Newcastle United vs QPR match banter!

Posted on January 15th, 2012 | 66 Comments |

Newcastle United vs QPR.
No Joey Barton show this time.
Venue: St James’ Park, Toon.
Date: Sun 15th Jan 2011.
Kick-Off: 1:30 pm.
Referee: Chris Foy.

Hello, good afternoon and welcome to our regular “match banter” feature.

This time the Magpies will be facing the transitional Queen’s Park Rangers under new manager, Mark Hughes, he of the slightly annoying mid-sentence sharp intakes of breath.

Like ourselves, it will be a somewhat depleted QPR on the pitch this afternoon, with key players such as captain, Joey Barton, Alejandro Faurlín, Armand Traoré and Adel Taarabt out through suspension, injury and the African Cup of Nations (x2) respectively. Of course it goes without saying that another Toon old boy, Kieron Dyer, will be also be out to injury as usual. On the QPR’s opening game of the season he was carried off on a stretcher with an injured foot. After a lengthy layoff, he was finally set to make his comeback, then somewhat inevitably injured it again in a reserves game!

Whatever the state of QPR’s squad though, when a new manager comes in you never quite know what is going to happen. It isn’t so long since Newcastle United, still in turmoil after the sacking of Chris Hughton, watched a much unfancied Alan Pardew come in and thump the mighty Liverpool 3-1 in his first game in charge. Here’s hoping it isn’t one of those games for Hughes!

On the Magpies’ side, apart from injuries we of course have lost Cheick Tiote and Demba Ba to the Africa Cup of Nations for a while, but Ba has continued doing what he does best in Africa, scoring in Senegal’s first warm up game against Sudan (below). In his his absence, many hopes will be pinned on Hatem Ben Arfa (amongst others), especially after his goal of the Millenium against Blackburn Rovers in the Cup. But anyway, I won’t dwell on this kind of stuff for too long, as Hugh has already written an excellent match preview for this game already, so if you would like some more in depth information in the run up to the game, check it out using the “match preview” link above!

Same old Demba, always scoring!

It only remains for me to say that I will be putting the teamsheets up when they become available, and of course:

Howay the Lads!

Teams

Newcastle United (4-4-2): Tim Krul (G), Danny Simpson, Mike Williamson, Fabricio Coloccini, Davide Santon, Ryan Taylor, Danny Guthrie, Yohan Cabaye, Jonas Gutierrez, Shola Ameobi, Leon Best.

Subs: Rob Elliot, Shane Ferguson, James Perch, Dan Gosling, Mehdi Abeid, Gabriel Obertan, Hatem Ben Arfa.

Queens Park Rangers (4-4-2): Paddy Kenny (G), Luke Young, Danny Gabbidon, Anton Ferdinand, Clint Hill, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Shaun Derry, Akos Buzsaky, Jamie Mackie; Heidar Helguson, Jay Bothroyd

Subs: Radek Cerny, Bradley Orr, Fitz Hall, Hogan Ephraim, Tommy Smith, DJ Campbell, Federico Macheda.

NUFCBlog Author: workyticket workyticket has written 1095 articles on this blog.

Related Posts:

Posted on by workyticket in category: Cheick Tiote and Demba Ba and Joey Barton and Kieron Dyer and NUFC Match Banter and Player videos and Videos and Workyticket , with tags:
Comment on this post

66 Responses

  2. team has come in shola and best up front. like pardew and everything but one thing is really bugging me is ben arfa always being on the bench!. you would think he is starting to get a bit fed up

  3. Re Ben Arfa,,,,I think the clue was in the statement made by Pardew during the week when he said Benny needs to up his workrate. The way the team is set up everybody has to work their socks off, press the ball and cover a lot of ground. Until Benny is prepared to do that I reckon he’ll always be regarded by Pards as an impact sub.

  4. yeah also wasn’t that the same article ben arfa getting a free role to attack??, oh well at least we know he will come on at some stage of the game! not unless he puts on perch,smith and an injured ranger on the pitch :)

  9. well its a joke if u ask me… a player cudnt prove himself anymore than HBA did last week then be left out for a couple of donkeys (who by the way still havent proved themselves, and put as much work rate in as sleeping beauty (ameobi) pardew must have a personal thing against BA if u ask me! how can u play a player as raw as obertan (who is still shit at grasping the fact that in football we use a ball to win, not a hundred meter track with a finish line at the end of it) what hope has BA got? he cud fit into any top 4 team just not our top 7 one!
    anyway enuf of the moaning from me
    2-0 win for the toon ameobi to trip over more times than he shoots!

  10. anyone know what’s happening with Algerian U-21 CF Omrani who was here for a week’s trial from Lens?

    and I see Hughs wants rid of asbo already – smart man!

    NUFC 2 QPR 0

    HWTL

  11. that team should be strong enough to beat QPR & put us back to 6th.
    interesting strong midfield with Guthrie & Raylor – I’ve got a feeling we will score from set pieces rather than Best & Shola in open play, so lets hope they win plenty of free kicks.

  14. maze202 says:
    January 15, 2012 at 1:29 pm

    “Plenty of streams but no english ones. Anyone got one?”

    I’m watching an English stream from the link above maze, it’s Sopcast though. Very good so far.

  20. I have sopcast but it’s lagging out a bit today. That link Phisix just gave is ideal though.

  23. who the hell told Best and Shola are forwards. Yes they are, but for championship. Haven’t seen more ineffective and limited attackers.Pardew finally must pay for his f****** stupid game with Ben Arfa

  24. Getting crushed! Thats about 8 attempts for them isn’t it? All we’ve had is long balls that have failed.

  42. god the old bloke commentator must be bad luck was there for the ben arfa injury now cabaye seriously has no idea on how bad an injury can be!

  43. Sounds like the injury doesn’t seem too serious at first glance but he’s gonna have a scan. Fingers crossed.

    Jonas has done the job in the middle though (vindicating several of us) and-surprise, surprise-we look a better team with HBA in there.

  44. Yeah, it’s like the presence of HBA shamed our guys into actually passing the ball to teammates’ feet. What a novel concept!

  46. i think Pardew have to find a solution with the replacement of Ba. Ameobi is too static, not fast and most important – cannot score goals. Best is the only one with ability ,but not enough good to lead the attack against Fulham or Tottenham

  51. Shola was worse than useless. Don’t think he won a single ball in the air – and that break away – to lose the ball to your own left foot… Pathetic.

  54. We were giving away possession rather cheaply in general but QPR can’t score. I don’t remember us having that many chances but Best pulled that goal out of not much really.

    If I were Mark Hughes I’d give Jay Bothroyd some practice with a banjo and a cow’s arse in the next training session. Start him at the bottom.

  55. Gotta disagree, maze. Shola has better and worse days but in general, over time, he’s clearly declining. He no longer has the athleticism that along with his size made him hard to handle and cancelled out his lack of skill on the ball earlier in his career. It looks to me like his legs are gone and I honestly can’t believe we’ve given him a multi-year deal.

    I mean, as they pointed out in the call today: 49 goals in 250+ appearances. His hold up play isn’t THAT good…

  56. worky-Best’s goal was our only shot on target, unless they count Jonas’ attempt when Kenny was off his line.

    True story.

    Same as the reverse fixture: if QPR had a finisher I have to imagine they win this match.

  57. tunyc says:
    January 15, 2012 at 3:48 pm

    “worky-Best’s goal was our only shot on target,”

    Aye, it was tunyc. To be fair to Shola’s goals record, look at the amount of those appearences have been as a sub for a relatively short period.

  58. Even still worky – he’s got 49 in 250. Ba has just under a third of that total in 1/15th of the amount of games.

    Best has 10 in 39.

    Loverpants has 22 in 71.

    Shola just isn’t good enough.

  59. sirjasontoon says:
    January 15, 2012 at 3:31 pm

    “Need some Lonsdale underpants”

    Hot date SJT?

    Nah Worky shit meself watching the match, too much excitement :lol:

  60. We were terrible today, one shot on target. But a team that wins when not playing well is not doing too badly, I suppose.

    I thought the team selection was poor. I don’t think we need two big lads upfront unless one is Ba. I think the opportunity to play an attacking formation with Vuckic partnering Best and Ben Arfa on the wing was lost.

    Top marks to the defence again. Willo looks like he has never been away. Very commanding performace. Santon was good again and linked up well with Jonas, who again gave 100%. Guthrie was good, especially as he has been out for quite some time. Bit worrying about Cabaye though.

    Shola was very poor. Best was saved by his goal which was very good. Ben Arfa tries far too much too often. He really doesn’t have to take on three or more players. Two is enough, and then pass or shoot.

    Fulham next who are nearly always good at home. Four more points and we are safe, didn’t think I would have said that in January.

  61. Got to agree with all the shola grief. personally i reckon the Premier league is just too fast for him now. if he won the ball outside the box or in the middle of the park, he didnt have the legs or desire to get in the box afterwards.

    Best (ne offence to the lad) is not a premier league striker either. yes he works hard but it means sod all if he isnt scoring (4 goals all season tells its own story). To call off a striker search is just pathetic as we have 1 class striker and 3 championship ones.

    as for Ben Arfa, im a massive fan but im a little worried about him giving the ball away too much in the middle of the park. I reckon play him down the right, he will get alot of the ball (as he wants) and if he was to give the ball away down the flank it would be alot easier to cover anf alot less dangerous to our defence. OR even 4-4-1-1 with a free role but let him have a few games in that role to get used to it.

  62. benny is class and has more ability and vision than any player on our books, only colo comes close, shola again was sleepin and benny needs someone that moves and reacts infront of him than somebody that sticks on his defender.benny should be allowed to start in the same side as cabaye, best is more a striker than shola ever has been and would be more a foil for benny to do the damage!

  65. I actually agree with AP about HBA. Until he starts showing he can spot a pass rather than just dribble into either-admittedly-great positions or-more commonly-blind alleys, he shouldn’t start. IF Cabaye misses any time though, I guess he has to by default You do end up having to change the whole team’s tactics for one guy which isn’t ideal. But we should probably be playing that way in any case.

    I don’t mind Best, but we’re pretty exposed with him as our top choice. We lack depth. Of course.

    Maybe some addition to the coaching staff to deal with our tactics on offense would hep. I’m not sure what we’re about at times and Ba aside we look toothless for long periods, however well we possess the ball.