Who made it? And who didn’t?Below you can see two Newcastle United “teams of the season,” which I have assembled based on player statistics from whoscored.com, OPTA and transfermarkt.co.uk.
The first (and most important) is based on performances in the Premier League, with the second based on performances in the Europa League. The figures below the player’s names are their ratings from whoscored.com, which are based on a range of performance metrics based on OPTA stats. To put these into some kind of perspective, whoscored’s most highly rated Premier League goalkeeper last season was Sunderland’s Simon Mignolet with an average of 7.0. In defence it was Tottenham’s Jan Vertonghen with 7.6 and in midfield the honours were shared between Arsenal’s Santi Cazorla and Tottenham’s Gareth Bale, both with 7.9. Finally, up front, Liverpool’s Luis Suarez narrowly pipped Manchester United’s Robin van Persie (7.8) with his 7.9 rating.
Getting back to Newcastle United though, although the goalkeepers, defenders and strikers were pretty straightforward overall, things became more complicated when it came to midfielders who had been played in several different positions during the season, gaining different ratings in different positions. However, after some work, I have finally managed to sort it out. (more…)
Pardew: Blaming inexperience now Europe is overIn his latest defence of his French players, this time against alleged criticism in the media, Alan Pardew’s continued with his latest “inexperience” offensive, which seems to have replaced injuries and Europa League fixtures as his main explaination for Newcastle United’s poor form, which now has the club in a relegation dogfight.
Seemingly relishing the chance to shift the the cold finger of blame from himself to the players in the guise of defending them, the silver one reacted to Luke Edwards’ Observer story which alleged a rift in the dressing room and earned the former Journal hack a ban from Press access to the club. On this he began:
“Some of the criticism of the French group has been so unfair on them.”
He then went on to explain that the latest reason for the club’s recent hammerings has been the Premier League inexperience of his January signings (Debuchy, Gouffran, Sissoko and Haidara), along with Cheick Tiote’s “overmotivation” apparently. On this, Pardew continued: (more…)
McManaman – No further action from the FA.The FA have finally made their statement on Callum McManaman’s vicious attack on Massadio Haïdara’s knee on Sunday, with news that they will be taking no further action.
In their statement on the assault, they claimed that “at least one” of the match officials saw the incident and chose not to take any further action at the time, hence they are powerless to take any further action. It read as follows:
“The FA can confirm that no action can be taken against Wigan Athletic’s Callum McManaman retrospectively following his side’s game against Newcastle United on Sunday 17 March 2013.
“Following consultation with the game’s stakeholders (the Premier League, the Football League, the Professional Footballers’ Association, the League Managers’ Association, Professional Game Match Officials Limited and the National Game) in the summer, it was agreed that retrospective action should only be taken in respect of incidents which have not been seen by the match officials.(more…)
Gouffran: "Tomorrow I will be a Newcastle player."Many of you out there will know by about the signing of versatile 23 year old Montpellier defender, Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa, confirmed this evening on the Newcastle United’s official website. You have probably heard about the allegedly imminent arrival of 20 year old Nancy full back Massadio Haïdara too.
The other one which has been slightly more “under the radar” has been that of 26 year old forward Yoan Gouffran, who played against the Magpies in the first (home) leg of our Europa League tie against Bordeaux.
Well anyway, though there has been no official confirmation by either of the clubs involved at the time of writing, Gouffran confirmed on his Twitter site that he will be joining Newcastle United, subject presumably to a medical of course. So here’s a full translation of what he wrote below:
