Instead of Tiote?Is there a case for giving Dan Gosling a run in the Newcastle United midfield instead of Cheick Tiote who, this writer argues, isn’t having the best run of form?
In a recent interview, Cheick Toite has been saying he’s been enjoying his new partnership with Yohan Cabaye in the centre of midfield. Tiote said:
“Last week I think we played very well together. It is good and it is working well.
“Last season was different with Kevin Nolan, it was a different style of play. Kevin went forward more and scored goals.
“Yohan is a more technical player and uses a different style. They are both good players.
“But Yohan likes to play with the ball more – he brings the best out of me. If you are a winning team the most important area is the midfield.”
Now I will admit that I didn’t see the Villa game last weekend as I was otherwise engaged, but I have seen every other match this season and I thought that the Tiote-Cabaye partnership was something that needed work. (more…)
These embarrassing pictures really need to be updated now.Of course, the League Cup is regarded as the lowest rung of the “major” trophies.
Conventional wisdom in the highest echelon of English football, ie the Premiership clubs and especially the top Premiership clubs, is that it gives them a chance to give their precocious bairns who aren’t quite “ready” yet a chance for some kind of meaningful competition. It is also a chance to dust down old cloggers kept in case of emergency and give them a chance keep their hands, or more correctly perhaps, their feet in, lest they spend so long on the sidelines that they seize up with arthritis, or forget that they were ever footballers on the first place.
There are undoubetedly reasons for this, which is why top managers who have forgotten more about football than I will ever know treat it in exactly this way. It is true for the lower Premiership clubs that survival in the division comes above everything for the financial reasons I’m sure you all know, and the teams at the other end have much bigger fish to fry, ie competing for the greatest prizes of all, the League and the Champion’s League. However, conventional wisdom can sometimes be so prevalent that the most productive thing in the long term can actually be to go against the grain, to break the existing paradigm quite simply because hardly anyone else is doing it. (more…)
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…)
The goblin is worriedNewcastle United have had what can only be described as a strong start to the season but where will the real tests come and how will we respond to them?
The one good thing about having no expectations is that you can’t be disappointed. But notice I wrote ‘no’ expectations instead of ‘low’ expectations, so that also means you can’t be elated either.
But no expectations is just what I had at the start of the season. I suppose I must concede that even amongst a general lack of expectations I’m pleasantly surprised at our 4th place, but it’s early yet and in terms of a finishing position, anything from 8th to 18th wouldn’t surprise me. 6th or 7th – and likewise 19th or 20th – probably would surprise me a little, but I can’t say I’d be stunned, shocked, awed, gobsmacked or any other converted past participle adjective of a similar nature.
So what do we make of things so far?
Well, personally, I’ll take 4th at any time in the season. I’d prefer it next May but I’ll take it now. I’ll also take the fact that we look like a gritty, determined, hard to beat team, which is handy because it compensates for our lack of polish and poor passing. (more…)
Missing piece?Newcastle United’s Hatem Ben Arfa is keen to get started with Premier League football after his appearance against Nottingham Forest in the Carling Cup on Tuesday. Alan Pardew won’t be rushing him back but could it be that the eventual return of Ben Arfa will signal a shift in the way the whole team plays?
Hatem Ben Arfa has played very few minutes of first team football for Newcastle since joining the club, yet an awful lot of expectation seems to surround the lad. It’s as if he’s the missing piece to some puzzle.
After playing against Nottingham Forest in the Carling Cup on Tuesday, Ben Arfa is now keen to get his first Premier League start of the season. Benny said:
“All the year I worked so hard to come back and I’m very happy to be on the pitch now. I’m very happy to see the supporters again and I thank them for all the encouragement last year. I feel very good. I have confidence and I feel I will do very good things now.
“I feel ready to play in every match now, in fact I’m dying to play.” (more…)
