Up to the job?Newcastle United manager, Alan Pardew, bigs up Best and Lovenkrands and says he will be patient with them.
The much commented upon sale of Andy Carroll to Liverpool followed, 15 minutes of football later, by a fractured cheek for Shola Ameobi left what some might consider to be a hole in our front line.
Best and Lovenkrands – aptly assisted by Ranger and Kuqi in substitute’s roles – have been tasked with plugging that hole until the summer when Pardew can (presumably) hire a striker or two in the transfer market.
I think it’s fair to say that a lot of fans were reticent – if not actually doubtful – about whether Best and Lovenkrands had the wherewithal to lead the line. The Birmingham game proved that they can at least both play together successfully and they got a goal a piece. In fact they were both firing on target back in early January against West Ham when Lovenkrands got a goal and Best got a hat-trick. (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…)
Does he earn his pay packet?Newcastle’s Shola Ameobi seems to divide opinion, with some fans eager to get shot of him at the first opportunity and with others jumping to his defence. This article looks at both sides of the argument.
I had an argument with my wife the other day. Having left our TomTom at home, it was one of those typical man and wife arguments about asking directions.
My wife wanted to stop and ask someone the way and I thought that was the most ludicrous idea I’d ever heard and refused to ask directions. She accused me of being a loser and I said that, being a Villa supporter, she’d know all about being a loser. Then I was given the silent treatment, which at least meant I could peacefully get on with following a car at random, which is my tactic in such circumstances.
Anyway, we got where we wanted to be and I was very smug. My wife said I was just lucky but I insisted the end result was what counts.
Which brings me to Shola Ameobi and the ‘end result’ that strikers must achieve to earn their pay packet. (more…)
First team future?Nile Ranger scored a hat-trick for the reserves yesterday, but where does he stand in the pecking order of Newcastle United strikers?
I can’t help but think that Ranger is sliding down the list of strikers as far as Alan Pardew is concerned.
Given that Andy Carroll is our number one striker, it seems that Shola Ameobi, Peter Lovenkrands and Leon Best are all likely to be picked ahead of Ranger, with Best’s ranking undoubtedly helped by his hat-trick against West Ham.
And what about Xisco? We paid £5.7m for him and I can’t remember seeing him since he came on as a sub during the 6-0 thrashing of Villa. I suspect that Ranger is at least ahead of him in the pecking order.
But it may even be worse than that for Ranger because there’s always the option of pushing someone like Nolan or Ben Arfa up to support a striker, which could drop Ranger even further down the list.
And then of course there’s the rumours that we might be looking to sign another striker.
So where does this leave Nile Ranger in terms of his first team status? (more…)
Peter on his bike?Peter Lovenkrands has admitted that he may be forced to leave Newcastle in order to save his international career.
Lovenkrands hasn’t really had a look in this season and has only featured five times for the Newcastle first-team, with three of those appearances coming in the Carling Cup.
This has left the 30-year old forward having to admit that he could be forced to move back to Denmark to play his football as he looks to continue his international career. After all, it’s hard to get picked for your country if you aren’t playing for your club, or at leas it should be anyway. Whilst I personally would be sad see the Dane leave, I can understand his reasons for wanting to do so.
Lovenkrands was influential in last seasons promotion charge and bagged himself 16-goals as Newcastle romped away with The Championship. His pace and movement troubled defences last season, but my only issue with him is the fact that if he isn’t scoring then he isn’t doing much else and tends to disappear from matches. (more…)
