Newcastle United vs Tottenham Hotspur match preview
Posted on October 14th, 2011 | 39 Comments |
Date: Sunday, October 16th, 2011.
Kick-off: 4:00pm.
Referee: Lee Probert.
TV:Sky Sports 1 / HD.
Hurrah! The Premier League is back this weekend, with Harry Redknapp bringing his Spurs side up to the north-east on Sunday, to face Alan Pardew’s undefeated Newcastle United. The match is scheduled for live broadcasting, courtesy of Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports HD 1.
The Magpies are currently flying high in 4th position at present, and have yet to taste defeat this term in their seven opening league games, as well as being undefeated in their two away ties in the League Cup. At St James’ Park, Newcastle have played three matches, winning two (Fulham and Blackburn), and drawing one (Arsenal). United have scored five goals at home this term, conceding two.
Tottenham started the season with a 3-0 defeat at Old Trafford, followed by a 5-1 mauling by Manchester City at White Hart Lane. Their next Premier League duel was at Wolves, where they prospered 2-0. A thrashing of Liverpool 4-0 at home was then followed by a 2-1 victory at Wigan. Their last league game was the north London derby, where they dispensed of Arsenal 2-1, thanks to goals from Rafael Van Der Vaart and Kyle Walker. Away from home, Tottenham have played three and won two (scoring four and conceding four).
Stats
In defence, both Newcastle and Spurs share remarkably similar ‘tackle success’ percentages with United achieving a 73.33% success rate, and Spurs currently on 73.28%. Newcastle have made a total of 128 defensive interceptions with a ratio of 17.27 interceptions per game. Tottenham have managed 123 interceptions, with a ratio of 19.49 per game.
Unsurprisingly considering Tottenham’s wealth of midfield talent, Spurs have managed 469 more accurate passes than the Magpies, with a total of 2558 to Newcastle’s 2089. This means Spurs have a better ‘passes per minute’ average, with our opponents currently completing 5 successful passes per minute, compared to Newcastle’s 4.
Spurs create a goal scoring chance (on average) every 6.17 minutes, United create a chance every 9.53 minutes. Newcastle currently stand on 41% in regards to shooting accuracy, where Tottenham better that with 48%. However, both sides share the same ‘chance conversion’ percentage, currently set at 13%. It is worth noting that Tottenham have played one game less than the Magpies in the Premier League this season, due to their league encounter at home to Everton being called off, because of the rioting in the capital a few days before the opening Premier League weekend.
Mags Vs Spurs – History
Newcastle United have scored more goals against Tottenham (56) in the Premier League, than against any other team. In 34 meetings since 1992 / 1993, there have been 102 goals shared between the sides.
Interestingly, both Newcastle and Tottenham have not had a spot-kick awarded for or against them so far this season. They are the only two clubs to have achieved this so far. At St James’ Park, Newcastle boast an impressive record against old floppy chops’ team, with only two home league defeats since the 2000 – 2001 season. Since then, Newcastle have won eight, drawn one and lost two. Last seasons encounter saw a Fabricio Coloccini effort cancelled out by Aaron Lennon in stoppage time, as the match ended 1-1. Cast your mind back to the 1996 -1997 season, and you may remember the 7-1 thumping we handed Spurs on Tyneside, with Alan Shearer, Sir Les Ferdinand and Robert Lee all scoring two, and a solitary strike from Philippe Albert.
Squads
Newcastle United (From): Tim Krul (G), Steven Harper (G), Ryan Taylor, Fabricio Coloccini (C), Steven Taylor, Danny Simpson, Davide Santon, Shane Ferguson, Jonas Gutierrez, Yohan Cabaye, Cheick Tiote, Gabriel Obertan, Mehdi Abeid, Dan Gosling, Danny Guthrie, Hatem Ben Arfa, Haris Vučkić, Leon Best, Demba Ba, Peter Lovenkrands, Shola Ameobi, Sammy Ameobi.
Tottenham Hotspur (From): Brad Friedel (G), Carlo Cudicini (G), Kyle Walker, Ledley King (C), Younes Kaboul, Benoit Assou-Ekotto, Sebastien Bassong, Vedran Corluka, Aaron Lennon, Rafael Van Der Vaart, Niko Kranjcar, Sandro, Scott Parker, Luka Modric, Gareth Bale, Giovanni Dos Santos, Jake Livermore, Jermain Defoe, Emmanuel Adebayor, Roman Pavlyuchenko.
Haris Vučkić and Shola Ameobi are back in contention for the Magpies, but Mike Williamson is still a few weeks away from fitness. There seems to have been a large amount of panic surrounding both Yohan Cabaye and Demba Ba, and whether or not they are both injured. It seems that Cabaye is fine, as he played 60 minutes of France’s draw with Bosnia on Tuesday night, and Ba wasn’t involved for Senegal recently, purely as a precautionary measure. So both look likely to be involved on Sunday.
On the Tottenham side, early indications suggest Emmanuel Adebayor is doubtful with a hamstring strain, as are William Gallas (calf) and Michael Dawson (Achilles). Tom Huddlestone will miss the match, but Aaron Lennon, who scored in both league encounters against us last term, should be fit enough to be involved. Recent team news also suggests that Niko Kranjcar and Vedran Corluka may both miss out, after being forced off during international duty with Croatia in midweek. Rafael Van Der Vaart and Sandro are also doubts for Harry Redknapp’s squad, after picking up calf and hamstring injuries respectively.
Probable formation
Spurs will likely employ a 4-4-1-1, with Van Der Vaart (if fit) dropping deep into the midfield to help with the dictation of play. The problem Newcastle will face is that Spurs can, and will, knock the ball around the central areas with ease and likely target our full-backs (Simpson and Ryan Taylor). It scares me greatly thinking about Bale and Lennon against Simpson and Ryan Taylor, so our wide midfielders (Jonas and Obertan), must track back and help the defence. Now, I have little concern about Jonas, as he will track back willingly, and help Taylor. Obertan however, seems less inclined to do so and personally, I haven’t been that impressed with him since his arrival. I am aware it’s early days for him at the moment, but Marveaux has shown some bright aspects to his play in his limited pitch time thus far, and I like what I’ve seen of him.
Gareth Bale running free down our right hand side, is certainly a worry, and I’m sure Pardew will address the situation. Last season, Redknapp wanted to employ both Bale (at left-back) and Pienaar (left-midfield) against us at St James’ Park because in his own words: “Newcastle don’t play with a right-midfielder”. Now, Harry was referring to Barton’s inability to refrain from straying in-field, exposing Danny Simpson at right-back. Well, on Sunday I expect Harry to employ the same kind of instructions, but he’ll likely target both right and left sides of Newcastle’s defence.
Dropping either Best or Ba, seems a bold move, but it’s something I would do, to allow for an extra midfielder. As form goes, I’d drop Best, and possibly involve Hatem Ben Arfa. Trouble is, if Pardew drops a striker and we lose, people will complain. What I think he will do, is to ask Ba, to drop slightly deeper than Best, to help out the midfield. This tactic has been used by Pardew quite often, especially against Blackburn at home. Obviously Blackburn and Tottenham are at two completely different ends of the scale!
We can however cause Spurs a large amount of problems, if we target their weakness, which is their lack of height and their failure at times to defend set-pieces properly. United posses a much bigger squad than Tottenham, and with the set-piece taking abilities of both Yohan Cabaye and Ryan Taylor in our ranks, don’t be surprised if we cause Spurs more problems than the media are suggesting we will.
Waffle
It’s going to be tough on Sunday, and this will really help gauge where United are at present. Last season I thought Spurs were one of the best teams we played, and I think our performance at St James’ Park in the 1-1 draw was one of our best in terms of work rate and effort displayed. Spurs didn’t give us a moments rest in either game last season, and I don’t expect any let up this weekend. I really think that we need to try and match Spurs in the centre, man for man, as if Redknapp employs an extra midfielder in there, they will totally dominate us.
Pardew seems to take an absolute age to change anything tactically in a match, as he is very stubborn with his team selections and the instructions he sets out. If you remember the QPR game recently, we got overran and outplayed for 75 minutes, and then he decided to alter the formation. He admitted in his post match interview that he knew we were being outplayed but “wanted to play two up front”. Now, Pardew has done really well thus far, but if we set out, or even begin like we did against QPR, Tottenham will take their chances and we won’t be able to catch them. I will stress however, that I am confident for Sunday, and I believe we can pick something up. If we don’t get any points, it’s not the end of the world, as we are beating the teams around us currently. Tottenham are a top six side, Newcastle are not. Disregard Keegan’s recent comments about Newcastle finishing in the top six, because it’s not going to happen yet. Can we finish in the top eight? Maybe. Can we finish in the top ten? Certainly.
Sunday will be a great chance for the lads and Alan Pardew, to show what they’re about. What better way of doing it, than against one of the Premier leagues best sides, live on Sky Sports and hopefully in front of a packed St James’ Park.
Howay The Lads.
1st?