So what’s happened in a week? Not a great deal really. Lots of stories of heated discussions on the training ground with home truths being told apparently yielding a response from the players which is all well and good but if actually quite like to see a response on the pitch, as I’m sure others would do to.
In the way today are Crystal Palace who are now under the stewardship of former Magpie boss Alan Pardew allowing a section of fans the chance to hero worship him up close and personal after spending all week reading the history he’ll have no doubt been rewriting.
It’s ‘no win’ for McClaren today. Not that I’m his largest fan, he will find himself either preciding over a victory which shpuld be expected as despite our struggles some seem to think we are still a club that should be beating the likes of Crystal Palace. Or we lose and it will be a case of Alan Pardew getting one over on his former club which – just to clarify – he was absolutely awful at doing just that during his time with United.
Team news today will be provided by my good self and I shall look to get it published shortly after 2pm. You’ll find it at the bottom of this article.
If it’s a stream you’re looking for then your best bet will be to have a look in the ‘comments’ section as there are regular contributors who will gladly share links to watch the game.
After last week, and Bournemouth, the performance needs to be much better. Palace may have lost to Sunderland but Pardew’s side didn’t deserve that and played much better than the results suggest. We’ll need to be sokid at the back, strong in the middle and clinical up front if we are to get anything from this one.
Howay the lads!
Crystal Palace: Wayne Hennessey, Joel Ward, Scott Dann, Damien Delaney, Papa Souare, James McArthur, Yohan Cabaye, Wilfried Zaha, Jason Puncheon, Yannick Bolasie, Connor Wickham
Subs: Julian Speroni, Martin Kelly, Joe Ledley, Mile Jedinak, Lee Chung-Yong, Marouane Chamakh, Patrick Bamford
Newcastle: Rob Elliot, Paul Dummet, Chancel Mbemba, Fabricio Coloccini, Daryl Janmaat, Georginio Wijnaldum, Vurnon Anita, Jack Colback, Moussa Sissoko, Ayoze Perez, Papiss Cisse
Subs: Karl Darlow, Jamie Sterry, Yoan Gouffran, Jamaal Lascelles, Siem de Jong, Florian Thauvin, Aleksandar Mitrovic
I’m also interested to know who he will appoint as the new MD when Chumley resigns before xmas.
will it be the return of Lambastad ?
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
The entertainment has never been so good for many years
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
I’m going to put £100 on Moyes to be the next manager. Jabba will have no choice after the next two games.
Stuart79(Quote)
The thing is that our injured players are not the ones we were supposed to be relying on. Most of what you would have thought would be the 1st 11 and 4 or 5 subs are there. If you go back to the purples they talked about only Krul of the injured players would fall into that category, maybe Tiote.
By no stretch of the imagination could sicknote Taylor be a purple, or Gouffy, Willo, Marveaux or Aarons. They wanted rid or were running down their contracts. So the team we see on Sunday is basically the team they envisioned in June when Steve was hired.
So, the purples would be:
Krul
Darlow
Janmaat
MBemba
Lascelles
Coloccini
Dummett
Colback
Anita (he played well against West Ham 🙂 )
Sissoko
Wijnaldum
Thauvin
de Jong
Perez
Mitrovic
Cisse
That’s it, did I miss anybody? They are all available except Krul and Lascelles. The treatment table is full of players that they didn’t see playing anyway. And yet we are in this mess.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I hadn’t really thought about it before but this is exactly the matchday squad they wanted. Aarons would have been a bonus but you can’t tell me they were relying on Taylor, and Tiote had spent 6 months in the middle east trying to engineer a move.
So, crying about injuries just doesn’t f@cking cut it.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Come on then who will be in the stadium watching on Sunday.
I will be there.
Toby le Rhone(Quote)
Stu – I know what you’re saying with the new manager bounce, but there are no guarantees – Garde certainly hasn’t done it at Villa.
I think it’s about getting the right man in for that influence to lift the team – do you really think that we would folk out the wages for Moyes?.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Toby – a serious question mate – why?.
I’m not having a pop or saying you are wrong or anything like that, but with the horrible footy on display I wonder what draws you back to the games?
Sharpy17(Quote)
Ashley is forcing himself into a corner, Sharpy. He is going to have to accept what any new manager asks for if things carry on like this. Either that or lose tens of millions of pounds.
Stuart79(Quote)
Here is a glimmer of hope. They replayed Liverpool – Saints and Liverpool were nowhere near as dominant as the scoreline suggests. Every shot on target of theirs went in and Saints could easily have had 3.
What Liverpool do do is run at and press the Goalie so Elliot better be on his toes. Just one more reason to play Mitro as we need an outlet for the hoof.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
So Cardiff are saying that Sammy’s fitness was very low because of his asthma and that is why he has mainly only come on from the bench. His medication was changed and they say he is getting fitter. I am not sure what role Cardiff had in this but it is fishy that he is there for a few months and they address the problem and at NUFC for 10 years and nothing was done.
At the end of the day though if his asthma is that bad he will probably not succeed.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Stu – he has but I think it’s maybe still too early in the season for Cashley to push the panic button mate. Yes we are down there but IN HIS EYES we are still in touching distance with the other teams around us. His mentality would likely be that whilst we are still in a position to scrap survival, why sack Mc to pay him compo and then have to pay Moyes a larger than normal wage – whilst also be forced into having to change the set up too.
I just think that until a gap starts to open up, Cashley will hold off and hope that Mc can change things around and save him having to folk out money. I stress, I think that’s his mentality – it ain’t mine.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Eric – I’m not so sure mate. His brother made a success out of playing like an asthmatic pit pony all of his career and got away with it 😆
Sharpy17(Quote)
Sharpy: how dare you be so unkind to asthmatic pit ponies.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
A quote from Jack Colback:
“A lack of belief is different to a lack of fight and wanting to win. We go into games wanting to win, but we go behind and that belief goes.”
Sharpy, I wonder what Blackie is doing about this? Yeah, I know, he is not a miracle worker.
Also, is Riviere back in training? I haven’t heard him mentioned as a possible saviour yet.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I completely forgot Rivierd even existed.
Shamrock(Quote)
Eric – I know Blackie was at QPR last season and seen as failing there, but the likes of Redknapp & Barton were saying that squad was full of mercenaries who were there for the big wages and little else.
Our players may not all be mercenaries, but not many of them look like they want to be motivated at the moment.
I honest believe the bloke is capable of getting 100% out of players, but the players need to be ready to give 100%.
I know Jonny Wilkinsons credits Blackie for helping him reach the levels he did – but a key aspect was that Jonny wanted to get there.
Sharpy17(Quote)
I laugh at McClaren saying this week that the players lack confidence – yet last week he supposedly delivered a few home truths to the players.
******* them one week and massage their egos the next 🙄
Sharpy17(Quote)
This is from the NUFC official site on Cabella:
http://www.nufc.co.uk/articles/20151204/loan-watch-cabella-on-target_2281670_5185571?
I thought there was an automatic trigger for the loan deal to be made permanent and that this had already been met. However, they make a comments like he is still possibly our player. Are the front office aware of this? Is there really an automatic trigger?
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Sharpy: I don’t think McClaren gets the good cop/bad cop routine. The good cop and the bad cop are not supposed to be the same person. Get Blackie to explain it to him 🙂
Eric Sykes(Quote)
What I am saying @694 is that if Cabella is a Marseilles player anyway, what do we care about him? Or, is the widespread belief that there is a trigger for permanent transfer wrong? Or are the front office not communicating with the official site?
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Ryder is saying today that McClaren should be “backed not sacked”. He mentions many valid excuses for McClaren’s failure but that does not absolve McClaren of the blame. He did the same with Carver right up to the end. I think old Lee is so pally with the managers he cannot give an impartial opinion. Just one more reason he is the worst “journalist” in the world.
BTW there is supposed to be a meeting about McClaren’s future after the Liverpool and Spurs games. Surely Fatman will attend and it will not be left to the board members – Steve himself, the pencil pusher who hired him, his good friend who suggested him and provided the failing players, and Bobby Concur.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eric @695 – to be fair mate I think a bit of role clarity wouldn’t hurt at the moment. I see Mc discussing tactics with Cathro in the dug out, I see Simpson in the technical area with him and Blackie coming on to the pitch after each game.
IMO Cathro, Simpson & Black should do their work on the training ground & changing rooms. During the 90mins there should only be Mc giving orders, making decisions & going onto the pitch at full time. All Indians & no chief at the moment I reckon.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Eric – but Mc has a lot of excuses for the failures, but also isn’t absolved of blame either.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Why wait until after the Spurs game to review his job. It’s clear the players are not responding to him. We are just wasting time and giving his successor less time to get some proper methods across.
Shamrock(Quote)
Sharpy @698: Just about every other team has their assistants on the bench. I haven’t seen many complaints made about Klopp or Mourinho having second-in-commands there with them.
Also, with McClaren I am not so sure he is useless as I was with Carver. If we capitulate in the next 2 games it will be difficult for him to survive. I am not so sure I would put my money on Moyes though. I think Pearson is more likely (cheap).
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Shamrock: because the people that hired Schteve are desperately clutching at straws. I really wanted Steve to do well, mainly because I want NUFC tp do well. You cant help but look at his previous 4 jobs a wonder if he is really up for a dog fight?
Eric Sykes(Quote)
McClarens track record over the last 4 jobs shows he’s not up to the job. We’re not making a decision based on 13 games at NUFC, it’s over the last 120 games.
Stuart79(Quote)
Stuart: even if it is Carr’s recruitment and the players’ lack of backbone that is mainly at fault, Steve has shown that when he is in a hole he cannot get out of it. He resigned from the 3 jobs before Derby. Even if it is not his fault, can he be trusted to turn things around. As you say, not based on his track record.
Can anybody turn this around? I am not so sure. I said earlier it will take a massive investment in January and probably overpayment for some players. That is against everything Ashley has done and believes works, so I am not too optimistic there.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I also said earlier that this is the squad that they wanted to pick from. It is the fringe players and surplus-to-requirements players who are injured.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
We get live La Liga over here. Guess who GNev’s first game as a Manager is? Barcelona!
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Here is a bookie’s take on Steve’s chances. They point out that the last Manager’s sacked have been given very difficult targets to keep their jobs in the same way Steve has with Liverpool and Spurs. They suggest the decision has already been made:
http://news.bwin.com/en/football-betting/premier-league/liverpool-and-spurs-games-a-de-facto-p45-for-newcastle-boss,93371.html
Eric Sykes(Quote)
New thread>>>>>>>>
Shamrock(Quote)