The manner of performance just wasn’t good enough and whilst it should be noted that we didn’t get many decisions going for us, the fact remains that we didn’t play well enough on the night.
Following on from that we head to Old Trafford to take on Manchester United. Decisions don’t come easy at the home of the Red Devils either and the performance will have to be much improved to stand any chance of taking anything back North from Manchester.
Granted there is less of that heir of invincibility about Manchester United these days, and regular tormentor of recent years – Wayne Rooney – is suspended, but Manchester United are still a strong side and will be hurting from their midweek home defeat to Everton. With a point to prove, and a title race to tray and claw their way back in to, they will be dangerous.
Manchester United:
Wayne Rooney is absent through suspension although Robin Van Persie could return after recovering from groin and toe injuries. Phil Jones is available once again after missing out against Everton through suspension.
Newcastle United:
News is awaited regarding the availability of Hatem Ben Arfa and Papiss Cisse who both missed the defeat to Swansea in midweek. Ryan Taylor remains out injured and will be for some time. Moussa Sissoko and Yohan Cabaye are both still one yellow card away from suspension.
Previously…
Suffice to say that this isn’t going to make for good reading. Generally we tend to “give it a go” at Old Trafford but ultimately end up with nothing. We’ve never won there in the Premier League era and have only picked up the odd draw on occasion. In fact we’ve only managed to beat Manchester United four times in the Premier League era – all at St James’ Park – but can you name the scoreline and dates?
Last season we gave it some effort but ended up losing 4-3 courtesy of a last minute goal from Javier Hernandez. That was on Boxing Day following on from the 3-0 league defeat to the Red Devils at St James’ Park back in October 2012.
In the entire history of meetings at Old Trafford – all 75 meetings – Newcastle United have won on just nine occasions, the last time being in 1972. Manchester United have won 46 times with 20 draws making up the numbers.
Overall there have been 154 matches played, with Manchester United winning 77 times, Newcastle United winning 40 times with 37 draws making up the numbers.
Match stats and facts…
Manchester United have not lost successive home league games since May 2002.
Manchester United have conceded the second highest amount of goals from any side currently in the top half of the table. The only side to concede more is Newcastle.
Manchester United have won 78 Premier League points against Newcastle – more than any other club has against the Magpies.
Newcastle have the fourth worst away defence in the Premier League having conceded 14 goals already this term.
Final thought…
Much has been made of the “crisis” at Old Trafford but we’re still only 14 games into the season and there is a lot of time to go for a side that generally starts picking up form and momentum around about now.
Having said that, and despite firing blanks against Swansea in midweek, I do still fancy us to score in most games and if we can get that first goal it might be enough to tip the home fans over the edge.
As for us it’s a case of what to do? Is this the time to change things? What exactly can we change because, to me anyway, the lack of Hatem Ben Arfa and Papiss Cisse – in form or not – dramatically reduced our options to change anything.
I never expect anything from Old Trafford and unfortunately I feel no different this time around. I would love to be proved wrong but history would suggest that we’ll put in effort but come away empty handed.
Howay the lads!
Date: Saturday, 7th December, 2013
Time: 12:45pm
Venue: Old Trafford
Don’t forget we have to play against the ref too.
He has sent off one of ours in both of the last two matches he has ref’d.
we’re doomed in this one. 🙁
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
STaylor v manc’s
Mapou v cesspool
??? v manure
My bet is either Tiote or Cabaye to see red today
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
Sorry Kim, early kick off’s are great!
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Havent seen Richie for a bit, bloody cerveza and chorizo, you won’t get nowt from him when those food groups are about.. 😆
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Loving the England wc draw
Hopefully we wont get quite so much media hype this time round.
oh wait………………….it’s already started.
ffs we wont even come close to qualifying from the group stage.
Infact I predict us to come BOTTOM of the group.
Pardew for England. 😆
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
JJ
I’d go with that line up but Santon for Haidera. It would be nice to have a natural left footer there, but I can’t see this being a suitable game for an inexperienced player to return for injury!
Any word on Cisse and HBA?
SolanosTrumpet(Quote)
BB
Look at our squad from Euro 2012. It is horrendous how many of our players have stood still or regressed.
Which English players that were on the scene then have really improved the last two years? (not even not even going to compare Ramsey/Bale 😯 )
Forster, Jagielka, Baines (in our most consistent position anyway), maybe Henderson, Shelvey, Sturridge. Hopefully Wilshire has put his injury worries behind him and will start to shine for England.
Compared to Hart, Cahill, Johnson, Smalling, Walker, M Richards, Jones, Lescott, Terry, Milner, Lennon, Young, Barry, Downing, Rodwell, Cleverly Gerrard, Lampard, Parker, A Johnson, Carroll, Defoe, Welbeck.
They’ve all got WORSE. Fair enough, some due to age. But some of the others should be reaching their prime and they have just stagnated awfully.
SolanosTrumpet(Quote)
Inevitably, we will be whipped into a frenzy based on good seasons from Barley and Townsend, who will be built up by the media to be our saviours, only to be torn to pieces when they fail to live up to their premature pressure.
SolanosTrumpet(Quote)
Pardew:-
“I think there’ll be a reaction from Man United to their defeat and likewise from us so it’ll make for a game which is quite pressurized,”
“Therefore we need to have calm heads in that game – and hopefully we can retain the ball better than we did at Swansea.”- (yeah right ❗ )
“They had gone 12 games unbeaten up until that game so it’s not like there’s a crisis there.”
“They’ve lost a game, which anybody can do in the Premiership at the moment, and their reaction is going to be a little bit larger than ours so I think there’s a bit of pressure on them.”
“We’ve got to try and capitalize on that and make it difficult for them; if we can do that and get in the last period of the game we could try and reverse a statistic that isn’t very good of Newcastle winning at Man United.” (41 years 👿 )
So manures reaction to losing will be bigger than ours – why exactly ❓
The game plan is to hang on til the final few minutes at 0-0 and try and find a winning goal. 😆
Master tactician at work I see.
**** me I fully expect us to be 3-0 down by halftime. What’s the big plan then pardew???
oh right yeah, we don’t have one. 👿
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
@jj & aussie
Move over jj, aussie is my whipping boy.
@st
WTF is wrong with english football? We dod the same thing every tournament. We build players up, knock them down & build them up again!!
David Beckham is a perfect example. We built him up, he got sent off so some people sent him death threats. Now he’s a here!
You’d think money buys success & england have the most money.
KK(Quote)
exactly ST
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
BB,
Agree, Pards doesn’t understand why the same team and same tactics doesn’t always work against DIFFERENT opposition.
When he has to come up with something different he struggles.
He’s improved but still doesn’t inspire much confidence.
Even with RvP and Rooney out, its hard to fancy us.
We should really be confident. But the person that makes me worry is Pards. Will he bottle it?
I believe Ben Arfa and Cisse are fit. So both should be on the bench.
JJ(Quote)
@bb
Yep, sounds like he wants us to keep possesion to stop them from being dangerous. Hopefully we can make it near to the end the game without conceding before scoring a cheeky goal.
Well thats the plan anyway.
We should really go all out attacking.
KK(Quote)
I don’t see how Cisse can possibly be fit.
He could hardly walk on Wednesday due to the bruising on his ankle.
He had to wear flip flops. Nee chance he can play in boots today surely.
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
kk – the first 10-15 mins, I am expecting manure to batter us with everything they have got.
Traditionally we start slowly and lethargic due to pardews pre match ‘chat’
If we hold out for that initial blast, we may have a chance.
Personally I don’t think we have a hope in hell.
Another hammering to the Goal Difference is all I can see.
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
Zabaleta, mascherano, di maria, lamela, higuain, aguero, messi.
We don’t really have any players that are good on the ball. Which english player is the best dribbler?
KK(Quote)
I have tipped us to win 2-1 but I have zero confidence in that actually being correct 😛
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
KK, your the best dribbler that ive ever come across! 😉
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
@bb
On paper we have a fair chance of beating them. Man utd will come out really strong but why can’t we?
It would certainly put them off their game if we were winning the second balls & putting them on the backfoot. The crowd could turn against them in the first 10 mins.
KK(Quote)
@aussie
Boom ❗ I walked into that one 😳
Neither team can keep it tight at the back so hopefully it will be a high scoring victory for us.
Last year i thought we put in really good performances against man utd & arsenal but just gave away some soft goals.
If we play the same way we could win.
KK(Quote)