How much will he be missed?Is the Africa Cup of Nations going to cause serious problems for Newcastle United, particularly in relation to Demba Ba?
The Africa Cup of Nations (ACoN) has its first group game on the 21st January and the final is on 12th February, which means that players will be away from their respective clubs for potentially 3 weeks of tournament time plus preparation/recovery time.
For Newcastle, that means the loss of two of this season’s top performers: Demba Ba and Cheick Tiote. Ba’s Senegal is in Group A along with Equatorial Guinea, Libya and Zambia whilst Tiote’s Ivory Coast is in Group B along with Sudan, Burkina Faso and Angola.
Gossip abounds about Pardew’s desire to recruit a new striker, although if Modibo Maiga is that striker then we’re no better off during the ACoN because Mali is also in the tournament.
I would not imagine that the club will be recruiting a striker simply for a 3-week tournament anyway, so presumably Pardew intends to cover for the ACoN with the players he has already got. That could mean a start for Shola (if he’s fit) or for Benny, either of who could play up front with Leon Best.
The worry of course is how we’d cope without the player who has scored half of our 16 league goals this season. Ba had this to say about his absence: (more…)
Newcastle United's dugout last Saturday.After a gutsy win over Everton this weekend I picked myself up from the floor after a nervous last 20 minutes or so and began to wonder, “Did the performance display Newcastle United’s squad depth and quality, or did it highlight our lack of it?”
Let me explain. Most so called “pundits” have attributed the main factor of our success to the ability to put out the same team each week without injuries, now with Gabriel Obertan, Yohan Cabaye and Sylvain Marveaux picking up little injury niggles as highlighted in a previous blog, I think a few fans are beginning to wonder how this will affect the team in the coming weeks against the big boys of the Premier League.
In the first 35 minutes or so at St James Park we dominated Everton in my opinion. They had a couple of chances with Seamus Coleman and Louis Saha but no real sustained pressure. Then the injuries began to appear. Cheik Tiote, having already been sidelined previously, was then joined by our midfield maestro, Cabaye. For me that turned the game on its head, something that Pardew agreed with. The lads that were brought on to plug the gaps so to speak (Dan Gosling, Hatem Ben Arfa etc) did the job and brought the 3 points home. However I can’t decide if it was a quality defensive display, or just Newcastle struggling with our 2nd string. (more…)
Newcastle United: Taking on the "big guns" next.The testing never stops ’round here! As we go into the lull that is international football and worse still, friendly internationals, we see our first major flood of injuries hobble into the Saint James’ Park sickbay.
At least we’ll have a couple of weeks to try and get over some of them. All the while attempting to ready ourselves for the next round of tests. Next up will be the Manchester’s of City and United. With City returning to the place where Hatem Ben Arfa was so cruelly hacked down and the Lads were cheated out of a result with ref decisions, what with a dodgy penalty for them, and a clear one for us turned down. Citeh have spent even bigger since then and it’ll be one tough game. Of course the ‘pundits’ will at least be satisfied that we’re being tested properly for once. If we get an better ref, who knows what can happen?
I saw enough of Man City’s game at QPR to suggest that if you have a go at them, goals are available as their back line looks a little suspect at times. It’ll be interesting to see if Hatem Ben Arfa gets to play this game, and it would be even better if he did and made them pay for last seasons debacle. (more…)
Long match highlights of yesterday’s Newcastle United v Everton game. Also includes post match interviews from Alan Pardew, David Moyes, Ryan Taylor and pundits analysis from a certain TV highlights show.
Below – The full post match interviews with Alan Pardew and David Moyes. If you are having problems playing the interview videos below, it may be because you are using Internet Explorer. (more…)
Watching Tony Pubis ‘kick off’ because of our defenders using their (Stoke’s) tricks, er, tactics at throw ins. Namely, taking time to dry the ball with the towels provided for Rory Delap’s thunderbolts. He must have thought double drat when Ryan Taylor actually produced some howitzers of his own; nice one Ryan.
He (Pubis) also looked ‘put on the spot’ and decidedly uncomfortable when asked by the reporter about Stoke’s reticence to buy Demba “ticking time bomb” Ba when they had the chance recently.
All in all, Stoke were ‘out Stoked’ in a game that made them look perticularly ordinary and belied their terrific and enviable home record. Newcastle took the game to them, put them under constant early pressure and were rewarded for their endeavour with a 2 goal half time lead.
Most of Stoke’s lads were rendered anonymous for large tracts of the game. The ref seemed to ‘help’ Stoke back into the game in the second half with what looked a very innocuous penalty, but to his credit, he seemed to ‘even it up’ just 6 minutes later, handing Demba Ba the opportunity to complete a ‘perfect’ hat-trick from the spot. (more…)
