Crocked?Newcastle United midfielder Yohan Cabaye fears he may have ligament damage to his ankle.
Yohan Cabaye is worried that he picked up a bad ankle injury whilst on international duty for France on Friday. France were playing Albania and by all accounts Cabaye had put in a tidy first half performance but he was substituted just 3 minutes into the second half.
Cabaye’s initial assessment was fairly grim and he told France’s L’Equipe magazine:
“I preferred to be substituted and not take any risk.
“It was a big pain, and I fear ligaments could have been damaged.”
However, shortly afterwards he was quoted as having a slightly more optimistic outlook by the French Football Federation’s web site:
“I hope I will be fit for Tuesday and that this game does not pass me by.(more…)
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…)
Hopeful of a startNewcastle United midfielder Danny Guthrie hopes for a start on Monday while Joey Barton has nothing but good things to say about Toon fans.
Danny Guthrie apparently had a good run in the reserves’ 4-3 defeat to the mackems this week and hopes he might be in Alan Pardew’s plans for Monday.
Guthrie said: “The main thing was to come through with no injuries or recurrences.
“It’s been about two months now and I really want to start kicking on.
“It’s been really tough just watching and doing my own mini pre-season next to the lads training.
“Hopefully I can now get involved on Monday.”
Personally, I think he’ll be lucky to make the bench on Monday but good luck to him anyway.
Meanwhile Joey Barton has nothing but praise for Newcastle fans and said:(more…)
Squad players take the strainOver the last few games Newcastle have had to operate without a few of their regular first team players. Namely: Andy Carroll, Cheick Tiote and Steven Taylor – either because of injury or suspension – and there have also been scares about losing Kevin Nolan and Shola Ameobi.
In the meantime, the squad players that have come in have covered manfully with players like Leon Best, Perter Lovenkrands, James Perch, Nile Ranger and Danny Guthrie.
Not so long ago, we were saying: ‘We’ve got no strength in depth‘, ‘The squad ain’t big enough‘, ‘We won’t cope in this league‘. Some may still feel that that’s the case.
So, I’m asking: Has our ‘squad’ improved?
It seems that Danny Guthrie, after a poor showing last time out, has pulled his game around, delivering a perfect cross for Coloccini to fire home v Spurs. James Perch put in a decent shift. Peter Lovenkrands came on and, but for a desperate lunge by the Spurs defender, could’ve put us two up in the same game.
Nile Ranger is showing some good skill and determination to get at teams and was desperately unlucky not to score; maybe he could’ve squared it to Lovenkrands, but hey, he’s getting there. (more…)
Routledge could have a chance to shine tomorrow.Defeat to Blackburn on Wednesday night brought us back down to earth with a bump, but another home game pretty much straight away gives us a chance to put things right against Fulham.
It also gives Chris Hughton a chance to give some other players a run-out.
Now I’m not talking wholesale changes, although obviously Joey Barton and Shola Ameobi are going to need replaced because of their respective suspension and injury, but the problem is who to replace those two players with. Much of that depends on whether or not Hughton decides to stick with the 4-4-2 formation that has served us so well in recent weeks. If we do stick with that system then I would personally like to see Nile Ranger and Wayne Routledge brought into the line-up.
Routledge will end up facing his former club, and we all know what happens when one of our former players faces us. Inevitably they usually end up having a stormer, so hopefully we can finally do it to another team and Routledge can show us glimpses of what he was doing last season. (more…)
