Pardew – His form goes up and down like a Bride’s nightie. I must admit I have missed the subject of this piece, not for his modesty, nor his ‘route one’ football (which I analysed in several articles back in 2012) when he was telling everybody that he was a ‘flair’ manager whose teams played entertaining ‘passing’ football in the style of Johan Cruyff and Pep Guardiola, nor for his legendary losing runs that seemed like they would last an eternity, or even the rather annoying way he said ‘Noocarsle’; no, I miss him because, like Joe Kinnear, he was such a great subject for blogs on here!
As for the ‘route one’ football, that certainly hasn’t changed at St James’ Park but that’s another ‘blog, so getting back to this one, in a recent Sky Sports report on the most successful Premier League managers of the last decade, Pardew scraped into the top ten with 304 points, nine places behind winner, Arsene Wenger, who won exactly double Pardew’s total with 608, but ahead of such notables as Manuel Pellegrini (11th with 302 points) and Roy Hodgson (16th with 231 points). Pardew was also ahead of Sir Alex Ferguson (13th with 300 points) and Harry Redknapp (17th with 204 points), though their spells of Premier League management ended too early in the last decade. (more…)
Dwight Gayle – Easily Toon’s most efficient goalscorer. It is no secret, Newcastle United’s strikers couldn’t hit a cow’s backside with a banjo at the moment. Collectively, our four strikers have scored only one goal in the Premier League in 26 games, with almost all of the goals scored by the club so far this season coming from defenders and midfielders. One in particular has been given more than enough time to prove himself and has shown woeful judgment in front of goal whilst others have only had the odd substitute appearence to prove themselves. In this piece I intend to sort the wheat from the chaff and go through their performances at the top level over their careers. (more…)
Could Carroll make the difference? On the eve of the current season, new manager Steve Bruce spoke openly about the need to increase Newcastle’s goal output.
They netted just 42 last term, but owner Mike Ashley did – finally – open the purse strings in a bid to address the problem. A club-record £40 million was splashed on Joelinton alone, while wide man Allan Saint-Maximin arrived with a strong reputation from Nice.
It left Bruce feeling confident: “If you’ve got someone at the top end of the pitch that scores, you’re always in the game”, he said. “We have to cause the other teams a threat – we have that threat now.”(more…)
Steve Bruce: Not a big fan of tactics. Newcastle United currently sit 19th in the Premier League and with Manchester United and Chelsea eagerly waiting around the corner, it seems unlikely Steve Bruce’s men will be rising up the table any time soon. There is an argument that it is too early to worry, as Newcastle were in fact sitting on fewer points this time last season. However, when comparing the same fixtures, Newcastle accumulated 9 points last season, while only picking up 5 this season. This begs the question; where are Newcastle going wrong? (more…)
Yoshinori Muto celebrates a rare goal against Leicester To say that Newcastle have enjoyed a mixed start to the season would be somewhat of an understatement. After Steve Bruce was announced as Rafa Benitez’s successor back in July, it’s clear that the fanbase was divided in their opinions of the future direction that Mike Ashley was looking to take the club in, especially after the departure of Ayoze Perez. An opening day defeat against Arsenal was followed up with a loss against Norwich thanks to three Teemu Pukki goals before the Magpies looked to have found their stride after shocking Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham side with a one-goal victory in London.
With reports of poor warm-ups and much more surrounding Newcastle and their new boss, the win over Spurs injected new hope into their passionate supporters. Although a handful of supporters had hoped for a good run in this season’s Carabao Cup, the spirited display against Leicester City which ended in a penalty shoot-out defeat has highlighted that their application and spirit cannot be questioned. As a result of that, we’re going to consider what the aims should be for the remainder of the season following the recent cup exit. (more…)
