Papiss Demba Cisse - He Scores When He Wants Venue: Liberty Stadium, Swansea. Date: Fri 6th Apr 2012. Kick-Off: 16:30. Referee: Howard Webb.
Newcastle United cruised into 5th place in the English Premier League on the back of this victory. Both Tottenham and Arsenal are now looking over their shoulders at the Geordie charge, and Chelsea are playing catch up. And with two home games to come, against Bolton Wanderers and Stoke City, do we dare to dream?
This was United’s fourth win on the trot – 12 points out of 12 – and what a time to go on a run like this, at what the media luvvies refer to as “the business end of the season”.
Those of you who have read my drivel before will know that I don’t hold a lot by statistics. The plethora of statistics which are spouted by the media and (sadly) bloggers alike these days. To me, the only statisitics which matter at the end of the day are goals. And if ever there was a game which proved my point about statistics, this was it.
Swansea City had the ball for 77% of the time. Here’s where I make myself unpopular with any welsh folk reading this. It’s easy to have 77% possession if you largely pass the ball sideways or backwards in an attempt to keep hold of it. Ray Wilkins (Chelsea and England) made a career out of it – “my word!”. (more…)
Newcastle United (4-3-3): Tim Krul (G), Danny Simpson, Mike Williamson, James Perch, Jonas Gutierrez (C), Danny Guthrie (Dan Gosling 66), Cheick Tiote, Yohan Cabaye; Hatem Ben Arfa (Davide Santon 90), Papiss Cisse (Shola Ameobi 74), Demba Ba.
Subs: Rob Elliot, Shane Ferguson, Davide Santon, Dan Gosling, Ryan Taylor, Haris Vuckic, Shola Ameobi. (more…)
Adam Maher: Precocious talent.After the news (broken on this site, incidentally) that Newcastle United have already signed a pre contract agreement with Romain Amalfitano. The latest name which has been coming up in recent reports about Newcastle United’s scouting activity is that of precocious 18 year old AZ Alkmaar midfielder, Adam Maher.
One thing which is certain is that the club have been scouting him quite closely, and if they were planning a “daring raid / swoop” on the player, the fee could be probably be in the area of around £3 – 5 million for this very promising youngster, who is the youngest player to score for any Dutch club in the Europa League (apparently). The bad news is that the club may face some fairly stiff competition from several other suitors, though this is hardly surprising with excellent young players like Maher.
Despite his young age, the Dutch-Morroccan teenager has been a regular in the AZ Alkmaar first team (who are currently topping the Dutch Eredivisie). He is a product of their youth academy, having been on the club’s books since the tender age of eleven.
Another mischief making making story in the execrable Daily Fail has been reporting that Newcastle have been looking at Maher as a replacement for Cheick Tiote. Though the players are both central midfielders with Maher also playing on the right, they are both different animals with Maher being more of the attacking and playmaking variety, and he certainly isn’t goal shy (see below).
Anyway, here are his stats for AZ Alkmaar so far (from ESPN).(more…)
Alan Pardew - Silver supremo? Or Grey gob*****?As we look towards our game against Norwich City, Alan Pardew’s 51st Premiership game as Newcastle United’s manager, I thought that this would be a good opportunity to look back on his time so far and see what we have learned since he arrived at St James’ Park.
The Silver Supremo’s first game, a 3-1 victory against Liverpool, was certainly a good start, as was his eleven game unbeaten run at the beginning of this season. Despite this, he still has his detractors, as well as those on the opposite side. Let’s take a look at the long term picture of what he has achieved in terms of results, and also touch on some of what we have learned about his style of play.
Statistics
I suppose that the best place to start would be to take a look at the statistics of those first 50 games to give us some kind of reference, so here goes! (more…)
