Koura: A bonny lad who certainly knows where the goal is!In the last game for Newcastle United’s Reserves clash against a Hamilton Academical 11, it was a young French trialist (named only as “Trialist” on the team sheet) who undoubtedly stole the show.
He scored two goals, narrowly missing out on a hat-trick in a 3-1 victory for the second string Mags.
Newcastle United’s club reporter, Dan King, wrote of the mystery Frenchman:
“Two well-taken goals from a French trialist helped Newcastle Reserves start their pre-season campaign with a win against an experienced Hamilton outfit at the Magpies’ Benton training ground.
“The teenage winger, who has played for his country at youth level, scored twice in the first-half and Marcus Maddison added a third from the penalty spot before Alister Crawford netted a late consolation for the Scottish First Division side, who beat Sunderland’s second-string 3-1 earlier this week and included a host of senior players. (more…)
Debuchy and Simpson: Horses for courses.With Newcastle United being strongly linked with Lille’s and France’s right back, Mathieu Debuchy, I thought it might be a good idea to make a comparison between the player and our existing first choice right back, Danny Simpson, who had a very good season overall with the Magpies, indeed, he was statistically the best right back in the Premiership of 2011-12 according to the “Premiership Index”.
I will be drawing on their relative statistics from last year, as well as my own experiences from what I have seen of Debuchy. Though it may seem somewhat unfair to compare the statistics of a player who played in France’s Ligue 1 to someone who played in the Premiership, nonetheless, on inspection it gives us a fair indication of the different discernable characteristics the two players, and what Debuchy might bring to the club on the right hand side of defence. (more…)
Another award for el Capitán - This time it's the big one!Well, 1485 of you have voted, and we can finally declare that the NUFC Blog readers’ “Player of the Season” is (drumroll):
Fabricio Coloccini!
Second in our 2010 vote, and third in 2011, it’s a case of third time lucky for the curly locked Capitán Colo after beating second placed Tim Krul and third placed Yohan Cabaye convincingly to finally clinch the greatest honour a Newcastle United player can receive. His excellent defensive performances apart, perhaps it was his leadership role this season, a season which saw Newcastle United make it into the Europa League for the first time since 2006/7, which has finally clinched it for him this time?
Though undoubtedly small beer now he has scooped this, the ultimate award, our captain was also the only Newcastle United’s only player to make the Professional Footballers’ Association Premiership “Team of the Year” for his key role in what has been a very good season for the Magpies overall. (more…)
Attack, attack, attack!Following on from my piece on the contributions of our defenders and utilty players this season, let’s carry on with our assessment of Newcastle’s players with a view to deciding who is our Player of the season. I’ll be moving on the engine room now, and later the forwards. There are undoubtedly a few worthy recipients here!
Fortiter defendit triumphans? As we have reached the season’s end, I’m going to jump in and do a little assessment of the players, culminating in a vote for your Newcastle United “Player of the season”.
There have been quite a few stand out performers and stand out performances this term. Some were almost anticipated, others almost definitely weren’t. A few players have come in when the chips were down and done an excellent job. Others either came back from injury or suffered injury and made way for squad players to shine. Then there was the little matter of the African Cup of Nations riving a few players away to play for the respective countries, whilst depriving us of their services. It all adds up to most players getting games to show their worth and to be fair, I can’t think of anyone that has let either themselves, nor Newcastle down. In fact, this season has showed one of the most ‘United’ fronts we’ve had the pleasure to witness, even after the amazing efforts put in through very recent seasons to get us back into the position we find ourselves. Whilst the team effort has been monumental and it’s an ethic that has permeated throughout this campaign, deserving of all the credit in the world, I’m still going ask you: Who is Newcastle’s individual ‘Player of the Season’?
Here’s a little resume to help you along, starting with case for the defence:(more…)
