Norwich City vs Newcastle United – Potential Line-Up?

Jake Swinburn

Newcastle United go into todays game, away at Norwich City, having re-established themselves at the top of the Championship, in recent weeks,  when it looked as though Brighton may be set to extend their lead.

However, they are not the only one of the two sides in good form. Norwich have returned to form themselves, following what turned out to be a prolonged dip.

Norwich, like Newcastle, will still harbour hopes of being promoted. Although, unlike Newcastle, their best chance of going up seems to be through the play-offs.

The hosts also boast a very impressive squad, that includes the likes of Cameron Jerome and Jonny Howson.

With this all considered, Newcastle should still be made favourites for the game. We are winning games again and a return to our best seems to be just around the corner.

Against Wolves, we may have struggled for large periods of the game, but we did enough to get through it and in the process, some players really impressed.

For example, Aleksandar Mitrovic, he was more involved than anyone against Wolves, and although not all of it was positive, he got the winning goal.

So, just what team would we expect to see today?

For me, the best way for us to line up tonight would be;

GK: Karl Darlow

RB: DeAndre Yedlin

CB: Jamaal Lascelles (c)

CB: Ciaran Clark

LB: Paul Dummett

CM: Isaac Hayden

CM: Jonjo Shelvey

RW: Matt Ritchie

CAM: Mo Diame

LW: Christian Atsu

ST: Aleksandar Mitrovic

The reason for the inclusion of Mitrovic, over Dwight Gayle, who is reported to be returning, is that he is sharp and should be full of confidence after his goal against Wolves. Gayle meanwhile, has just returned and another injury to him could prove very costly indeed.

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157 thoughts on “Norwich City vs Newcastle United – Potential Line-Up?”

  1. This is a tough away game. I think Rafa will be cautious and start with Gouffran in place of
    Atsu who is easily knocked off the ball. Think Atsu will come on second half.

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  2. Is Hayden fit ? thought he had a bad ankle.

    Tough fixture but away so less pressure than in front of a home crowd. They have hit form again so who knows .
    Rafa said Gayle was ok but it’s a mentality thing now regarding his injury, apparently he is worried it’ll go again. Understandable since it happened at Palace. I wouldn’t start him .

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  3. What happened to the league table in the right margin? I wanted to have a look at how Norwich were doing and the table isn’t there anymore. I know I can google it.

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  4. Groucho: I watched the Wolves game and Atsu did get knocked off the ball a few times. However, there always seemed to be 2 Wolves players on him in a small space. Maybe if we are not being pushed back as much he will have more space. We did seem content to absorb pressure in that game. I think Gouffran needs a rest. He has played almost every game, or it seems like it, and I think he is running out of steam.

    We also need to evaluate Atsu to see if he is worth what Chelsea want. Is that 5 million? If he cannot usurp a 31 year old, who cost us half a million, who we have been willing to sell on more than one occasion and who is out of contract then I don’t think we should be buying him.

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  5. Also, Atsu has had 6 months at NUFC and was a star performer at some game at ACON. If not now, then when? Obviously, Rafa does not have full faith or he wouldn’t have gone after Townsend and wouldn’t have played Gouffy as much. But we should see what we have got, right. The lad is 24 so it is now or never for him as well as NUFC.

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  6. We are probably going to need Atsu soon anyway. Ritchie is on 9 yellows and I think 10 means a 2 match ban. I am not sure if I trust Perez at this point, so Atsu would come into the reckoning.

    BTW Hayden has 8 yellows.

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  7. These are the yellows. Everybody else has 5 or less. I think we have to assume we will be without Ritchie and Hayden sometime soon. Hayden is my main worry as we have got very little cover in central midfield. Are there any of the reserves who could play ahead of Colback? Icedog would say HE could play ahead of Colback 🙂

    9 Matt Ritchie

    8 Isaac Hayden

    7 Jack Colback, Paul Dummett

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  8. And, just looked at the fixtures and beginning February 28 we play Brighton, Huddersfield and then Reading. We can either put the season to bed or let others back into it. I think it will be the former.

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  11. Doesn’t take much Eric – son in law is an arsenal fan! As for Morgan and Trump and the rest of his appointments – America will get what it deserves. We are with mother teresa.

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  12. Geordio: the appointments of Trump are absolutely mental, meant to dismantle the Agencies they are put in charge of. Right wing may say they are genius in that way. It makes you wish for the British type civil service in Yes, Minister who could confuse these demagogue and plutocrats he is appointing.

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  13. Anyway, I digress. Back to the Toon. 2-1 to us as payback for that handball in the lead up to their goal last year.

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  14. That would do nicely Eric – I wouldn’t be too unhappy with a draw though. Well . . . I would actually. 2-1 for me too. 🙂

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  15. I am not tempting fate I don’t think because I was going to say it before the Wolves game, and held back for that reason, but, do you know our away form is better than our home form? One more win and one less loss.

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  16. One thing that this auto-correct on phones has done is made it impossible to know if people are misusing words on porpoise or not, because the auto-correct does some really strange corrections. Unless you are totally paying attention you end up with some very strange sentences I have found.

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  18. Sorry Eric, I got rid of it as apparently it was eating up load time on the site.

    Eric Sykes: What happened to the league table in the right margin? I wanted to have a look at how Norwich were doing and the table isn’t there anymore. I know I can google it.

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  19. They also have one of the biggest wage budgets in EUROPE

    Eric Sykes:
    Fun Fact: Villa haven’t won since Boxing Day and have 1 point in 2017.

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  21. I know the old cliche of not looking past the next game, but why not? Villa play Barnsley who are 10 points ahead of them. Yes, Barnsley have 46 and Villa have 36. How is that possible given their respective budgets? Also, doesn’t Adam Armstrong play for Barnsley? A goal from Armstrong, a result for Barnsley and a win for us would make Kimtoon’s day, I think (I know she hates Villa almost as much as West Ham. For me it is West Ham and now Palace).

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  22. Eric, I don’t hate Villa just a small section of their moronic fans. 😉 Now West Ham, where to start even. 👿

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  23. OK: How is it possible for Villa to be where they are? True they had a **** squad, but they were handed a parachute payment of 40 million this year which is more than all of the other Championship teams’ total budgets before Villa even sell a single ticket, shirt, TV package or sponsorship. They are also guaranteed, GUARANTEED, another 50 million in parachute payments over the next 2 years if they stay down. They could borrow against this if they want because it is GUARANTEED. Furthermore, they just got taken over by a supposed Chinese billionaire.

    That Villa fan who comes on here from time to time must be livid.

    How is this possible? It is a fck up on a monumental scale. Even worse than us hiring Pardew followed by Ugly John.

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  25. I know I am tempting fate. But the minimum for Villa should have been play-offs. And Norwich for that matter, but they still might make it.

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  26. I just looked it up and Villa’s net spend was about 30 million pounds. That is more than the total budgets of most Championship teams, I mean for wages and all expenses.

    People who say they had nobody to sell are wrong as well. I just looked it up on transfermarkt and they made 40 million Euros in sales since relegation. So this is a mess of their own making.

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  27. Villa are our next opponents so this is sort of relevant, just like my Arsenal diatribe was because they were said to be interested in Rafa. Or maybe not 🙂

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  28. Not!

    Don’t think Rafa will start Gayle. He keeps repeating about Gayle’s confidence. Not sure I’d be that confident either after only a month with a hamstring. Is it really just a month?

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  31. This is a tricky game. Unfortunately for us it’s come at the wrong time as they’ve started getting their act together and are winning games now. It take a point all told but we have a good away record so we have a good chance.

    Personally I think a win will be a killer blow to Huddersfield.

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  34. Groucho: What about Mbemba in his place?

    I don’t know. I just think Shelvey plus Colback is simply too weak in terms of defending in midfield.

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  35. The Villa situation has been years in the making. They let that club dwindle for ages. No decent recruiting, an ownership change, several mediocre managers (sounds a lot like us until Rafa came along now that I think of it). Sunderland are cut from the same cloth. Poor ownership is a club killer.

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  36. GeordieTwo – No coincidence that us, Sunderland and Villa had or have owners who just aren’t interested.

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  37. Spot on Stuart. That’s what I was trying to say. Villa and Sunderland will continue to flounder. Sunderland needs a complete clean sweep of their management. It’s been a disaster there for years. And who really cares about Villa? We can watch them from our spot in the Prem next season hopefully. But will our owner toe the line and give Rafa the support he needs? That’s what it’s all about for me.

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  38. I really thought Steve would sort the team out tbh, things were looking brighter results wise for a while there. I still don’t expect us to beat Villa as for some reason we seem to throw away our chances and leads when we play them. Last time out we totally dominated the first half and fluffed so many chances , hopefully not next Monday.

    Back to today and honestly I’ll be happy with a draw what with Norwich upturn in form.

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  41. Think Hayden is still not 100% fit, Ice, so reckon Colback the best option.

    I wouldn’t have played Perez tonight but then again, Rafa has picked him for a reason – he’ll get a hatrick now I don’t doubt… 🙂

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  42. So apart from Perez for Diame which is justified it;s the same team as Saturday. Think it’s right for Diame to step out as he just looked frustrated on Saturday and didn’t appear to put a shift in. Hopefully Perez will offer some more movement around Mitrovic

    Hopefully they’ll get hold of the midfield a little better than Saturday and get to those 2nd balls. Could do with performance from Shelvey and Ritchie too as both were quiet on Saturday

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  46. Commentary on R5 .. and get this the commentators have apologised for talking about Newcastle too much. All i’ve heard is how Norwich will take us apart tonight

    Get in after 23 secs Perez

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  52. Listening from my hospital room after being stuck in here rather unplanned for surgery, my feed keeps cutting out but great start. Hope we can win it..

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  62. Dubai Toon:
    Listening from my hospital room after being stuck in here rather unplanned for surgery, my feed keeps cutting out but great start. Hope we can win it..

    What’s up mate, you ok?

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    Lee Ryder ‏@lee_ryder · 4m4 minutes ago

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    Ritchie crosses Mitrovic flicks header wide. #nufc

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    Lee Ryder ‏@lee_ryder · 5m5 minutes ago

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    Ritchie cross for Mitrovic but Ruddy saves low down. #nufc

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    Lee Ryder ‏@lee_ryder · 7m7 minutes ago

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    Darlow is livid with himself after that one. #nufc

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    Lee Ryder ‏@lee_ryder · 8m8 minutes ago

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    It’s an absolute howler from Darlow. Ran out and kicked nothing but fresh air. Jerome taps home – but celebrates first. #nufc

    8 replies . 16 retweets 6 likes

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    Lee Ryder ‏@lee_ryder · 8m8 minutes ago

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    2-1 Norwich #nufc

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    Lee Ryder ‏@lee_ryder · 12m12 minutes ago

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    Lascelles beaten to the ball by Jerome and Murphy taps home unmarked at the back stick. Oh dear. 1-1 #nufc

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    Lee Ryder ‏@lee_ryder · 13m13 minutes ago

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    It’s 1-1 here. Poor defending #nufc

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  69. kimtoon: What’s up mate, you ok?

    I was due to come for a colonoscopy but had a problem during preparations and had to be admitted for prolapsed intestine… had surgery this morning and never got the colonoscopy… didn’t quite plan to spend this week in hospital. Was due to go to Istanbul next week and had to cancel.. ??

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  70. Dubai Toon: I was due to come for a colonoscopy but had a problem during preparations and had to be admitted for prolapsed intestine… had surgery this morning and never got the colonoscopy… didn’t quite plan to spend this week in hospital. Was due to go to Istanbul next week and had to cancel..

    Blimey mate, sounds like you been through it, good luck and get well soon.

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