The season so far, has been a great success, I don’t think that anyone would attempt to disagree with that.
We are sitting top of the league, we have been in the semi-final of one domestic cup and we enter the next one with a fairly winnable tie, away at Birmingham City.
So, looking back at the season is relatively straight forward. Keep doing what we are doing and we will all be very happy.
As for the player of the season, so far. Personally, I would say Ciaran Clark, however, Jonjo Shelvey, Dwight Gayle and Yoan Gouffran all have a very strong case.
Gayle, in particular, goes into the game today in excellent form and will be looking forward trying to bag another goal.
So, with so many players in good form and, of course, Jonjo Shelvey suspended, how should Newcastle line up today?
As always, this is purely opinion, but I would like (and expect) to see Rafa Benitez select this side:
GK: Karl Darlow
RB: Vurnon Anita
CB: Jamaal Lascelles (c)
CB: Ciaran Clark
LB: Paul Dummett
CM: Isaac Hayden
CM: Cheick Tiote
RW: Matt Ritchie
LW: Christian Atsu
AM: Mo Diame
ST: Dwight Gayle
However, with the situation with Cheick Tiote quite unknown, he may well not play. Other than that, I can see that team starting.
I also can’t see anything but a home win today, so I’ll go for a 2-0 score line.
As I said earlier, as for looking forward, we just have to continue as we are and we will be promoted. Perhaps we will add a couple of players in January to help us do that.
So Forest form last 6 WWLDLL should be capable of getting something out of that game and the players owe us a good show at home.
Blackburns form is terrible last 6 WDLLLL ! again we need to carry on our good away form.
Kimtoon(Quote)
Kim – I agree about the niggly fouls but I also thought we allowed ourselves to be bullied. We also didn’t target their players on yellow cards – that right back & Forestieri were there for a sending off imo.
We had nothing last night – no urgency, for fight and without Shelvey in the middle, no real leader out there that I saw.
Dummett & Colback were gash last night & Gouffran & Diame didn’t do enough, so Gayle was pretty isolated up there.
Atsu & Mitrovic needed to be introduced a lot sooner for me.
I agree Kim, we need players in coz there are a few just not doing it this season. Dummett has been inconsistent, Diame has had a few good games but also inconsistent imo. Colback & Perez haven’t been good enough this season.
We need to strengthen and we need to move players out who aren’t making the grade in the Championship, nevermind the PL.
Sharpy17(Quote)
thats four homes blown,on that showing we are heading for the play offs at the very best imo
icedog(Quote)
Ice – no disrespect to any of the teams that have beaten us so far this season, but none have won through quality. It’s been harder work & taking their chances.
I know people say teams raise their games coz they are playing us – but we are playing to get back into the PL and have the quality there to turn any team in this league over. But no team will concede a win & we still have to work hard and use that quality.
Watching Colback last night, more often than not he went backwards, sideways or lost possession. Nee good having pace up front if you don’t play it up to them.
Sharpy17(Quote)
That was so boring. It was taking us 20 passes to cross the halfway line. Don’t know what role Hayden and Colback thought they were filling. Anonymous performances all over the pitch. Goufran, Colback, Hayden, Dummett, Ritchie all very poor. And Wednesday were by far the better team. Can’t get worse than that though so onwards and upwards Rafa!
georgio(Quote)
Only one team really wanted it last night and the deservedly got the win
We are the best team in the Championship…if all are fit.. lose shelvey, we looked average, lose Gayle we look average.
Get another play-maker and a good forward, we’ll be ok
I’m confident of beating Forest. Blackburn away will be tricky, after that, we have some OK games to get us back on track
Gashley(Quote)
Just goes to show that even with a Manager who has won the Champions League we are still Newcastle United. I thought we would struggle without Shelvey, but I also thought we were due a stumble because we are Newcastle United and that’s what we do.
It is obvious that we lack depth in the center of the midfield and that is what we need to fix in January. Colback ran about a bit and that was about it. That Run Geordie Run bloke would have been about as effective as he was.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Lascelles to Clarke. Clarke to Dummet. Dummet back to Clarke. Clarke to Lascelles. Repeat ad infinitum. I am very much in favour of possession football but I do expect pass and move. Anita at least does try to make himself available in a more forward position. All this messing around in the back line gives the opposition time to regroup. No wonder our forward players are well marked by the time the ball reaches them. Sheffield Wednesday were much faster getting forward than we were. We were out run.
Groucho(Quote)
I don’t think there is anything wrong with keeping possession. You will have games that you play badly and it will look like it did yesterday but you will also have games where it all clicks and we play some great stuff
Jake Swinburn(Quote)
Got to agree with Sharpy that Mitro and even the ineffective Perez should of come on sooner. Rafa made a mistake not introducing them sooner imo. Actually I don’t know why we can’t do 442 at home tbh.
Should of targeted the RB after he was carded too, he was a red card waiting to happen.
Kimtoon(Quote)
Jake we had over 72% possession at points of yesterdays game, yet what difference does it make. When Wednesday did get hold of the ball they ran at us with pace and we always looked liable to concede at any time. In the end goals win games not possession . We were poor yesterday with only Darlow MOTM and Gayle who always bust a gut to be available worth a mention.
January, Rafa needs to sell Mitro if he doesn’t fancy him, and it looks like he doesn’t.
Kimtoon(Quote)
Think last night was a perfect example of why that Steven Gerrard link wasnt as daft as some made out. We have no one capable of orchestrating things without Shelvey.
Really need a couple of creative sparks in January
CC(Quote)
Well I’ve just watched Brighton boss QPR to take back top spot.
Hoots really does have them playing well.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Jake – possession means nowt if you do nowt with it. There is only 1 stat that counts come the final whistle.
Possession is great if you’re winning, if not you need to be moving forward quickly and creating chances. We didn’t do that at all last night.
Sharpy17(Quote)
I know it’s frowned upon to say anything against Rafa on here but I think playing Colback in Shelveys absence last night was a mistake. Colback is a very unproductive holding midfielder, where as Shelvey is our most creative player.
For me Rafa should have went 4-4-2 with Hayden & Diame in the middle, Ritchie & Atsu wide.
He could have even looked at 3 at the back and used attacking wing backs.
I just felt the Colback selection was an obvious one and Shef Wed had things too much their own way.
Sharpy17(Quote)
I agree Sharpy. We don’t have anybody in the squad to relocate Shelveys influence from the middle. Should have gone 4-4-2 with some direct wing play. Don’t know why we don’t at home…
Shamrock(Quote)
Hayden is a far more effective player than Colback. Both his offensive and defensive stats are well above Colback. He could have sat as the DM with Diame surging forward from deeper to assist the wingers, whilst Mitro nodded the balls down for Gayle. Can’t see why that would not work with 52k fans behind the team. Why play conservative football at home when you have the ‘better’ squad and 52k screaming Geordies behind you? Just go at it and scare the opposition into submission!
Shamrock(Quote)
Just watched the 2nd half of the Derby match as well and Will Hughes is a really cracking young attacking player. Don’t know how much he would cost but I would take him for sure.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Well just got back from my brothers and as I suspected Brighton took full advantage of our slip up yesterday. Fair play to them.
Kimtoon(Quote)
Agree Sharpy, very good player.
Kimtoon(Quote)
Has the sack Rafa campaign started yet from the usual crew? ? aka Clueless Crew
Troy Stavers(Quote)
Just looked on NUFC.com and they had a picture of an old boy in an old strip. It was the one with a non-brown ale blue star with 2 different widths of B&W stripes dissected in the middle of the jersey. The arms then carried on this “theme” with 2 different widths of B&W stripes. Who designed this monstrosity? It is arguably worse having to wear such an ugly horror show of a shirt than having a loan sharks logo plastered all over it, although Kimtoon would disagree 🙂
I think the WONGA blue *** flap shirt from last year is the worst ever but this one pushes it close.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Troy: do you have one of those shirts?
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Calling anybody clueless with your track record is a bit brave Troysta. Kilmarnock now 8th in a 12 team league with the same points as games played.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Hows Pardew doing Stavers? Sacked with Palace hovering over the relegation spots. How did England get on in the Euro’s? Nobody here is clamouring up for an anti Rafa campaign. He is human at the end of the day and will make mistakes. As fans, we have the right to point out what we perceive to be bad calls by the management – just as much as we have the right to applaud Rafa when he gets it right.
We need a good winger, a good attacking midfielder and a good holding midfielder. Tiote, Colback and Gouffy can go for me.
Knockheart, Hughes and another Haydenesque midfielder would be a dream January window (I know it’s not going to happen!).
Shamrock(Quote)
Here’s one for Kimtoon: West Ham just rejected a 650 million takeover offer. I just looked up their stadium cost and with conversion the estimate is 723 million. Now what idiots gave them it for 15 million and a pittance of rent?
If we get back to the PL then judging by recent sales the Fatman will probably be in the black with NUFC.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Well I think people like Malcolm MacDonald are getting ahead of themselves, saying we are going to probably walk the league with another two wins, it was the kiss of death and so unnecessary and predictable. The first two games had shown us that it will not be that easy. I was there yesterday and like some others have said, the team was far too conservative and reminded me of the Huddersfield game. (I’m still waiting to see a win in the league). It was as if we were set up to try and win 1-0 at home against Sheff Wed. We had the first good chance when Gayle got through but the ball came back off the bar. Sheff Wed had some chances and Darlow had to make some good saves, that should have been the wake up call but it was a lazy performance with little impetus and possession of the ball with no real threat. Diame was disappointing again and Gayle didn’t have the chances that Shelvey creates. Will we be able to cope without Shelvey? Not on this showing! Although I think we were; both set up wrong, and didn’t play well enough. Atsu was introduced and tried his best but Mitrovic wasn’t introduced until the last 10 minutes. That was too late as without the creativity of Shelvey we obviously needed to ‘lump it’ into the danger area, as our best chance to ‘unlock’ them. Diame was caught in between midfield and the forward position and had very little effect. Sometimes I wish Rafa would just play 4-4-2 against these championship sides. There is really no need to be subtle or conservative about it and we should just attack them. As for Wednesday, I wasn’t impressed and they didn’t live up to their reputation of playing ‘good football’. They spent most of the time either fouling our players off the ball, which Paul Tierney did too little to control, or they were rolling around feigning injury. They seem to be mainly made up of washed up ex-mackems like Westwood, Wallace and Fletcher.
Verdict – Not good enough, we should have still comfortably beaten Wednesday if the players had been up for it and there had been a plan to change it. Colback does not have either the vision or the quality of Shelvey to play 4-2-3-1 with a midfielder pulling the strings. We need to play with Mitro and Gayle upfront against Notts Forest, Ritchie, Dummett, Gouffran and Anita can all deliver the ball into the danger area and eventually they will score, Gayle in particular is a poacher and does his best work in the box anyway. They might guess what we are going to do but who cares? It’s another thing being able to stop it. We must do better on Friday as the other top 3/4 are all winning games consistently at the moment.
DJG(Quote)
I don’t think it is a good idea to doubt Rafa with his track record and 30 mil left over from Sissoko. We were top 2 days ago and I still think we will go up as Champions although Hughton is doing a great job. Hopefully, they will be runners up as we should never have sacked Hughton in the first place. We may have eventually been relegated as Ashley would undoubtedly have carried on the same wrongheaded strategy he had before Rafa but at least we wouldn’t have had to endure Arrogant Alan.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
nah mate we what we need is players that need to win a game not players that expect to win,like S/Wed showed us
icedog(Quote)
It is a strange world where a council gifts a couple of chancers a tax-payer funded 723 million pound stadium and then there is uproar if someone pays rent and has a spare room.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
so Fridays ref has shown 116 yellows and eight reds in 24 games,oh joy
icedog(Quote)
Cant argue with that Ice. The lads showed no fight yesterday. Would have thought they will have learnt what strolling around putting in no effort gets them after the embarasment of relegation last season…
Shamrock(Quote)
Colback is a local lad who tries his best (like Dummett) but the club need to be more ambitious if we are promoted. Colback is just an average holding midfielder with limited passing and very little confidence to move forward or try a shot etc. (when he had a daisy cutter in the first half we saw why). We are going to need better players and although we look like we will be promoted, we would be a poor PL outfit and possibly get relegated as it stands. We can’t just rely on Shelvey either. Colback has done his best and had his dream move to NUFC but he needs to be moved out if we are promoted, this is where Rafa will need to be honest with some of them that they aren’t good enough. Even the mackems gave Colback the nickname “pass-back” and “full-back”. That should tell us something. 🙂
DJG(Quote)
Ben Arfa is up for loan with Draxler set-to join PSG apparently. Could the improbable happen? He could play winger or number 10. If his head and commitment is right then there is no question he would be a great asset.
Shamrock(Quote)
Troy I think we should keep Rafa as manager so Alan Pardew doesn’t come back.
Terry(Quote)
In all honesty, I haven’t been convinced of the toon this season, and have always had the impression we were a one man team. We have ground out results, as opposed to playing teams off the park. our away form effective more than entertaining. I would suggest the entertainment levels have been pretty few and far between this season, and we are not as good as we all think we are.
Perez hasn’t gone off the boil, he just isn’t good enough.
We need to keep an eye on Derby, and also start unleashing our attacking qualities sooner in the game. Our defence was shaky against wednesday, without Darlow we could easily have conceded 4, absolutely no charaCter nor leadership in the team, the midfield aspecially was extremely disappointing.
Delusional Jawdee(Quote)
looks like Troy has been on the hoy again… 😆
and the same old tiddlers are biting…
Delusional Jawdee(Quote)
They could have stuck with Pardew as he would have kept them safe. History with the toon tells you that.
Shamrock I seem to recall you slating Hughton when he was toon manager. Hes turning out to be a very competent manager.
If only you would give people a chance.
Pyschs is desperate to see Clarky fail at Killy.
Clarky saved them last season which was celebrated by the club as a great achievement. His task this season is to keep them up. He’s doing another great job but Psychs thrives on the negative instead of the positive.
They are only 8 places from winning the title. ??
Troy Stavers(Quote)
Pardew defo deserved to stay at Palace. He was doing a brilliant job.
😛
gashley(Quote)
If pardew had of stuck with Gayle instead of selling him to us, he would of definitely kept his job.
gashley(Quote)
Troy, good effort son! I have slated all our managers at some point, when they have deserved it – just like 99% of fans do. I have also lavished praise on managers when they have deserved it. I don’t recall ever calling Hughton clueless or calling for his head though so your point is redundant!
You are like one of those little lemmings that blindly follows the leader off a cliff edge despite passing several brightly coloured warning signs;
Lemming 1: ‘The leader is about to walk us all off a thousand foot cliff edge?! Sod that. I’m off.’
Lemming Troy; ‘Just give him a chance. He’ll see us right. I’m sure we won’t plummet to the bottom. He will have us firmly lingering half way down, exactly where we should be. How could anybody not be happy with that?’
5 seconds later…. The leader, Lemming Troy, the rest of the blind followers and their team colours disappear down the vast drop as Lemming one and the other sensible lemmings watch on, peering cautious over the edge. The group hits the bottom and a dust cloud puffs up towards Lemming one, who says; ‘Mad b@st@rds. Must have been nice to be that blissfully ignorant.’
From.that day on, whenever little lemmings made a decision that harmed their prospects despite the obvious warning signs – the other lemmings would refer to it as; ‘Doing a Troy.’
Shamrock(Quote)
Was really surprised when Palace fired Pardew to be honest, I thought he was teflon man the and the two legends were made for each other. still, it wasn’t to be. Troy, you should know by now the brits don’t like anyone succeeding, build them up so you can knock them down.
pardew will get another job, don’t fret too much… 5 mill for having some delusional palace fans on your case, its a doddle, id snap there hands off…
Delusional Jawdee(Quote)
“Doing a Troy”….mint that like !!
Though Troy does get Eric Sykes jumping through hoops ….?
Funny really cos he knows nowt about football
Delusional Jawdee(Quote)
The current Palace team would batter our lot anyway, too many lightweights in our line up.
Delusional Jawdee(Quote)
I’l show my **** in Fenwicks window if Pardew manages another top10 club.
Plucked by a cheap Ashley after being sacked by a 1st Div Southampton, given a huge chance nobody would turn down, then Palace….blown them both. Not by arrogance but by being **** 😛
I’m gutted he didnt take Palace down after I gave him a full season to show his worth LOL even shittly old palace, prodigal son an al that couldnt stand his **** any longer
The final nail in Troys coffin 😛
Gashley(Quote)
I notice Fat Sam went with Townsend in the first game too.
Kimtoon(Quote)
6 wins in a year? Couldn’t happen to a more horrible guy.
georgio(Quote)
Troysta: I have nothing against Clarky, I just like mocking your ridiculous suggestions. Kilmarnock finished 2nd bottom of the SPL last year – EXACTLY WHERE THEY WERE WHEN CLARK TOOK OVER.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Jawdee: I don’t see how I am “biting” at anything that Troy says since he usually reacts to what others say nowadays. Ever since the latest Pardew death spiral it has been all quiet on the Troy front. He will say he has been too busy, but we all know he has finally realised that he has been wrong about almost everything and that Pardew was never worth his unwavering support and undying love.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Pardew lost the dressing room. After an initial uplift in form when a team buys into Pardew’s bullshit his stupid tactics, substitutions, playing favourites and ostracizing others eventually catches up with Pardew. The team lose faith and he goes on a death spiral and gets sacked. If you cannot see that pattern you must be an idiot, or Troy.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Talking of patterns, the Palace Blog boards had gotten eerily similar to all NUFC boards with the exception of one man – Troysta. I had also seen some references to West Ham and Charlton blogs and they were all the same, complaining about the same things that I just wrote about above. He never changes and he gets the same result each and every time – the sack. You can’t tell me that he would have survived at NUFC if Palace hadn’t have come in. His name was poison by the time he left and even Ashley would have caved eventually. I know that is a hypothetical but so is Troy saying Pardew would have saved Palace if they had kept him on. Well, they shouldn’t have been where they were in the first place with their players but that is the point, Pardew is a **** Manager. You can give him good players and he will still fail, case in point Mascerano and Tevez at West Ham.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Gashley: I have to commend you on never losing faith in Pardew’s sh!tness. When Troy was crowing during his first season we both said “just wait”. Now that we have been proven correct Troy is still in denial, YCMIU.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Say it Ain’t So – Pardew is favourite for the Swansea job. They have to know better than to give him a long contract though, don’t they?
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Pard’s must be stupid, he wanted to bring Colocini to palace.
Terry(Quote)
Gonna have to disagree with many of you. Personally, I think that having possession of the ball is a very good thing. The other day was a one off game, usually we are very productive with the ball as well. Having the ball is good though, dominating possession usually means the game is played at your pace as well.
Jake Swinburn(Quote)
@Eric
Pardew is from the same ****-ilk as Fat Sam, SM, Souness etc
They are big characters (apart from SM) and get a few initial wins and then start being mediocre again…
Pardew papered over his shitness with charismatic smoothness, designer specs and posh suits.
Some, naive, gullible fans bought it, I didnt.
Even tho Troy stopped watching his beloved toon after many years he wanted Pards for another 7years as “he’s the best we can get under the circumstances” 😛 then opted for Clarky, Hoddle, El Tel and Paul Jewel HAHAH
Gashley(Quote)
Eric I hope Pardew get’s the Swansea job, really, I do. Swansea might see Pardew as a improvement. Swansea are 19th and Palace are 17th the day he was sacked.
Terry(Quote)
Gashley, Paul Jewell 😯
Terry(Quote)
Troy’s list of manager’s was hilarious. I couldn’t help but laugh but it was funny.
Terry(Quote)
Jake, possession based football is fantastic if done right. You need the manager and the players for it to work. I think we don’t have the players at the moment. At the end of the day the only thing that matters is the score. How you get there is a matter of resources and ideas. We have lost 4 home games now and our home record is only 8th best in the league. That is a concerning fact that needs to be rectified. We either do that by bringing in more technical players, or we change style of play.
Shamrock(Quote)
Sham, relying on the shitness of your opponents and eking out dirty away wins may be effective in the Championship, but not the way I like to see the toon play football. Rafa has worked wonders with a weak squad, and he gets found out occassionally, Wednesday was one of those games, but there have been a few of them. We haven|t been at all convincing whilst keeping tabs with the top of the league. sadly I don|t see a lot more that he can get out of this mediocre squad which actually took us down. the sky isn|t falling in yet, but the situation can|t be ignored…
Delusional Jawdee(Quote)
Possession says nowt to me. Goals win games. You have to take the chances when they arrive… the goalie did his part against wednesday, but senior pros like dummett, Anita, Gouffron, Diame and Colback went missing. All journeymen players at the end of the day…missing the diamond in the pack..Shelvey… it shouldn|t be like that …
Delusional Jawdee(Quote)
talk Bees striker Hogan in 10 mil Mitro out 13mil,lets see what happens,Rafa does not seem to fancy hm
icedog(Quote)
I disagree with Jawdee and think we have the most talented squad in the Championship. The one glaring hole is cover for Shelvey, and we could do with another winger as I am not sold on Atsu. I still think we will go up as Champions but will need to re-engineer the squad for the PL. The good news is that we will probably get our money back on any players we sell the way the transfer market is now (bar Murphy who is getting on, and where is he anyway?).
An interesting development is how Schteve has turned around Derby. He is a strange one. He does great at Man U and then is completely overawed at NUFC, England and Wolfsburg. Then he does OK or even well at smaller clubs like Boro, Twente and Derby. It seems that he cannot deal with big expectations and pressure except for at Man U when he had the guiding hand of Lord Vader.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I’m not convinced by Mitro to be honest, so if he goes it’s no great shakes. As for Hogan, why not?
Shamrock(Quote)
I’ve seen a lot of talk about Callum Wilson, but don’t know who this Hogan kid is – not seen him play.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Sharpy I like Hogan. He is tall and has made his way up through the lower leagues, scoring lots of goals at every level so far. He scored 13 this season so far. He can also play the wings. My only worry is that he missed a year and a half with a cruciate ligament injury up until April last season – but when he came back he scored 7 in 7 (so 20 league goals since April). He has no other injury problems on his record though, so maybe it was a one off? He actually scores against us this season when we beat them.
Shamrock(Quote)
Who’s he play for mate?
Sharpy17(Quote)
Sharpy he plays for Brentford. He is a calm finisher with a bit of pace. Perhaps not as physical as Mitro, but definitely itely more intelligent and composed in my opinion..
Shamrock(Quote)
😆 Troy? Are you out there? (No come back) 😛
DJG(Quote)
Not seen him mate, but not seen anything of Brentford yet this season. Could he cut it in the PL do you think mate – that’s the type of player we need to be bringing really.
Sharpy17(Quote)
That said, at this point I’d rather Murphy was shipped off followed by Perez before Mitro – who gives us a different option. A four of Gayle, Hogan, Mitro and either Perez or Armstrong would do me.
Shamrock(Quote)
You never know Sharpy. That’s the danger in buying Championship players. Vardy made the step up empathically. Rhodes did not.. it’s all hit and miss but then just because a striker does well for one PL side, does not mean he will do well for another. As you know, it depends on style of play at the club, confidence levels, adaptability etc etc.
All I can say is Hogan has moved a few times up the league’s and continued to deliver. That’s got to be a good sign.
Shamrock(Quote)
Wilson from Bournemouth is a much better option. We will go up and it’s PL players we need not maybes.
georgio(Quote)
What a waste of money Murphy has been. He’d defo be moved out long before Mitrovic for me – didn’t get buying him at the time & still doesn’t.
Sharpy17(Quote)