Can Erdinç and Ba – boom?
Posted on July 28th, 2011 | 62 Comments |
Ba featured in 2 of the 3 games over in the states this last week, and Pardew has been quite happy with the Senegalese strikers overall performances thus far. More notably, Pardew has been talking about Ba’s most recent performance, in our 3-0 win against Columbus Crew, saying:
“I really enjoyed Demba’s play.
“He played slightly withdrawn. His link-up play was excellent, and his movement caught us out at times. He’s so quick, he made a move, and then a different move by the time the pass had gone.
“It was a shame he didn’t get a goal, but he was a real highlight for me, as was Dan Gosling.
“Marveaux also played well, and it was a good night for us.”
From the highlights I’ve seen, it looked very much like Dan Gosling was our star performer against the ‘Crew’. Demba Ba though, played an important role in a couple of the goals, and also was the man brought down when through on goal to earn Columbus’ ‘keeper Andy Gruenebaum a straight red card, effectively ending the game as a contest.
Much has been said/written about Demba’s degenerative knee condition, and many fans have that slight fear of Ba breaking down at some point during the season. Of course, as things stand, if Ba was to have any kind of recurrence of his past injury problems, then United will find themselves back to the same strikeforce that got us through the back end of last season.
It seems that Pardew wants Newcastle to play in a 4-4-1-1 / 4-2-3-1 formation this coming season, meaning that Ba is most likely going to be the lone striker, with Hatem Ben Arfa as the support striker, playing in the hole.
I think Ba is a very good signing for Newcastle despite his past injury problems, especially if you consider what he showed at West Ham last season. Regardless of his injury record, there will most likely be a period of time, in this coming season, in which Ba will be unavailable, when he heads over to Africa to participate in the African Cup of Nations.
So, with the possibility of Ba not being available for one reason or another, that moves us on to PSG striker, Mevlüt Erdinç.
The Chronicle are reporting that United are still waiting to hear from the Turkish international, as a fee has allegedly been agreed between Newcastle and PSG for their frontman. Pardew had this to say:
“If we get a couple of new players this team won’t be far away.
“As I have explained it will take time.
“But in August things will start coming thick and fast – everybody has been away on tour.
“I think we could have something resolved in time for the Arsenal game. I hope we will.
“I certainly feel that the motivation from Mike Ashley, Derek and myself is to get the deal done before that game.
“You can never say never with transfers.”
So if we can snap up Erdinç, we will have him, and Ba, as our two main strikers for next season. Quite where this will leave Ameobi, Lovenkrands, Best and Ranger, I’m not sure. Though Best and Ranger have been deemed surplus to requirements; allegedly.
What I’m not too sure about mainly though, is if we sign Erdinç, and Ba stays fit, I can’t imagine Erdinç sitting on the bench. So, if we have a front two for next season, I assume the 4-2-3-1 / 4-4-1-1 formation will have to alter slightly, as Pardew had stated that he sees Ben Arfa as “the number 10, behind one striker”. Maybe he will employ the 4-1-3-2 formation, but then that will leave one of our many midfielders out of the team.
Anyway, that is Pardew’s problem to solve ‘if’ we get our man up top that we want. To be honest, with the midfield numbers, and potential new striker arrival, it’s a pretty nice problem to have I think!
What do you think of Erdinç’s potential arrival on Tyneside, and could he and Ba strike up an explosive partnership?
Discuss.
NUFCBlog Author: Jimbob
Backpacker extraordinaire and current resident of sunny Sheffield. Loves Marmite, hates peanut butter. Sleeps twice a day, wrestles Polar Bears because he can and regards himself as cool as a cucumber in a bowl of hot sauce.
Jimbob has written 40 articles on this blog.
I’d love to see us play the 4-2-3-1. The likes of a strong aerial and on the gorund presence backed by ben arfa and two wings. plus, two defensive/deep playmaking mids would be great. would love to see tiote in one of those two defensive roles. plus with the youngins in gosling, vuckic, and mehdi we’ve got very strong youth/bench for that formation. and can’t wait to see cabaye in action and how he’ll fit into the squad.