Cheick Tiote – The unsung hero of Goodison?
Posted on September 20th, 2010 | 301 Comments |
It is correct that Ben Arfa should recieve some praise for the way he played during his full debut. His goal was fantastic and some of his play was exceptional, but how did the other debutant of the day get on?
Very well by all accounts, and if I was Alan Smith I would be quite concerned over how I was going to get back in the team after the way that Cheick Tiote performed on Saturday. The Ivory Coast international looked every inch the accomplished Premier League player on his debut and went about his work exceptionally well. I hope that is a flavour of what is to come from Tiote.
Playing as a defensive midfielder is very much a thankless task. More often than not they are left to get along with breaking up play and doing the dirty work in front of the back four. I have to be honest and say that I never really thought about the defensive midfielder position before, until I saw the difference that having an effective one can have on our play on Saturday.
That is not a slight on Alan Smith, not at all. He will still get his chances in the first-team no doubt. He puts his all into his performance every time he plays and few people can argue that Smudge never leaves the field having not put less than 100% effort in. The problem is that he is playing in a position which has been forced on him through injury and his previous reputation of liking a tackle.
To illustrate this I had been trying to compile some stats regarding Cheick Tiote and his performance at the weekend. I was about half way through it when regular ‘blogger ‘~El Toro~’ popped with a link that put my data collection to shame. Taken straight from The Guardian, this their analysis of Tiote’s performance;
“Chris Hughton gave full Premier League debuts to two new midfielders on Saturday – Hatem Ben Arfa and Cheick Tioté. Ben Arfa made the most obvious impact, with a stunning 30-yard drive that turned out to be the game’s only goal, but Tioté also impressed in a more low-key role. Starting in place of Alan Smith, Tioté’s calm, reliable distribution in the centre of the pitch allowed Newcastle to control the midfield. Indeed, they actually out-passed Everton on Saturday, recording 276 passes compared to the home side’s 260. It may be a narrow margin but not many sides will achieve that at Goodison Park this season – not even Manchester United, who lost out 329-298 in that respect. Tioté was the key to this – completing all of his 43 passes. He also made two interceptions, completed all three of his attempted tackles, and his only shot was on target.”
It’s not a bad way to start a career on Tyneside is it? Hopefully this kind of performance will be a regular occurance during Tiote’s time at Newcastle and he can be assured that just because he plays in a position that is deemed as unfashionable by some that his input won’t be lost on the Newcastle faithful.
Toonsy is back in the groove at the moment 8)