Perch doubtful – Tavernier recalled. Swansea v Newcastle match preview.

Posted on April 5th, 2012 | 30 Comments |

Swansea vs Newcastle match preview, April 2012.
Modern digger spotted in Wales
Newcastle United look to make it four wins a row as they visit the Liberty Stadium to take on Swansea City in a late afternoon fixture on Friday evening.

Venue: Liberty Stadium, Swansea.
Date: Fri 6th Apr 2012.
Kick-Off: 16:30.
Referee: Howard Webb.

It’s off to Wales this weekend and it’s to play a team that has been praised for their footballing style and one which looks easily assured of their place in the Premier League at the end of this season. I think we’ll have to play well to beat Swansea at the Liberty and I reckon this will be a hard-fought game from which we might be pleased with a point in the end.

We are however in ascendancy and have a certain amount of momentum with us. I can see no good reason why Alan Pardew would change the 4-3-3 formation we’ve played with success in recent weeks and I wouldn’t be surprised if he puts out a similar team to the one we played on Sunday. If Perch and Williamson can again put in the sort of performance they did last Sunday we should be pretty solid at the back despite being without both our first choice centre-backs. There are however doubts over the fitness of both Perch and Guthrie, so a certain amount of reshuffling may be necessary.

If we play the flowing football we’ve managed in recent weeks this could be a great game to watch and I reckon it could easily see 4 or 5 goals.

Swansea manager Brendon Rodgers is currently the subject of speculation as the man to replace Harry Redknapp at Spurs if Redknapp should be the next England manager, although Swansea insist he’s not going anywhere of course. Rodgers, however, intimated that he might be when he said:

Swansea will be successful when I go. The most important thing is the club will have continued success because of their common sense approach which we’ve seen over their recent history.

Either way, I doubt this will detract from their performance on the weekend. Swansea have only lost 3 at home all season so we’ll have our work cut out.

Recent Stats

Swansea come into the this on the back of two straight defeats to Spurs (away) and Everton (home), but up until those two games they were in fine form beating Fulham and Wigan away and Man City at home. Overall this season they’ve won 10, draw 9 and lost 12 but they’ve only lost 3 matches at home (and won 6 and drawn 6 too).

We of course are flying high with wins against Liverpool, West Brom and Norwich, although our away form in the last 6 isn’t spectacular having won only 2 of them (West Brom, Blackburn) and lost the other 4 (Arsenal, Spurs, Fulham, Liverpool).

Last 6 League Games             Pts
Swansea – All Games L W W W L L 9/18
Newcastle – All Games D D L W W W 11/18
 
Swansea – Home D W D L W L 8/18
Newcastle – Away L L W L L W 6/18

History

There’s precious little history between Newcastle and Swansea in the Premier League years and we’ve only played them once, which was the 0-0 draw at St James’ Park earlier this season.

We did of course play them in out Championship season beating them 3-0 at home (Harewood (2) and Lovenkrands) and drawing 1-1 away (Carroll for us, Cotterill for them).

I can’t find any stats for fixtures outside the Premier League but, for the historians reading, I did find this little gem where we beat them 3-0 in a 3rd round FA Cup match in 1953: http://www.britishpathe.com/video/newcastle-v-swansea. We lost 3-1 at home to Rotherham in the next round!

Team News

SWANSEA

Nathan Dyer is back in contention for a place and Steven Caulker – who was ineligible for the Spurs game – will be back. Frerrie Bodde is out with a knee injury and Kenny Agustien is out for the rest of the season with an ankle injury but otherwise Swansea are looking fairly fit.

Swansea (from): Vorm, Williams, Taylor, Caulker, Tate, Britton, Graham, Sinclair, Dyer, Routledge, Monk, McEachran, Lita, Moore, Bessone, Rangel, Situ, Allen, Tremmel, Gower, Richards, Sigurdsson, Obeng.

Ones to watch out for are Iceland’s Gylfi Sigurdsson, currently on loan to Swansea for 1899 Hoffenheim, who has 6 goals in 11 league games for the Swans and scored last weekend in their defeat at White Hart Lane. Danny Graham is their top scorer with 10 league goals in 25 and Leon Britton usually does a good job of running things from midfield.

We could find ourselves up against ex-Toon winger Wayne Routledge too of course.

NEWCASTLE

Danny Guthrie went off against Liverpool last weekend after pulling his calf but might be in contention for a starting place. All Pardew has had to say on it is “we’ll have to see“. Apparently Perch picked up a knock in the last game too and he is also doubtful, and Vuckic picked up an injury in training that will rule him out.

Otherwise our injury list is pretty much as it was for the last game: Steve Taylor is still 3 months away from fitness and Peter Lovenkrands 2 months. Colo could be back for the Bolton game on Monday but it’s more likely his hamstring injury will need until the Stoke game on 21st April to properly mend. Sammy Ameobi needs over a month and Leon Best is still out for some undetermined length of time as far as I can establish. Silvain Marveaux is allegedly only a matter of days away from fitness though, which might give Alan Pardew a further option after Easter.

James Taverier has been recalled from loan at MK Dons, so he may be in contention too, possibly as a stand-in for Perch in central defence if Perch isn’t fit in time.

Newcastle (from): Krul, Elliot, Simpson, R Taylor, Santon, Tavernier, Ferguson, Perch(?), Williamson, Kadar, Cabaye, Tiote, Guthrie(?), Obertan, Ben Arfa, Gutierrez, Gosling, Abeid, Shola Ameobi, Ba, Cisse.

What The Managers Say

At the time of writing I couldn’t find a quote from Brendon Rodgers but Swansea’s Nathan Dyer had this to say about us:

They have really impressed this season.

They have some very good players there and maybe they’ve caught some people by surprise.

But we took a point at their place earlier in the season and we’re determined to get something from this game after two losses, so it should be a very good game to watch.

Ahead of the game, Alan Pardew has had this to say about things:

We’ve got momentum and that is the most important thing for us.

We go to the next game, set up the next game and that is a very important ingredient of what we have done this year. Hopefully all our fans can get down to Swansea safely and hopefully we can put in a performance that warrants that journey.

And if we get a performance there then we have got two good home games after that.

Swansea play a different system, a different way and it will be different questions asked of us, but that’s what we’ve been good at.

We’ve been asked all sorts of questions – Stoke, Manchester United, and now we go to Swansea who keep the ball, stretch the pitch, keep the ball away from you for long periods.

But with the players we’ve got we can still hurt them when we get it, and that’s what we are trying to achieve.

And about Ben Arfa he said:

I’m highly delighted with Hatem, and he should be highly delighted himself.

He’s had to be patient. I’ve been drilling things into him about the responsibilities in this team.

Then he’s had to bring his flair. He’s doing his responsibilities, and he’s showing his amazing ability.

Regarding Colo’s injury status he said:

I spoke to Coloccini this morning and he’s going to give himself a good chance for Bolton, and try and concentrate on being fit for that. He isn’t going to be far away so if he doesn’t play it’s probably going to be me deciding it’s too risky rather than him. Knowing him, he’ll want to play.

Howay The Lads!

NUFCBlog Author: Hugh de Payen I'm a baby-boomer of the punk rock persuasion, currently exiled in Somerset for crimes committed in a previous life where locals keep trying to poison me with something called 'scrumpy'. Hates sprouts, coat-hangers, Cilla Black, ornaments, Steven Seagull movies and 50 Cent (he's not worth 10). Hugh de Payen has written 634 articles on this blog.

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30 Responses

  1. This week is Good Friday, where all thoughts turn to a long haired man who died on the end of a cross.

    Happy Easter, Andy Carroll!

    :)

  2. UTD111 – good one!
    It’s a sign of the times that I’m disappointed to read that Perch is doubtful – hope he plays.

    Off-subject – does anyone know of a mail order that supplies a Virgin Money home shirt without an “applied patch” – or do we have to wait until next season?

    And – has there been any further word on the “possible £20m” that Branson’s sponsorship “might” be worth? And when can we spend it?

    1-1 (Cisse of corse)
    HWTL

  3. lol UTD111. Hope Perch can factor in. It’d be nice to be able to field the same back four just for stability’s sake. Perhaps it’s not in the cards… or mind games from our silver fox.

  4. Apart from the Mancs, Swansea are the pass masters in the BPL

    However that doesnt mean they’re invincible nor unstoppable. They love to play “triangles” and move the ball upfield to give them their best opportunity to score. However they generally begin that process through keeper Michel Vorm. Please note TK’s stats could be a lot better if Pardwho had the balls to begin from the back as well.

    So we sit on their defence and, in particular, Leon Britton who has the best ball retention stats in the top flight with a 93% pass completion and 1574 successful passes in total.

    We dont let them build from the back, we sit our front three high up the park and force Swansea to hoof the ball (anyone recall this tactic ?) rather than lose it.

    If we go 4-4-2 we’ll lose this game so Pardwho has to have the the Cojones to take the game to the Welshmen

  5. workyticket says:

    “Andy, So you’re saying that Pardew should have the balls to have a really good go at their back end. :-)”

    Er no you’re saying that :) Probably because you should get out more ?

  6. Why do the stats on Simpson not surprise me ?
    Been praising his game for a long time and hope the money guy at NUFC has enough sense to give him the contract he deserves.
    I can understand why some fans may think he’s not that good.
    He’s like another ex Man. U. defender Dennis Erwin, both unspectacular, guys who make things look easy, by a great positional awareness, who just get the job done without playing to the crowd with a hard tackle and seldom goes to ground.
    He’s also got pace, which may surprise some fans.

  7. A draw puts us back to 5th with the pressure on chelski.
    A win puts us 2 points behind spurs with pressure on them!
    It’s all to play for and we are the form team !

    BTW we may have discussed it – but if chelski win the Ch.L do they qualify as holders?

  8. Yus and there’s only three other other places for CL teams from Enggalnd so fourth place will go to Europa. :(

    Realistically it aint gonna happen :)

  9. That’ll be “England” so fourth place from the BPL would go into the Europa League and 5th as well.

  10. AndyMac says:
    April 5, 2012 at 7:01 pm

    “Associations 1–6 (England included) each have three teams qualify”

    From Wiki:

    “Below is the qualification scheme for the 2012–13 UEFA Europa League:
    Associations 1–6 each have three teams qualify
    Associations 7–9 each have four teams qualify”

    I’m pretty sure that’s the wrong way around. Associations 1-6 are England, Spain, Germany, Italy, France and Portugal.

    Associations 7–9 are Russia, Ukraine and the Netherlands. 1-6 are the top leagues and they’re the ones who should have four teams gannin’ through. There was talk of England slipping out of the top group because of a relatively poor showing in the competition this year, but that was sorted by Chelski gannin’ through against Benfica the other evening.

  11. phisix says:
    April 5, 2012 at 6:44 pm
    Is this game on tv again or will we have to stream?
    ________________________________

    Sky Telly 4.30pm!

    :)

  12. ANDTMAC
    Am i missing something ?
    Whats the BPL ?
    Surely you dont mean The British Premier League ?
    Hell i got chastised for calling it the EPL and was told it was self explanitory and that PL would suffice.
    Perhaps the fact there’s a non English side involved, now makes it the BPL ?
    So what do we do with the Scot’s leagues, who have two non Scottish sides can we also apply the British label.
    I have to admit this is all very confusing.

  13. Ah get on, but I don’t usually finish work on a friday until 4. I’m going to have to walk home faster to make it. :D

  14. Looking forward to the game – two good teams playing who both can play football. Tough match to decide but I think well scrape it 2-1 with Graham and Siggie scoring for us but it could go either way. Good Luck and well done this season!

  15. Swans4life says:
    April 5, 2012 at 8:26 pm
    Looking forward to the game – two good teams playing who both can play football. Tough match to decide but I think well scrape it 2-1 with Graham and Siggie scoring for us but it could go either way. Good Luck and well done this season!
    __________________________________________

    Welcome to the forum mate – aye should be a cracker!

    Well done your lads this season, youve won a lot of admirers with your style of footy :)

  16. Chuck – BPL is Barclays Premier League as there are other Premier Leagues in this great world of ours.

    WT – The seeding for UEFA allows BPL teams to enter later than their counterparts in groups 7-9. So in theory they could lose a team by the time the real competition !!!! starts. Did I say real competition ?

    UTD111 – “You play teams in tides really. Sometimes the tide is in and sometimes the tide is out” Presumably when we played Spuds at WHL we were stranded too far from the shore, stuck in the mud banks ????

  17. Swans4life says:

    “Tough match to decide but I think well scrape it 2-1 with Graham and Siggie scoring for us but it could go either way. Good Luck and well done this season!”

    Well done to you lot for some really refeshing attitudes to playing football at the highest level.

    Sigi is a player I hoped we would bring in when it looked likely Reading were going to have to part company with him. His spell at Hoffenheim (when he was voted Player of the Season by the fans) appears to have convinced those who needed convincing that he could play at the top level. Having said that I’m not too sure that the BPL is any better in terms of quality than the Bundesliga.

    Lets hope for an entertaining game tomorrow (cant get a ticket cos its sold out) and a 3-1 win for Toon. HBA to edge out Sigi as MOTM :)

  18. Worky

    I’m not sure that new piccie of you at the top of the blog will pull in many girls, mate….

    Still, I’m sure your mum still loves you LOL!

  19. Good to see the lads are recruiting their mates such as Krul & Pieters, Cabaye & Mathieu Debuchy ! Shows great team spirit and both seem the kind of good defenders we’re looking for – who needs scouts?

  20. UTD111 – good grief, I’ve just seen it! Is it not Ashley with acute constipation?

  21. Supermac says:
    April 6, 2012 at 10:41 am
    UTD111 – good grief, I’ve just seen it! Is it not Ashley with acute constipation?
    _________________________________

    My understanding is it’s Worky first thing in the morning – before he put his teeth in LOL!

  22. Super-I’ve been looking for shirts without the patch as well, as I actually like our orange change kits this season and have allowed myself a shirt since the club ponied up for Cisse. Can’t find one. Gotta wait for next season I guess…

    I’m definitely heading to the pub for an early lunch. We have a couple of the league’s best midfielders for disrupting opponents sitting in the middle and Swansea ping it around as well as anyone. Should be a real chess match. I think the quality of our forwards will tip it in our favor but I’d be happy with a point.

  23. Oh, and I’d really be happy with a point if Perch can’t play. Fingers crossed!

  24. With no Guthrie is Gosling a shoe in or are there other options ? Abeid, Tiote and Cabaye ?