Alan Pardew - Silver supremo? Or Grey gob*****?As we look towards our game against Norwich City, Alan Pardew’s 51st Premiership game as Newcastle United’s manager, I thought that this would be a good opportunity to look back on his time so far and see what we have learned since he arrived at St James’ Park.
The Silver Supremo’s first game, a 3-1 victory against Liverpool, was certainly a good start, as was his eleven game unbeaten run at the beginning of this season. Despite this, he still has his detractors, as well as those on the opposite side. Let’s take a look at the long term picture of what he has achieved in terms of results, and also touch on some of what we have learned about his style of play.
Statistics
I suppose that the best place to start would be to take a look at the statistics of those first 50 games to give us some kind of reference, so here goes! (more…)
The CanariesVenue: St James’ Park, NE1 Date: Sunday, 18th March 2012 Kick-Off: 4pm (Sky TV) Referee: Phil Dowd (Staffordshire)
Newcastle United welcome Norwich City to St James’ Park with manager Alan Pardew hoping that a win in this game could set us up for the big push towards qualification for the Europa League next season. Pardew has targeted “4 or 5 wins” from the remaining 10 fixtures, and sees this game as a great chance to get one of them.
This is also payback time as far as the Magpies are concerned, having lost at Carrow Road earlier in the season where we had to field a defence with no recognised central defenders against the “robust” Norwich forwards. Needless to say, we lost but Demba Ba still managed to score 2 goals that day, and it will hopefully be even better this time round as we should be able to field a stronger defence. We should also be able to provide a midfield and attack which will ask the Norwich defence a few questions.
Norwich have acquitted themselves very well in their first season since promotion to the Premier League. In their 14 away games this season they have won 4, drawn 4 and lost only 6. Away wins were at Bolton, QPR, West Bromwich Albion and Swansea, although it’s also worth noting that they have earned creditable draws at such places as Everton, Liverpool and Stoke City. In away games against top six clubs like us however (did you see what I did there!), they have not fared so well! (more…)
Ben Arfa's goal, the only real highlight for the Magpies.Venue: Ashburton Grove, London. Date: Mon 12th Mar 2012. Kick-Off: 8pm. Referee: Howard Webb.
Well, Arsenal came from behind once more to clinch victory for the fourth time in a row, which I have been informed is a Premiership record. Whilst the first half of the game wasn’t exactly dull, a minute or two of pure excitement (with two goals in the process) put the rest of it in the shade somewhat. The second half was generally an exciting affair, though not necessarily for the right reasons from a black and white perspective. Despite being pounded by the Gunners’ artilllery, they were not finishing their fairly numerous chances as they might, and with some sterling defensive work, the Magpies almost held on. Sadly it was not be though, with Geordie hearts broken right at the death. (more…)
Corgnet still on the radar?Newcastle United will look to strengthen the squad in the summer (according to press reports) but who are the ins and outs likely to be?
Much of the press is speculating that Newcastle will see a large influx of players in the summer, with some suggesting that as many as five new faces might be present in next season’s squad. The books will of course still have to balance, so what are the likely courses of action?
First, players will need to leave in order to free up the cash for fresh purchases and that will begin by getting Alan Smith – and his alleged extortionate wages – off the books. Lovenkrands’ contract is up in the summer too; I have no idea what sort of wages he’s on but I’m guessing his contract won’t be renewed.
I think two players who may make an exit are Cheick Tiote and Demba Ba. Tiote was signed for a fee of just £3.5m from FC Twente in August 2010 and I’d guess he’s now worth 2-3 times that amount with Chelsea apparently front-runners to sign him. Demba Ba was of course signed on a free and we’ve since heard Harry ‘Loudmouth’ Redknapp blabbing on about some sort of release clause in his contract and that might mean we don’t get too much for him, but his excellent scoring rate this season has certainly attracted attention. In fact, Demba Ba has just been voted ‘Best Signing Of The Season’ having accrued 56% of the vote from the League Managers’ Association (Phil Jones and Scott Parker were second with 13% each). (more…)
FlashpointNewcastle United might face a second successive week of FA disciplinary action following Monday’s game against Arsenal and people have had plenty to say about the Krul v Van Persie row.
There has been some fallout from the Arsenal game, not least as a result of the spat between Tim Krul and Robin Van Persie. Jack Wilshere twitted a warning about Van Poncy’s temper:
“Newcastle can’t say we didn’t deserve it! Why is Tim Krul crying as well? Obviously he doesn’t know about RVP’s temper! Don’t mess with the captain!”
As far as I can gather from the press reports, the row between the two players was as much about Van Persie’s attempts to stand close to Krul for the goal kicks as it was about any alleged time wasting. According to Dutch lip readers on The Telegraph’s payroll, Krul threatened to kick the ball at Van Persie’s head to which Van Persie said “Go on then“. NUFCBlog’s Dutch lip reader is absent at the moment so I can’t confirm any of this.
To be honest, I didn’t really notice an unusual amount of time-wasting by Krul until the commentator mentioned it and the crowd started booing, and in at least one instance the crowd were booing when the ball was still in play, so maybe Wenger needs to give his team a ‘Laws of the Game’ refresher. (more…)
