I also like winning and having both is ideal, but at Newcastle we’ve had hardly any excitement or a decent run of wins for some time.
I think this is why I always look to go back to the excitement. Do we play exciting football? No, and we haven’t for a good few years now. Do we have a player who can excite and produce the extraordinary? The answer to that is most definitely yes. Yes we do. And at his brilliant best you’ll be hard pushed to find a more exciting player that has strutted his stuff at St James’ Park in the black and white for a good for years at least.
The problem is that the relationship between that player – Hatem Ben Arfa – and manager seems to have gone beyond the point of repair, which is a crying shame.
With clubs such as AC Milan and former club Lyon linked with the player it now seems just a matter of time before the talented playmaker departs, and although it pains me to say it, I think that moment can’t come soon enough.
A lot of fingers will be pointed towards Alan Pardew if or most likely when Ben Arfa departs, and I agree to a point. I do feel that Hatem was scapegoated by the manager especially towards the back end of last season.
As a manager it’s Pardew’s job to get the best out of a player. The strength of Ben Arfa is not in his tracking back or his work rate, his strength is making things happen in attack with his unpredictability. Pardew should have accommodated that, in my humble opinion at least.
However not all of this is Alan Pardew’s fault and the player himself must take his fair share of the blame. Are we just seeing history repeat itself?
In terms of performances we all know that Benny can win games on his own, but in all the time he’s been here you can count those types or performances on one hand and more often than not he drifts out of the game.
Apparently he’s come back to training not in an ideal state although the player contests this, he’s rumoured to have had arguments with team mates and he’ll throw digs at his state of affairs in interviews in his homeland. Not good is it really?
Thing is, I’d agree with him if this was the first time he’s found himself isolated at a club, but it happened at Lyon, Marseille, with his national team, us. You have to wonder don’t you? Maybe he is L’enfant terrible after all?
Maybe it’s time he was moved on, for the good of all concerned?
Remy down and 2.0 down 🙁
kIMTOON(Quote)
Sorry but defensively we are a complete shambles. Problem is – we were last season too.
Stuart79(Quote)
We look cack, I know it’s just a friendly but man we are asleep here.
kIMTOON(Quote)
I see our defence dies anytime we play a decent team as usual. Good prep for the upcoming season.
funkyjesus(Quote)
How anyone can imply Steven Taylor is better than Williamson in anyone boggles my mind. Taylor is an embarrassment in life generally nevermind as a footballer.
funkyjesus(Quote)
oh dear
kIMTOON(Quote)
Colo has looked very slow
kIMTOON(Quote)
Mbiwa has to go for that. THAT proves he does not care.
funkyjesus(Quote)
Only a friendly and a bit of a makeshift team but this is terrible… We create nothing and get dominated just like most games last season and it’s making me very nervous that the new season will just be like the previous 2. Considering the players we have it’s pretty disgraceful.
paulos(Quote)
We have 3 left backs and only 1 right back. That means anytime Janmat can’t play we have to play someone out of position. I feel sorry for Mbiwa as his confidence must be getting smashed to smithereens since he came here.
Let’s not forget that apart from Janmat this is probably the defence that’s going to start against City. Fucking hell!!!! 😥
Stuart79(Quote)
Chasing shadows. Malaga have too much movement and they win the ball back too easily. Non-existant as a midfield presence. No cover for the defence. No tracking player movement. Can’t pass for nuts.
brisvegas(Quote)
Agree with Rob Lee. Taylor is a joker. He’s needed replacing for years now and we still seem no closer.
Newkie(Quote)
If also like to point out that that half perfectly shows why 4-3-2-1 isn’t a very good formation. Outnumbered in midfield, gaps down our flanks and no support at all in the final third for the striker.
This is no excuse for the centre halves being pulled left, right and centre though.
Stuart79(Quote)
The defence is not the big problem they can’t do **** with Abeid and Colback doing **** all. They are having to deal with the whole midfield and attack of Malaga by themselves.
I can honestly say i don’t think i have seen a worse player than Abeid. He has been shocking in all the pre season games he has played so far. Get him out of the club asap.
Colback isn’t playing much better than Abeid this game.
2nd half Abeid should be off and we will see a better half of football, when we actually have a midfield presence.
Santii(Quote)
How the hell can Rob Lee say Pards normally has us well organised at the back 😯 I lost count how many times pundits tore our defence apart last season. Nowt looks to have changed, we still look bloody lack lustre in defence, hope the new signings aren’t just papering over the cracks like .
kIMTOON(Quote)
Rob Lee just said Pardew is a good defensive organiser and, I quote, “we didn’t let too many goals in last season”. What the actual ****?
funkyjesus(Quote)
Santii, I do hope you are right mate.
kIMTOON(Quote)
Pardew is a tactical genius
Toby le rhone(Quote)
Facunda confirmed now.
kIMTOON(Quote)
What a shambles,wtf is pardew trying to do,no defence,no m/field, no attack,let’s just go home and watch Gateshead,if this guy is in charge this season we are going down,I know its pre-season but to roll over like this is un-real
icedog(Quote)
What do we think of Cabella then ❓
kIMTOON(Quote)
Three nil down. First substitution will be a left back
Toby le rhone(Quote)
Obertan on wtf
kIMTOON(Quote)
Bris
Didn’t see your comment till after i posted mine. We agree yet again though 😆
Santii(Quote)
That first half was truly horrible to watch.
I honestly can think of ONE positive at all!!.
The defence is all over the place. No organization, no communication, no closing down, no reading the game – absolutely nowt. I’ve changed my mind – we NEED to address our CBs URGENTLY!!.
Abied and Colback are lost in that midfield, getting totally overran.
Cabella and Sissoko haven’t seen enough of the ball – and nothing is sticking up front. Perez and Armaz are both too light weight and can’t get near the ball.
Playing the players we are, we need to be moving the ball quickly and playing a much higher tempo game than we are.
This gets 10mins, nee improvement and its going off!!.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Goof and Riviere on too
kIMTOON(Quote)
Cabella off
kIMTOON(Quote)
let off there
kIMTOON(Quote)
Just got in and started to watch… I see it’s business as usual with our defense then…
Dubai-Toon(Quote)
Oh my god, we’ve had an effort on goal! 🙂
Newkie(Quote)
Well ****** me
kIMTOON(Quote)
Nice goal Obertan.
Santii(Quote)
That is why obertan is on! What a goal from the ALIEN! THIS IS HIS SEASON BOYS! 😆
Newkie(Quote)
***. Alien heed scored!
Dubai-Toon(Quote)
**** defence. Answer – change the forwards who never received any service. Same problems as last year – snails pace movement, if any. Coaching must be rubbish.
Groucho(Quote)
That’s why I’ve been moaning to get Obertan upfront for over two years to much mocking. There IS potential to be unlocked in him.
funkyjesus(Quote)
Kim @ 544
Where is that haven’t seen anything?
Santii(Quote)
Obertan was the best player against Sheff Wed too apparently. Assisted the goal, created some chances, hit the post etc. He’s still terrible though. Really hope good pre season form doesn’t get him back in the 1st team picture as he’s proven over and over that he is useless.
paulos(Quote)
you’d almost think they were suffering from jet lag , but how could that be
alanthedog(Quote)
Aye, Santii. Pity there aren’t more of us with such keen insights. 😉 Much better when there’s a midfield presence. Much tighter. The 3 man midfield gave them far too much room to play in. This 4 man set up suits the game much better.
brisvegas(Quote)
Anybody got ideas on what excuses the Clown will come up with?
Alan Pardew its never your fault
Toby le rhone(Quote)
Malaga must have watched us over the last three seasons. They knew that free kick move was coming
Toby le rhone(Quote)
Santii, They said it’s confirmed at half time
kIMTOON(Quote)
Very dis-jointed performance, as you often get with pre-season, Cabella probably shouldn’t have been on the pitch, doubt he’ll be match fit for City game and although he didn’t impress much this should atleast help him towards getting match fit, the back four have all been poor but Taylor especially, his positioning making things harder for others, that should be worked on in coming weeks, not excusing the performance but we know they can be better and show atleast a bit more cohesion
alanthedog(Quote)
Oh. I didn’t watch the half time analysis Kim. Hope so
Alan
You are not allowed to say reason we might look poor in a pre-season friendly. Their is no excuses for not winning these sorts of games. may as well skip the season and volunteer to go down to the championship 😳 😆
Santii(Quote)
I like Abied, he can shoot like Robert used to but playing him further back next to Colback was a bit like playing Viana as a ball winner, Pirlo can do it as he offers so much more, if he is going to get time on the pitch it should probably be further up the field, same with Vuckic, more behind the striker
alanthedog(Quote)
was hoping we could win this mini tourni but think we’ll be vying with West Ham for the wooden spoon, Shalke will top this
alanthedog(Quote)
Poor performance
Sissoko and Cabella were totally of the pace but they are just back from holiday, so its to be expected.
Colback and Abeid were shocking. No pressure on the ball, terrible positioning, only backward passes and they just left the defence hanging.
Perez shouldn’t be up top by himself and Armstrong was terrible at linking the midfield.
Aarons and Obertan both done well from the bench. Haidara looked a lot better with Aarons in front of him and Riviere at least offered a bit of presence up front..
Santii(Quote)
hard to say much about Perez or Armstrong apart from maybe one should have dropped deep and chase the ball a bit, i’m not saying track back but hassle players and not allow time on the ball, same with Sissoko, he dropped in a bit but maybe he could of dropped in more centrally and Perez could have went wide
alanthedog(Quote)
And to think I was optimistic til I watched that. Missed 10 mins when we scored due to thunderstorm.
Premandup(Quote)
Vuckic has Shola’s number, wonder if that’s a sign he may play more or whether he’s just a Michael Jordan fan, you can tell the younger fans for not recognising Julian Dicks, still looks the same, you don’t forget someone with a name like that
alanthedog(Quote)
Pardew must have read Toby’s post and realised he was rumbled
alanthedog(Quote)
Well that was absolutely awful to watch!!.
In fact the best period of the game was when it rain so hard it made my sky box loose signal!!.
It got slightly better in the second half with Gouffran and Obertan showing a bit of urgency and Rivière held the ball up a little bit better – but in all honesty it was horrible.
Fair play to Pardew. He has taken responsibility for getting it wrong – doesn’t make it any better but nice not to hear a gobshite excuse.
The other good thing is that the club recognize that even with Chucky, we still need another top CF and improvement to the CBs.
Sharpy17(Quote)
My personal favourite moment was when Elliot hurt himself taking a goal kick; We could easily have kicked the ball out and instead went on a brainless foray up field, Lost the ball and instead of closing down we allowed them a potshot at an injured keeper which flew into the top corner
I try not to take much notice of these matches as they can deceive but the three experienced defenders should be ashamed of that first half
CC(Quote)
There is a canny c/h knocking about for free Yepes maybe wrong side of thirty but a good player had a real good WC cannot be worse than what we have
icedog(Quote)
I can’t believe Steven Taylor is still a toon player. His positioning and reading of the game is actually getting worse with age. Absolutely hopeless.
DJG(Quote)
Ice wrong side of 30 lol he is knocking on 40
Little perspective. Its a pre season friendly it has no significance what so ever. People saying they can see us relegated after that first half need to get a grip.
I expect to see the rest of the late comers get their first game back tomorrow as we should be trying to be getting everyone up to speed/match fitness before the first game of the season.
Santii(Quote)
Is Jaaskelainen still playing for Wet Spam! He must be about 50 by now. 🙂
DJG(Quote)
Wow! 😯
The criticism 😯
When I criticised them after the last friendly I got berated. 😯
Dear me. You can’t say I didn’t warn you’s. 😉
Absolute **** squad, poor showing from the signings so far.
No creativity in midfield and weak up front.
We will be relegated unless there’s a drastic level in their performances.
It’s worrying when the best players on show are the ones considered fringe players.
Troy Stavers(Quote)
https://twitter.com/MsiDouglas
kIMTOON(Quote)
@585 was meant to be
https://twitter.com/MBArchaeology/status/495499175891849216/photo/1
kIMTOON(Quote)
Well that performance was sickening, literally, Lewis threw up everywhere 🙁
kIMTOON(Quote)
I agree,Troy. Still dumb struck how people think we’re improving…
Stuart79(Quote)
Part of the problem in the first half was that the full backs were getting forward but not getting back quick enough. Saylor and Colo were all over the place and at no point did they play as a unit. Colo was all over the place as well and showed no leadership or organizational skills at all. Saylor was terrible, but it is Colos job as captain to get a grip of things. It does my head in that he doesn’t bark orders or rattle a few cages when the need arises – and there was defo cause for it in the first half.
Sharpy17(Quote)
SHARPY your not as good as pardew with a excuse, he said it was his fault for playing two young players up front oh yer they cannot hold the ball up so let’s blame them for having no defence,what happened to the m/f there wasn’t one,looked to me the players didn’t give a ****,but its pre-season isn’t it
icedog(Quote)
Ice, agree, he says he’s to blame then singles out the two young lads up front, not a word about our captains poor performance or Mbiwa turning his back for the third goal or even the inability to hold onto the ball. As for Saylor, headless chicken.
kIMTOON(Quote)
KIM what can he do to change the defence at c/b there’s only will,of coarse pardew knows he doesn’t need another c/b ffs
icedog(Quote)
ICE, I would drop Colo he is getting slower and slower imo, sell Saylor and then get in a new CB and play Mbiwa at CB as he clearly isn’t a RB and it’s unfair persisting playing him there as it makes him look terrible . Colo has zero leadership skills, I never see him shouting at the others to sort things out, he may be vocal in the dressing room but he certainly isn’t on the pitch. Also saw a few balls hoofed up field to the front guys which was pointless given they were both midgets 👿 guess that’s what happens when the MF can’t get a hold of the game. We have to hope we play better tomorrow, right now I am seriously worried about our defence as it looks like nowt has been learned from last season.
kIMTOON(Quote)
http://inbedwithmaradona.com/100-2013-review/2013/11/15/facundo-ferreyra
Santii(Quote)
Kim
“Also saw a few balls hoofed up field to the front guys which was pointless given they were both midgets 👿 guess that’s what happens when the MF can’t get a hold of the game.”
That is exactly what happened and imo the defence should be given a bit of a break because of it. Get Tiote & Siem De Jong in that midfield alongside Colback or Anita and we would have had a much better control of the game. Better pressing and people showing to receive the ball in the middle.
Colback & Abeid were not even tracking the Malaga midfield. Talk about headless chickens.
Santii(Quote)
The defending is no shock to me. I can’t believe it is to anyone else. We still have the main two CB’s. What the surprise?????? 😯
We know what they are like. They are poor. 🙁
The worrying thing for me, is the major changes in midfield and up front.
Despite a lot on here getting excited at the incomings, I believe we look less potent and hard to believe, but less creative than last season! 😯
I honestly see nothing positive in the teams performances over the past 4 friendlies. Terrible and really worrying! The alarm bells should be ringing loud and clear now!
Troy Stavers(Quote)
Troy you think we will be relegated based on 4 friendlies… Get a fucking grip man.
JHChrist they are all to do with match fitness and general fitness nothing more.
Santii(Quote)
Santii
You hate the truth. 😉
You can’t take it. 😉
I’ve warned you. This is the worst team I’ve witnessed at the toon for years.
Unless they improve dramatically then yes, they’ll get relegated.
Troy Stavers(Quote)
Troy, these are the performances you were defending Pardew for last season. Are you changing your mind now?
funkyjesus(Quote)
Santii, Agree with a better MF line up we should see more of the ball but I will not let up on our back line, we were **** last season and no better today and in truth we flattered to deceive against poor opposition in NZ .
kIMTOON(Quote)