don’t have a consistent style or formation & he has had 3 years to make is mark.
If we stick with pardew we will finish top 10 this season. Quite a few players will want to leave at the end of the season because nobody wants to play for 10th place.
A new manager might be worse but there are a lot of managers that are better than pardew & they would want to come here.
It all really depends on how long we want pardew at the club. 8 years? 10 years?
KK(Quote)
didn’t do enough to get anything from the game,but I knew we would have the ref to play as well,Webb for some reason has always disliked us the mans loves the game to be about himself,hope PBA goes in this window he should never pull a toon shirt on again,you put one over on us sir Alex you rat bag
icedog(Quote)
OBA
icedog(Quote)
Ice Ferguson has put several over us the past few years.
Groucho(Quote)
KK
Go on, put those Swansea/Southampton/Everton comments on a forum with unbiased football fans and watch yourself get laughed away.
Remy/Cisse/Ameobi vs Osvaldo/Lambert/Jay Rodriguez
Schneiderlein v Tiote
Lallana v HBA
Shaw & Clyne v Santon & Debuchy
Lovren v Colloccini
There’s no doubt we have some players with talent. But how many times do they turn up to games?
SolanosTrumpet(Quote)
Not going to listen to people saying we are level to Everton. They currently have equal or superior ( sometimes far superior) players to us in every single position.
SolanosTrumpet(Quote)
Obertan is not rubbish. He lacks confidence & is rusty because he hardly gets any game time.
He needs to go out on loan to somwhere like spain. Hopefully it will help build his confidence.
Pardew persists with obertan because pardew was the one who wanted the club to sign obertan, not graham carr. Pardew was friends with sfa & phoned sfa to ask if he could buy obertan.
If pardew doesn’t support obertan, it will reflect badly on both of them.
KK(Quote)
Georgio
Yeah it was very noticeable last night
SolanosTrumpet(Quote)
Howard Webb is without doubt the most useless arrogant self absorbed piece of **** to refereee in the premier league, Makes Poll and Ellery look competent…
CC(Quote)
@st
Cisse is going through a bad spell. The worst spell he’s ever had. That doesn’t mean he’s a bad player. He’s a better finisher than remy, ba, torres, giroud. It’s true he hasn’t been playing well but he is capable of much more.
Ben arfa seems to get stick for being lazy or not tracking back but at the start of the season he won 2 games on his own. We seem incapable of getting him to play well in a team but other managers would have been able to do so. He is our best player in terms of ability & southampton, swansea & everton don’t have anyone nearly as good. He just isn’t consistent enough.
I looked up squad values on transfermarkt. They seem to be unbiased & show that we have a squad nearly as good as everton & much better than swansea & southampton.
KK(Quote)
Squad values
Everton – £150m
NUFC – £145m
Swansea – £100m
Southampton – £99m
Average Player Values
NUFC – £6.1m
Everton – £5.9m
Swansea – £4.5m
Southampton – £4.1m
So in terms of individual players, we have the best squad. Everton have a slightly larger squad so it’s worth a little more.
These values are not set in stone but they give a rough idea of how good our players are compared to other clubs.
I can’t understand why anybody would think swansea & southampton have a better team than us?
Maybe they have some better individual players but no way do they have a better team!!
KK(Quote)
I didn’t say anything negative about southampton or everton.
About swansea – i don’t think laudrup is much better than pardew but maybe he’ll prove me wrong. He was a good player but i still think he needs to prove himself as a manager.
Would i rather have laudrup as manager? Yes but it’s not much of a choice.
KK(Quote)
KK
**** that stupid website.
Their squad values say that Cisse is worth a lot more than Remy. That Ramsey is half the value of Wilshire.
I don’t doubt that our squad “might” be more valuable than the others, however value is also affected by potential.
Regardless of their worth, Distin-Jagielka is a better CB pairing than whatever we cobble together. And I know who I would take out of Barry and Tiote etc
SolanosTrumpet(Quote)
Tiote every time, Barry is a one paced and wouldnt suit our team at all.
CC(Quote)
Young, Nani, Valencia all £17M
The website is utter cack.
SolanosTrumpet(Quote)
Barry can tackle, pass, and has more than 7 good games a year.
Tiote takes too many games to get up to speed after his frequent injuries.
SolanosTrumpet(Quote)
His tackling is **** and ill timed, He Passes the ball sideways 5 yards and points a lot, Tiotes all action a far superior player.
CC(Quote)
Solano-got to disagree with you on Barry mate, he handed the F.A cup to Martinez on a plate, he’s gash 😀
Newkie(Quote)
I’m sorry KK, you lost me at “Obertan is not rubbish”
No more, please, I can’t take it 😆
Newkie(Quote)
CC/Newkie
There must have been something to him for him to have been a regular for Man City into his 30’s…
SolanosTrumpet(Quote)
Solano-well, he’s more reliable at doing his job and putting a shift in than Nasri or Johnson and he wasn’t a simple hatchet man like De Jong. He tries hard, and they need some English players. Bit like Milner really…
He can do a job providing you have the players to play around him – I would class Lampard as the same. But as an individual? I would take Tiote over him, even if he is more erratic and is “less skilled” generally speaking.
Newkie(Quote)
Milners a regular for them as well and you wont find many who rate him from our lot or many other sets of supporters.
CC(Quote)
Exactomondo.
Every team needs a Shola or a Williamson it seems 🙂
Newkie(Quote)
Newkie I would like to see a few upcoming english players, blend into what we already have or another Gary Speed R.I.P. Joey Barton even would install some fight into what we already have. There is talent out there and we have to be secretive about our transfer targets, which I hope Kinnear is doing.
stem(Quote)
CC
Now that is just a lie. Come on now, he starts even less games than Tiote!
SolanosTrumpet(Quote)
The problem with Tiote is that his best strength – tackling, is often cancelled out by the number of times he gives the ball away.
Anyway our opinions are going to be biased negatively or positively. Most neutral fans would rate Everton higher than us.
SolanosTrumpet(Quote)
Stem – I agree would love for us to have some English regulars again, I’m not anti-French or anti-foreign but it’s always nice to have a few, we’re scraping the barrel a bit with Wilo/Tayls/Dummett and as I count him, Shola 😀
But I don’t think we’ll be buying British, not cheap enough for us 😕
I agree we need more fight as well, Colo was suspect at best even when he wanted to be here for being a “fighter”-the fact that Shola does the team talks says it all. We have a captain who doesn’t want to be here and Cabaye feels pretty similar. Tiote seems to make a good leader but he can only do so much, he can provide steel but not sure how inspiring he is..
Newkie(Quote)
KK@345 – don’t know which Obertan you’ve been watching. He reflects very badly on both SFA and Pardew. Clueless with good feet and lots of pace. Total rubbish!
georgio(Quote)
Solano-you aren’t wrong there. Virtually no neutral thinks we are better than Everton. They rate/fear Benny and Cabaye (and Remy obviously) and laugh at Cisse. For most, our 5th place was a fluke. So I’d say we’re about where most expect us, possibly a bit higher given our lack of investment.
But I do know plenty of Swansea fans who think they are better than us. Can’t really say for Saints as I don’t know any.
Newkie(Quote)
I think we’re in a bit of a 4-way with them. And I expect Villa will join before long.
Everton are the top dogs and our next couple of years should be aimed at knocking them off.
We should definitely be finishing above Swansea this year as they have got Europe to contend with (even if the strengthened). But there’s no way fans should be so over the top when we fail to beat/draw with them away.
SolanosTrumpet(Quote)
No surprise that the two teams (apart from City) who comprehensively outplayed us and scored 3 goals were Everton and Swansea. Martinez and Laudrup. Any connection do you think?
georgio(Quote)
FA confirm no action against Shelvey. Again we get no help from the FA like the Haidara incident.
funkyjesus(Quote)
Funky that is a joke. Webb and the F.A are complete fools and thick as thieves. Hopefully this will force the squad closer, give us a bit of siege mentality going to old trafford and the land of the F.A’s favourite sons.
Newkie(Quote)
Georgio-outplayed us in some aspects but then we gifted them all their goals, they didn’t do much special to make them, imo.
Is the connection that both games were away? 😀
Newkie(Quote)
Funky, No surprises there then, after all why should we even think for a minute we’d be afforded any respect from the joke that is the FA. 👿 Bunch of inept farts the lot of them.
KIMTOON(Quote)
UK fans are a bit off when it comes to neutrals opinions on squads.
Reason being you judge as English citizens and as such generally massively overate English or UK based players.
They know very little about foreign players that don’t play for their own clubs.
Especially African players.
Cisse is massively respected in Africa.
And people laugh at Barry because he’s is so average. Tiote is a much much better player when in form.
Oh, and its not just opposition fans who laugh when Shola starts. It’s normally cringeworthy for most Toon fans.
He averages two decent games a season with worse passing, assist, holdup play and scoring stats that Cisse. Yet he gets praises. Cisse gets slated.
Some fans a clueless.
Stem, mate. You seem beyond clueless.
JJ(Quote)
JJ
Key part “when in form”
So you have Barry or Schneiderlein or Wanyama for 38 games. Or good Tiote for 13 games, bad Tiote for 13 games, and Perch for 12 games while Tiote is injured/banned.
Our players have incredible potential, we have a number of players that are seriously good “on their day.” Just so incredibly inconsistent.
SolanosTrumpet(Quote)