Hatem Ben Arfa: Will he change the team dynamic?Now that the king has returned from injury so to speak, I began wondering (always dangerous for someone like me) how will Ben Arfa slot back into the Newcastle Team?
Let’s clear one thing up, NUFC are not the sort of team the can afford to leave Benny sat on the bench, it’s obvious we are going to use his talent in the first team wherever possible. However I do have concerns over how it changes the team dynamic.
The old sayings “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it” rings true for me here, NUFC are quietly getting on with it, picking up points on our travels and generally looking solid. Will Ben Arfa’s return upset the apple cart?
Looking at most people’s team sheet’s with HBA in, they all seem to follow what I class as a football manager type approach: (more…)
Long ball game?With recent accusations of Alan Pardew’s alleged long ball tactics, I wanted to ask the question: do Newcastle United play the long-ball game and does it matter?
After England’s 1-1 draw against the United States in the 2010 World Cup Franz Beckenbauer had this to say:
“What I saw from the English in their 1-1 draw against the United States had very little to do with football.
“It looked to me as if the English have gone backwards into the bad old times of kick and rush. I am not sure if the England coach Fabio Capello can still change much there. The English are being punished for the fact that there are very few English players in the Premier League clubs as they use better foreign players from all over the world.”
Beckenbauer had the last laugh too of course because we subsequently crashed 4-1 to Germany, but is his general damnation of the long ball game valid? And I ask because there have been a few questions lately about Newcastle’s game plan and whether or not Alan Pardew prefers the long ball game. (more…)
Irons in the fire at Glanford Park.Venue: Glanford Park, Scunthorpe. Date: Thursday, 25 August. Kick-off: 7:45PM. Referee: Graham Salisbury.
Scunthorpe united await the Magpies this Thursday night as the two sides meet at Glanford Park in the League Cup second round.
The match is scheduled for live broadcasting via Sky Sports 1, kick-off is at 7.45pm (BST). Graham Sailsbury is the man in the middle. Hopefully, Alan Parry won’t be Sky commentator for the game, simply because I find his voice annoying. We shall see…
The tie must finish on the night, with 30 minutes extra time to decide the match if the scores are still level after 90 minutes. If after extra time there is no winner, the game will be decided by penalties. We all love a good penalty shoot-out, don’t we?
You may remember our last visit to the Irons during our 2009-2010 championship season, where United lost the match 2-1. Kevin Nolan was on target for us that night. (more…)
Newcastle's starting 11 against Darlington.Now being a Geordie expatriate in London, I wasn’t at the Darlington game personally, but from what I can gather, manager, Alan Pardew lined his troops in the increasingly popular ‘4-2-3-1’ formation.
When I say “increasingly popular”, I mean within the English Premier League as many overseas teams have utilised this formation for quite some time now. Since it’s inception some time around the 1980s, there has been some debate on whether this is what could be described as an ‘attacking’ formation, or merely a variation on the 4-5-1 system, making it more flexible in attack by allowing three of the central five to move forward to support an old fashioned ‘number nine’ type figure who can both hold the ball and shoot.
Anyway, in Newcastle United’s case on Friday evening, this line up involved the use of Leon Best upfront, supported by Hatem Ben Arfa in a kind of midfield playmaker / second striker type role. On either side of Ben Arfa were Haris Vuckic on the left with Joey Barton in his right sided role from last season. Playing the more defensive role further back in midfield there was Alan Smith and Danny Guthrie, with (L to R) Shane Ferguson, Steven Taylor, Mike Williamson and Danny Simpson making up the usual back four (see picture). Admittedly, the personnel were much changed later on as is usually the case in such friendly games, but the principle remained much the same throughout most of the game. In an interesting side point though, much vaunted new signing, Yohan Cabaye was later used in the more defensive midfield two after poor Danny Guthrie had to come off with an ankle knock sustained after only eleven minutes of the game. (more…)
First choices?Speculation as to how the Newcastle United team might line up next season, who will be the first choices in various positions and who else is needed.
Goalie
With news that Fraser Forster may be the subject of a £1.5m bid from Celtic and given that he has intimated he’d like a move to the Scottish club it seems likely that he won’t be in contention for us next season. Forster may not eventually leave of course and there’s nothing to say we won’t bring in another keeper, but somehow I doubt it.
The first choice goalkeeping position will therefore most likely be fought out between Harper and Krul with Soderberg as a backup.
