Carroll injury concern opens the door for Nile Ranger.

Posted on December 31st, 2010 | 119 Comments |

Ranger to supply the danger this Sunday?
Ranger to supply the danger this Sunday?
Andy Carroll looks likely to miss the game against Wigan on Sunday, and he could also miss the home game next week against West Ham after picking up a thigh injury.

Undoubtedly it is a huge blow to Newcastle as they face a very important week in the quest for Premier League survival as they come face to face with two teams that are battling it out at the bottom of the league currently, but being realistic there was always a risk that Carroll would pick up an injury at some point.

So now we must prepare to do battle against two teams that we are competing with without our star man. Kevin Nolan will return to the side to at least add some goal-scoring capability, but the main point of all this must be the fact that Nile Ranger will surely get a run out in the first-team in the absence of Carroll.

Many people have clamoured for Ranger to get some decent game time, and with Shola Ameobi still recovering from a hamstring strain, and now with Andy Carroll on the treatment table the time has surely come for our highly-rated youngster to attempt to make his impact on the first team.

If you cast your mind back to last season then you will more than likely remember that Ranger was in a similar situation back then. We struggled for forwards because of injury, and Ranger came in and did a fantastic job. Hopefully this time around he can do a bit better and find the net.

It could also give Wigan and West Ham something else to worry about. Andy Carroll carries his own threat with his power and aerial prowess, but Ranger has different assets, like blistering pace, that could cause a different set of problems for the opposition.

I hope that we play Ranger up front with Kevin Nolan just behind him, and I hope it works out. You never know, we might even learn to be less reliant on Carroll in his absence.

Fingers crossed anyway!

NUFCBlog Author: toonsy toonsy has written 643 articles on this blog.

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Comment on this post

119 Responses

  1. I remember Leicester at home last season, Ranger up top held the ball better than any striker ive seen since Shearer.

    Guthrie scored the winner if i remember rightly before he was written off after a couple of bad games…

  3. I have faith in ranger, looking foward to the match, people can pay at one of the turnstiles if there’s anyone still interested in going.

  4. We’ll no doubt get the sad sight of Ameobi replacing Carroll. Oh the joy!

    Personally I think we’re that used to just hoofing the ball up to Carroll that we’ll really struggle to change our game over the next couple of games and come away with about 1 point.

  6. I think we should go Ranger and lovenkrands up front cos Mcloven hasn’t had his chance this season either. Could be a good partnership both have pace Ranger has the power and control and Mcloven is an intelligent player.

  7. Lua Lua – maybe for the west spam game at SJP, but I would stick with the 4-5-1 for the Wigan game. I would love to see Rangerman start but I just dont think Pardew has the minerals to do it and will revert back to strolla.

  8. Ive read somewhere that we can get Wigan tickets at DW on the day on Sunday, does anyone know if this is true and if so how many tickets we have?! Not sure if it is worth the journey if we are sold out by the time we get there?
    Thanks!

  9. I’d rather we went with 442 like we were playing against arsenal and west ham when we got those away wins. Ranger has better hold up play than Carroll and can also work the channels with his pace so could combine effectively with either shola or lovenkrands. This would let Barton fill in on the right where he has been most effective this season.

  10. I hope Ranger starts and scores , i think when the lad finds the net in the premiership then his confidence will soar and steady the lads nerves in front of goal . The lad has more than enough to scare most defences he just needs to find the net , I think once that happens then shola will become nothing more than an impact sub and struggle to get another start .

  12. Loven’s had his chances as far as i’m concerned and he’s pretty much fluffed them. If Shola is 100% then I wouldn’t mind seeing him and Ranger in 442 with Nolan/Tiote in the middle and Barton back on the right. If he’s not fit for wigan then I suppose it has to be loven unless we switch to 4-5-1.

  13. Mattybarlow, you can pay at one of the turnstiles, don’t know how many they will allow in though.

  14. Ranger, smashing young prospect for the future.

    Hopefully he will continue his red-hot strike rate of 2 league goals in his previous 37 league appearances against Wigan. Here’s hoping eh.

    i know I’m not up to the standard of many of yees above, but how am I doing in the “unproven academy prospects that we romanticize will be the next overnight shearer” game?

  16. i agree it will b a big loss not to have the big lad, but i do think we put a lot of weight on his shoulders and we need to start letting others take some of the weight

  18. where’s everyone? dusting off their brown shirts and jackboots lol.
    big dave,you want to watch yourself,you put tattoos on people,hitler started off as an artist……..only kidding lol.it seems to have calmed down now,it was like “TRAMADOL NIGHTS” on here,reading it last night.
    HAPPY NEW YEAR ANYWAY YOU MAD B*****DS.

  19. Losing Carroll for these two games for me, is a disaster. Wigan and West Ham, games where given the current position we’re in, if we want to stay away from a relegation battle, we need to be taking 4 points, at least. I dont quite know how we’re going to do that when we’ve lost the centrepiece of our team. Not only does Carroll score the majority of our goals, but he start’s most of them too. He is who we look to give the ball to every time we go forward.

    Ranger is a prospect, he holds the ball up excellently but isn’t scoring goals and is very, very green. To ask him to suddenly become a clinical finisher for the sake of our next two games is almost impossible.
    One other thought…Are we actually going to be able to change our style of play given the fact Andy isn’t there? Obviously Pardew and the lads will have known midweek about his injury, but a few days isn’t long enough to learn to play free flowing passing football is it. Understand i might be sounding like a complete buzz kill here like, but i just dont think people saying Ranger/Ameobi will step up, are paying full attention to whats happened. Neither Ranger nor Ameobi will score the goals Carroll would.

  20. Aye Ross, I agree its massive but the fact is it was always going to happen at some point-we have to hope Pardew realised this as well, and even though he’s had such a limited time with the squad hopefully he’s got something up his sleeve. To be fair, Wigan are missing their own centre piece in Insomnia so hopefully we can make that count for something. I don’t think anyones disagreeing its a massive blow for us, we’re just trying to look on the bright side I guess :) Bloody sods law that he misses these games and not Man city/spurs matches though.

  21. Newkie-Divvent even think we can hope Pardew has something up his sleeve mate. Like you’ve said, he’s only had a limited time with the squad, he’ll obviously have been encouraging the lads to do what has been working, in playing to our main strength, Carroll. The only one i’d point the finger at is Ashley, it’s not the manager or the players fault that we have no strength in depth. It is quite depressing however that if we lose Barton we struggle to do anything as a team and we’re about to find out whether we struggle to be anything of an attacking threat when we play without Carroll.

    Insomnia missing out is a plus, like you say it’s just sods law that when we get a chance to take advantage of something like that, we’re pegged back with our own issue’s!

  22. Ross-Yeah don’t worry I’m not expecting any miracles like, but i’m sure Hoots got the lads practicing things where Carroll wasn’t the centre piece in training so we should be able to cause problems still.-We played the first Man city match with Shola up front without Andy, and he did well and would have got us a penalty if the ref wasn’t a daft c*nt. We’ve also seen what a Ranger/Shola partnership can do as in the Chelsea cup tie when we were superb going forward. I agree, we can’t blame Pards for a lack of strength in depth, but at the end of the day I still think Shola can do a job for us, and Ranger now has a chance to show his stuff just like Carroll did last year-we do need another striker, but for now we can’t be totally reliant on Carroll. Just got to hope for the best!

  23. we would of struggled too beat wigan and westham with carrol ,without him we have no chance ,ranger is not fckin superman

  24. Newkie-Hope for “the Best”?..Mate, he’s even worse! ;) haha

    Agree with what you’re saying though. Suppose we just have to stick our strongest 11 out there and hope they can do the biz.

  25. newkiebrown – agree with you said 100%.

    When we have won games this season it’s by virtue of excellent ball retention, midfield pressing, enrique’s overlapping and decent set-pieces.

    With the exception of the last – we should and can manage without carroll. He’s been totemic but not really awesome this season over 90mins (with a couple of exceptions).

  26. We’ve got to play two up front on Sunday. Ameobi is just too unreliable to be the focal point of the attack. He might play well with Ranger, Ranger could make decent runs off him.

  27. Chances of Lovenkrands getting a look in?..at least we know he can score goals given the opportunity, sort of.

  28. Ross- Haha :P yeah a very poor choice in word selection on my part there…who knows though, he might get a run in for 5mins and score the winner! More likely to be in our net than theirs though judging on what we saw last year :).

  29. Well lads and lasses, let’s see what the Wigan game brings, but we should expect a mind numbing defensive performance from wor lot. At the end of the day points are absolutely critical, and the best we can hope for is a draw unfortunately.

    At the same time I would love us to put on a decent performance and bring home all three points, if for no other reason than to shut up the smarmy bunch of Sky toon-haters…

  30. Boater-Yeah mate, our midfield is back up to full strength now so we have to hope we can boss it through and through.

    -Stuart, completely agree on that mate. 442, has to be.

    -Lovenkrands? I’d be disappointed to see him start over Ranger, and it would be mad to start him over Shola in my opinion..Still it would allow for a later ranger introduction maybe? Maybe we should just play him on the left, seing as Jonas is sh1te. Bring on Jonas later on and see if he actually does anything.

  31. 442 id like to best n ranger up top, i kno best isnt many ppls fav but i jus dont see lovenkrands doin anything he has wasted every chance he has had, best hasnt been giving a go yet

  33. So can anyone explain why Andy Carroll is in London on New Years Eve? Especially considering we’re playing in Wigan…

  34. jay jay i dont know if u were jesting about xisco but i dont think it would b a bad shout, and atlest we can see what he is like.

  35. Stuart…if Carroll is missing due to injury for the next week or so…he’s probably in Laaandan to take in a “musical”, have a few sherbets and celebrate New Year. He’s persona non grata on the quayside with his track record.

    Or were you hinting at him being sold to a London club ?

  36. -Stuart-Advanced physiotherapy mate :P?

    As for the Xisco thing I’ve said for a while I’d like to see him..but not sure if we can risk him these games-don’t see why we don’t put him on the bench though. We’re probably going to have to wait for the cup matches before we see any more from him though. He was good in the last 10min against villa but thats almost all I remember of him..I can only imagine he’s lazy in training or summit.

  38. Here’s another angle on things Stuart….

    Unhappy birthday

    It’s reported that Magpies striker Andy Carroll has been ruled out of Sunday’s trip to Wigan with a thigh injury – and his spell on the sidelines could well be longer.

    The England international who turns 22 next week has travelled to London with club medical staff for further assessment to determine the severity of his ailment.

    Don’t we have competent doctors at the General or the RVI like ?

  39. So why have club medical staff taken him to London? Wouldn’t it be better for the medical staff to be with the squad up here?

    What do they have in London that we don’t have at the RVI?

  42. Spurs…..noooooooooooooohhh!!!! aaaargh !!!!

    I suppose we also need to question if he really is injured, or has he been pulled out of the squad ?

  43. Hope it’s not the same London medical staff that looked after Kieron Dyer and Michael Owen’s injuries…

  45. Ha I was actually just messing with the physiotherapy, I thought he was going out on the London toon for NYE, must be the facilities down there then I guess…Seriously doubt its another team or anything, calm down like.

  55. munich kna man i divent drink ,got me pellet gun ready for all the noisey b@stards walking doon the street lata :)

  56. We’ll see if Carroll’s injury forces our hand in the transfer window. Hope we’ve done our homework !

  57. aye I forgot you don’t drink. Slug guns I remember them well, for unwelcome guests in the west end of the toon…

    Piece of coal and a glass of whisky used to be the way to go. Does that tradition still exist in the Geordie Nation ?

  62. are there still coal fires in the toon ?

    The only ones I remember were them fake ones in Bainbridges that the posh people used to buy..

  66. Kna, batty, I’m staying in tonight as I have the shits! Could be too much drink over the yule period!

  67. batty I remember that mate, they need it around this time of the year. How’s the weather in Newcastle, quite a bit of snow over here..not too cold though..

  70. I hate these freakin transfer windows, does my head in…

    So much bollocks being spouted, distracts everyone from the footy…

    We need to start winning games so we can get the points in the bag to safeguard our position. Injuries to key players are part and parcel of the game, we need to live with it.

  71. Apparently Newcastle and everton have been notified that Yannick Djalo is available for just £3.5m he’s 24 and we have been linked with him before …….
    Worth the punt anyone??????

  74. Happy new year ’11 ALL.
    Just wishing you all it now cos i’ll be watching Sonic Youth walking out on stage at 11.55pm.
    Have a great one lads & lasses.
    & PROSPERITY for the next one.

    PEACE!

  78. Never heard of him, who is he?

    Everton have less money than us to spend (which is really saying something) so they won’t be getting him.

  81. just popped on for a minute to wish you all a healthy 2011,got your health lads and your rich.
    hope you fill your swag-bag batty.
    lads a bit sick at the mo so have to nip off,thanks for threads worky/toonsy well done

  87. Batty – Yeah he was on earlier on. Get well soon Ice.

    I’m just doing a review of the year and I will get it out asap :)

  98. When you’re as old and ear-damaged as me from the punk rock shows, you’ll want to hold on to every shred of hearing you’ve got!

    Great band–weird, off-kilter hooks, not afraid to mess with noise and experiment, guitar weaving greatness. If only Kim would never “sing” again…

  100. To all the bloggers I have only just met, all the best for the New Year, may it be a healthy and prosperous one!

    Oh and a special mention to jellyfish.

  101. get stuck in FSOTC !! Whatever turns you on big man, hope the Sonic Youth fans have a blast !…

  105. Edward Rogers says:
    December 31, 2010 at 6:07 pm

    “To all the bloggers I have only just met, all the best for the New Year, may it be a healthy and prosperous one!”

    Stardust, don’t ever come back on this ‘blog.

  107. Well Lads there is nowt we can do if Carroll is injuried we just have to soldier.
    Icedog all the best mate if you dont get on later mate ;)
    Batty im here mate just been a busy day today so have ye been missing me :)

  113. Big Dave says:
    December 29, 2010 at 9:50 pm

    “Worky if you want me to proof you re-editing

    https://nufcblog.org/2010/04/whatever-happened-to-the-class-of-1993/

    or

    https://nufcblog.org/2010/04/title-time-plymouth-v-newcastle-united-match-preview/#comment-58538

    and another one I have saved on a memory stick,

    I will, but just incase it jogs your memory one of them was the night you Banned your old mate Stardust for nothing except having a bit of banter with me.
    Now before I do I will make it clear that I wouldn’t get much of a kick out of showing you being sneaky or underhanded but if it stops me from being called a liar and its what you want I will .”

    As I wrote, you’ve been had by Stardust, which is fair enough. However, when you take that and attempt to blackmail me on my own ‘blog to help him get some kind of revenge on me with false information, that is another thing entirely. Have a word with yourself.

  117. Worky – So how does you insinuating Big D is a racist get turned round to be Dave ‘blackmailing’ you?

    Seriously mate, I think you’ve got some sort of personality disorder.
    You only had to apologise to him and that would be that, but you accepting you might be wrong isn’t something you’re good at.

    A lack of humility is a trait for the souless.

    Stardust is another one…

  118. For what or how am I trying to blackmail you ? why would I be trying to help Stardust when I dont even know the guy for real and I have spoke to him at most 3 times from he was banned.
    I simply stated that the 2 above post have been edited where names that you called me were removed and comments removed as I have the originals with them still on.
    So where is the false information in that ? are you trying to say that Stardust removed or made the nasty names you called me and or the comments ??
    As I said this has all started because I took offence to you basically accusing me of being racist and even if as you say it was only a question, I still take offence to someone that dosn’t even know me asking me a deeply personal question like that on an open Blog.