Another St Mary's fist pump for Pardew today?Venue: St Mary’s Stadium, Southampton. Date: Sunday, 25th November. Kick off: 3:00pm Referee: Martin Atkinson. UK TV: None.
This game will see our own Silver Supremo squaring up to his Southampton Silver Supremo successor, Nigel Adkins.
Adkins did what Pardew couldn’t quite manage, get the South coast side promoted from League One and then taking them thorugh to the Premiership the following year. And so we face them this afternoon.
To be fair to Pardew though, he was hobbled by a 10 point deduction through administration, though he did have significant financial backing from new owner, Markus Liebherr, and they didn’t even make the League One playoffs, coming seventh. Pardew did make alot of signings who are still mainstays of the current Southampton Premiership side however, with top goalscorer Rickie Lambert, as well as José Fonte, Adam Lallana and Jason Puncheon all being signed by Pardew before he was fired under mysterious circumstances by Saints Chairman, Nicola Cortese.
Adkins’ usually reticent predecessor had this to say on the imbroglio in a rare interview:(more…)
Our last game at their place.Venue: St James’ Park, Newcastle. Date: Thursday, 22nd November. Kick off: 8:05pm Referee: Danny Makkelie (Holland). UK TV: ESPN.
This will be our penultimate game in Europa League group stage, with Newcastle United facing their second (away) leg against Bordeaux for the final game after this one.
As things stand, the Magpies lead the group with eight points and a win should see us safely through to the next stage. However the Magpies only lead second placed Bordeaux by only one point. Hence the big question should be whether we finish first or second on our group, which will probably have a bearing on the strength of the opposition we would face in the next round. Meanwhile, this evening’s opponent’s chances are now hanging by a thread as they are currently bottom with only two points. This means that so far, things are going as they might have been predicted from the start, with Newcastle United being narrow favourites over Bordeaux, with Brugge being seen as the slightly stronger of the two underdogs. Speaking as a Newcastle United fan, I sincerely hope the Belgians go out after their disgraceful treatment of travelling Toon fans in the second away leg at their place. But I digress… (more…)
The supreme playmaker.Venue: St James’ Park, Newcastle. Date: Sunday, 17th November. Kick off: 3:00pm Referee: Phil Dowd. UK TV: None.
St James’ Park will be honoured to receive football royalty to St James’ Park as the greatest footballer of the 1990s, and indeed one of the greatest ever, Michael Laudrup, brings his Swansea City side to St James’ Park.
Unlike last week, this game should see an intriguing contrast of styles, as the elegant, flowing Swans are pitted against Pardew’s ugly ducklings, who are currently the Premiership’s biggest “route one” side.
St James’ Park welcomed back two old faces in our last game, Kevin Nolan and Andy Carroll, with the former scoring the winning goal against us. This time it is the turn of Wayne Routledge, who, like Nolan, has flourished since he was thrown out on his ear and declared not good enough for Noocarrssell by our Silver Supremo back in January, 2011. However, under the expert guidance of the playmaker supreme, he has provided six assists for Swansea so far this season, as well as a couple of goals. His four Premiership assists so far are as many as Ben Arfa (2), Cabaye (1), Gutiérrez (0), Shola (0) and Demba Ba (1), not to mention his replacement, Gabriel Obertan (0) have managed collectively. So, like Nolan, he might well be a danger for us alongside his current partner in goalscoring crime, the £2 million bargain of the season and Swansea’s top hitman so far with six goals, Michu.
Big Sam's tactics board, or Alan Pardew's?Venue: St James’ Park, Newcastle. Date: Sunday, 11th November. Kick off: 3:00pm Referee: Mike Dean (the Wirral). UK TV: None.
In case you are one of those who have successfully deceived yourselves that our manager’s real name is Alan Pardiola, and today’s fixture will be a match between a cultured, elegant passing side of fancy foreigners against big, “long ball” Sam, well think again!
As we go into this game Newcastle and West Ham are currently the two biggest “route one” sides in the Premiership. Looking at my OPTA stats, which defines long balls as passes of over 25 yards, Newcastle United and West Ham are the two biggest long ball merchants, with 17.5% of Newcastle’s total passes being long balls, and 17.9% of West Ham’s.
To put this into some kind of perspective, the percentage for Swansea City (our next opponents incidentally) is 9.7%, which is even bigger gulf than it sounds. Of course, this is not to say that the lower the percentage, the better it is or any nonsense like that. As the great Mackem Buddha of football, Bob Paisley, once said (and also Michael Laudrup more recently), “it’s not about the short pass or the long pass. It’s about the RIGHT pass.” Though the great Dane could say that as he could pass a ball 30 yards on to a team mates foot (and from a tight space too) effortlessly! (more…)
P45 for Georges Leekens this week.Venue: Jan Breydel Stadium, Bruges. Date: Thursday, 8th November. Kick off: 6:00pm Referee: L. Banti. UK TV: ESPN.
Well, alot has happened in the world of Club Brugge since since our 1-0 victory against them at St James’ Park two weeks ago.
Back in those dim and distant days, their manager was Georges “Mack the Knife” Leekens (that’s his nickname, honest!) and they were top of the league, having just suffered their first league defeat of the season (1-4 against Zulte-Waregem). Since then however, they have suffered a further three defeats (not counting the one at St James’ Park), and Mack the Knife has been given the order of the boot!
So, will all of this Belgian bedlam be a good thing for our quest to preceed to the next stage of the Europa League ASAP? Or will this make the planning for this game more complex for Alan Pardew? Leekens was sacked following their last game (another defeat to Zulte-Waregem), so our Silver Supremo will be facing a team which will be far more of an unknown quantity under caretaker, Philippe Clement, who is the club’s reserve team coach. Will it be a case of “business as usual” for the team under Clement, or will he strike out with his own tactical ideas to try and arrest the team’s slump in both the Belgian Jupiler League and the Europa League? Of course, there is always the old cliche about the “wounded animal.” Altogether, this will add a bit unpredictabilty to preceedings this evening, both for Pardew and myself in preparing this humble preview. I did as much homework as I could on Brugge in my previous preview, but who knows now?
