Newcastle United failed to produceHeat problems, turf issues and a collection of cartoon characters stood in the way of today’s game. Undeterred, Newcastle United went to watch a game of football – and that’s about all they did.
Immediately after kick off, the lads were forced to defend as Orlando City threw everything they had at us. Misplaced pass after misplaced pass plagued our team who were unable to escape their half of the pitch for the opening 5 minutes. Short of some smart runs and passing play (including a 1-6 between Alan Smith and Cheik Tioté), Orlando controlled the game.
In that time Ryan Taylor, who was playing at left back, managed to pick up a knock and was substituted on the 25th minute for Jose Enrique. Here’s hoping that knock is minor and he was taken off as a precaution.
Just so you have an idea of Orlando’s dominance, we had conceded around 4 or 5 corners at this stage – compared to the 0 Orlando had conceded.
Once the 35 minute mark had hit, Newcastle sprung to life and charged out of their end of the pitch, thanks to Enrique, and tried to keep the play beyond the centre circle. Dinks from Jonas (playing on the right!) was blocked, and as the ball was kicked out wide to Dan Gosling, he promptly ran into an Orlando defender. Canny. (more…)
Pardew: Can he bring the entertainment back to SJP?Newcastle United manager, Alan Pardew, has been speaking in a rare interview of his plans for the new season, saying that he wants to set up the team to be more “exciting”. The usually reticent supremo also added that new signings such as Demba Ba, Sylvain Marveaux and Yohan Cabaye will give his side a “renewed hunger for the forth-coming campaign”.
On bringing a little excitement back to Newcastle United’s style of play Pardew said:
“I am hoping to deliver a side that looks a little bit different, and our style will change a little bit too.
“I am hoping we have a really exciting season – and that is how the team will be set up, to be exciting.
“I can’t wait to start and be around the city and the club again.”
He then expressed delight on how well his new squad is taking shape and gushed about his five new players (including Ben Arfa and Gosling) adding: (more…)
Birmingham target, allegedlyBirmingham allegedly want Newcastle’s Leon Best. Dan Gosling and Hatem Ben Arfa gets in some early pre-season training. And Michael Owen seems to have upset a few people.
With all the speculation about who we might be buying, I’d quite forgotten that other teams might want some of our players other than Jose Enrique.
If you believe the Mail (no tittering), freshly relegated Birmingham are after Leon Best to replace Cameron Jerome who Alex McLeish seems resigned to losing. I actually thought Leon Best did a decent job for us last season, getting 6 goals in 12 games, and of all our current strikers he’s the one I’d most like to keep, but I guess it depends on who we bring in over the summer to enhance our goal-scoring capabilities.
How much do you think Best is worth anyway?
Both Dan Gosling and Hatem Ben Arfa have made an early return for pre-season training to ensure that they’re fully fit for next season. (more…)
The Goose plots his comebackNewcastle United midfielder Dan Gosling looks forward to being a regular in the team next season.
A player most fans have been keen to see in action but have so far not had much of a chance to is Dan Gosling. His only appearance for us this season was as a substitute in injury time during January’s 1-1 draw with Brucie’s rabble. He allegedly has talent but injury has prevented him from demonstrating it to us while he’s been at Newcastle.
Gosling admits his lengthy time under the doctor (ooerr missus) has been tedious but he’s still keen to get back into playing regularly:
“I need a break, I’ve been in the gym for about a year now and it’s just mentally draining.”
“I’ll get a few weeks off then I start early before the lads come back so hopefully from the first day of pre-season I’ll be with the lads and raring to go.
“My knee is good, I’ve had a few other niggles obviously because I’m not used to training, my body isn’t used to being out there.
“I’ve had a few set-backs with my thigh and groin, but the knee is fine and I’m just raring to get back into playing regularly.” (more…)
Pardew: More patience required with injuries?In the last few days, Newcastle United manager, Alan Pardew has been bemoaning the size of the Newcastle squad in the wake of recent injuries, suspensions and last Sunday’s defeat to Aston Villa.
Amongst other things, he said of our capitulation in that game:
“We didn’t have the options we should have for a club our size. That is a little note for next year.
“We don’t want to get in that situation again. Villa bought on the likes of Reo-Coker, Heskey and Pires and it makes a big difference.”
Yet, in terms of numbers in the first team squad and the value of the players, Newcastle United are by no means amongst the weakest in the Premiership. We have one of the larger first team squads in the Premiership in terms of numbers (29, which is four larger than Aston Villa’s) and are lower mid-table in terms of squad value. However, putting aside the suspension of important players for the last game, our biggest problem has been the amount of injuries which have gradually started to deplete the squad since Alan Pardew took charge in December of last year. One thing that Pardew didn’t mention in terms of the “options” Aston Villa manager, Gerard Houllier had in that game was that there wasn’t a single injured player in his first team squad on Sunday. (more…)
