Newcastle v Southampton – Premier League match preview

Mags v Saints
Mags v Saints
Well that didn’t actually work out to be so bad did it? May has long gone and what seemed to be months ahead of nothingness have passed, quite quickly in my opinion, and here we are at the beginning of another Premier League season.

We start at home this season against a Southampton side who were amongst one of the surprise packages of last season. Ronald Koeman, in his first full Premier League campaign guided the Saints to an impressive 7th placed finish which has seen them participate in the qualifying rounds for the Europa League – a feat even more impressive when you look at the changes in personnel that took place last summer at St Mary’s Stadium.

While Saints fans will be looking to replicate a memorable and unexpected season, United fans will be less than willing to replicate the events of last season which saw us escape relegation by the skin of our teeth on the final day of the season following a rather timely 2-0 victory over West Ham United at St James’ Park.

It was the opinion that we required investment at the end of last term, and to a degree we’ve had that. In have come Georginio Wijnaldum, Aleksandar Mitrovic and Chancel Mbemba while, as yet anyway, none of our first-team players have been sold. We also have a new Head Coach/Manager/Director or whatever in the form of Steve McClaren who will be taking charge of a Premier League side for the first time since departing Middlesbrough for the England team in 2006.

Newcastle:

Fabricio Coloccini has recently signed a new deal with United and so, as Captain, I’d be surprised if he doesn’t start although I’d be equally surprised if he lasted the full 90 minutes after sitting out all of pre-season. Who partners him is the question?

Chancel Mbemba could be in line to make a debut pending receipt of a work permit, or it could be Steven Taylor or Mike Williamson and there’s a case for each of them to be honest. While Mbemba looks to be the long term option it’s perhaps expecting too much for him to slot into the Premier League at the age of 20 (or 24, or 34) with roughly 30 minutes of pre-season under his belt. Steven Taylor is arguably more solid than Mike Williamson although choosing between the pair as a defensive partner is a bit like choosing a favourite ********.

While Williamson is not the greatest and has, ahem limitations, I do feel the barracking he has been on the end of is harsh. It’s not his fault he is not at the level required – it’s the clubs for allowing it to happen and at least he gives his all. Steven Taylor can be a solid defender on his day but there’s always a clanger in his locker and he’s prone to long term injuries.

Moving into midfield now and Cheik Tiote is back in training but is unlikely to feature unless it’s from the bench. Siem de Jong will probably play second fiddle to Georginio Wijnaldum with Vurnon Anota and Jack Colback playing deeper roles. Arguably the player of pre-season – Rolando Aarons may start in the left leaving Moussa Sissoko out on the right.

Up front the choice is simple – Papiss Cisse or Aleksandar Mitrovic although I’d like to see the pair of them play together.

Southampton:

Fraser Forster remains sidelined through injury with Gaston Ramirez, Ryan Bertrand and Florin Gardos also out through injury. Shane Long and Jordy Clasie are doubtful but have not been ruled out. Another of the Saints contingent missing out will be Manager Ronald Koeman who has undergone surgery on his Achilles and will not travel to Tyneside.

Sounthampton warmed up for the trip to Tyneside by beating Vitesse Arnhem 2-0 in Holland on Thursday sealing a 5-0 aggregate victory in their Europa League qualifier.

Previously…

Southampton did the double over us last season beating us 4-0 at St Mary’s and winning the return fixture at St James’ Park by a score of 2-1. In fact you need to go back to February 2013 to find our last victory against the Saints with our winless run extending to four games since that 4-2 victory.

However as fixtures go this is one that has very much been dominated by the home side over the years. As we’re at home I’ll look at our record, naturally. Of the 40 games played on Tyneside it is United who come out on winning on 29 occasions, Southampton have won on five occasions with six draws making up the numbers.

Overall it’s United who shade the head-to-head having won 34 of the 80 matches contested between the sides. Southampton have won 29 times with 17 draws.

Stats and facts:

Premier League openers are not generally great days for Southampton as they’ve win just twice in 16 opening day attempts. It’s not much better for United who have won seven in 21 attempts.

Newcastle have failed to score on four of the last five opening matches of a Premier League season.

United do however have a chance to record back-to-back wins since November 2014.

The Saints have not won away in the Premier League in the last seven attempts. Six of those matches ended in defeat.

Their last away victory came at QPR back in February.

Final thought…

We’ve invested a fair amount in three players but it’s important not to expect too much from them immediately. Remember they are all new to the Premier League and may not adjust immediately so if they don’t score a hat-trick on their debut it doesn’t mean they should be written off. Likewise should they have a good game it doesn’t mean that they should be awarded an elevated status with higher expectations.

A lot of people have judged us on pre-season results and performances. Personally I’ve not really batted an eyelid – remember last season we had a decent pre-season and look how that shaped the campaign! The time for looking at things properly is now and that starts against Southampton.

Mike Ashley’s words mean little to me but to be fair we’ve got a recognised Manager in and have spent some considerable cash (by Ashley’s standards) on some highly-rated players so I’m prepared to see how it turns out. Do we need more? The answer from me will always be yes, but lets gauge where the current influx of new blood has take us first.

Howay the lads!

Date: Sunday, 9th August, 2015

Time: 13:30

Venue: St James’ Park

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.

761 thoughts on “Newcastle v Southampton – Premier League match preview

  1. Shamrock: I sent you an e-mail but not from the address on here as I had trouble with it. The subject line is NUFC Chicago so if you don’t see it check your spam.

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  2. kimtoon
    janmatt wernt out jumped if ya have a good look at it long sneaked his head round the side from behind

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  3. In relation to training players, and Stu’s justifiable concern about Colo being too old to learn new tricks, and looking at the story links at the bottom of Toonarnyelite’s last article, we may just go for a cut price Carroll and re-train him as a defender. Or we could just get 6’6″ Vestergaard and re-sign Carroll for, at least, corners at both ends of the pitch, and crosses into the opposition’s box. Even Obertan may willing to swing one in with his left foot if Carrol was back in the middle.

    I did start off half joking, but as I wrote I thought again about the positives Carroll could bring and thinking about how not particularly multi-dimensional Austin is. Maybe half a chance of a cut price Carroll deal at the end of the window wouldn’t be too bad.Would probably never happen, but a Mitrovic-Carroll combo would certainly bring games alive!! 😀

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  4. So Ferdinand adamant Austin won’t leave for less than £15m and NUFC will not pay that amount and are close to giving up. Fine, then just get a centre half in please and save your pennies for another five years to buy a striker.

    If Whickham is going for £9m, Mitrovic is £12m, Firminio is £29m and Bentenke has gone for £32m I don’t think it’s too wide of the mark for QPR to be playing hard ball and thinking Austin is worth £15m.

    Anyway, go buy a defender and see where we are in January but I am a little concerned of much we rely on Cisse for goals and if he gets his dodgy knee done again? Oh dear – back to square one potentially while Mitrovic settles. No goals, no defence?

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  5. Stu – We’ve never bid on Austin so I don’t know how much of that is media speculations, bookies odds & fans hopes to be honest. I don’t disagree that in the grand scheme of other fees, £15m seems a fair asking price. But we’ve as much been linked with Thauvin & Rolan, so I’m not sure that Austin is as much a priority as the papers like to make out.

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  6. To be honest, Sharpy every single journo has written that Austin is a big target for us so somebody at the club has told them. They’ve all been very consistent too. We won’t pay more than £12-£13m. It’s a shame to miss out for a couple of mill but that’s our MO so we have to live with it. I still question our ambition if that’s the case. Would still think its profit over football and I have a feeling we are done in the window and what a bitter sweet moment. Such promise yet still gaping holes. Hopefully we will fill the holes in January and I just hope we’re not in the bottom third as that will put McClaren under unfair pressure.

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