Long ball game?With recent accusations of Alan Pardew’s alleged long ball tactics, I wanted to ask the question: do Newcastle United play the long-ball game and does it matter?
After England’s 1-1 draw against the United States in the 2010 World Cup Franz Beckenbauer had this to say:
“What I saw from the English in their 1-1 draw against the United States had very little to do with football.
“It looked to me as if the English have gone backwards into the bad old times of kick and rush. I am not sure if the England coach Fabio Capello can still change much there. The English are being punished for the fact that there are very few English players in the Premier League clubs as they use better foreign players from all over the world.”
Beckenbauer had the last laugh too of course because we subsequently crashed 4-1 to Germany, but is his general damnation of the long ball game valid? And I ask because there have been a few questions lately about Newcastle’s game plan and whether or not Alan Pardew prefers the long ball game. (more…)
First choices?Speculation as to how the Newcastle United team might line up next season, who will be the first choices in various positions and who else is needed.
Goalie
With news that Fraser Forster may be the subject of a £1.5m bid from Celtic and given that he has intimated he’d like a move to the Scottish club it seems likely that he won’t be in contention for us next season. Forster may not eventually leave of course and there’s nothing to say we won’t bring in another keeper, but somehow I doubt it.
The first choice goalkeeping position will therefore most likely be fought out between Harper and Krul with Soderberg as a backup.
4-2-3-1 next season?Gervinho rumours persist but what do Newcastle United in terms of strikers anyway?
The French press are announcing the ‘imminent’ arrival of Gervinho at Newcastle, which sounded promising until I noticed they got their information from Sky Sports.
Allegedly we’ve made a €16m bid for the player (£14.25m) – which may be true – but I can find nothing to confirm that Gervinho will be on Tyneside at all, let alone imminently.
But what do we need in terms of strikers anyway? And what sort of formations is Alan Pardew likely to consider?
For most games last season we played two up front, even after our (then) top scorer was sold to Liverpool.
Last season we used the following strikers:
– Ameobi, scoring 9 goals in 30 games,
– Lovenkrands, scoring 7 goals in 29 games,
– Best, scoring 6 goals in 12 games,
– Ranger, scoring 1 goal in 28 games (most of which were as a sub), and
– Carroll, scoring 11 goals in 20 games.
And our top scorer turned out to be a midfielder in the shape of Kevin Nolan, who scored 12 goals in 32 games. (more…)
What's your choice?Alan Pardew has so far favoured the 4-4-2 formation at Newcastle United, but will that remain the favoured formation in the long-term when we have a fully fit squad?
The recent disclosure by Alan Pardew that he seems to see Leon Best as Hatem Ben Arfa’s main competition for a starting place in the team got me to thinking about formations in general.
Since Pardew has been here we’ve mainly stuck to a standard 4-4-2 formation, but is that out of necessity or choice?
Does Alan Pardew have a particular preference for 4-4-2 or is it just that he thinks it best suits our current available players?
When we have a fully fit squad, we would seem to have a lot of midfielders vying for a place: Jonas, Tiote, Barton, Nolan, Gosling, Ireland, Ben Arfa … possibly even Ryan Taylor and Danny Guthrie.
Now, if Pardew is thinking that Ben Arfa is a replacement for Best, are we looking at:
——– Striker — Ben Arfa ——–
Jonas — Nolan — Tiote — Barton
Jose — Colo — Williamson — Simpson
————— Harper —————–
That would leave Ireland and Gosling as ‘swaps’ in the midfield, either as subs or replacements if another players gets an injury or has a bad run of form. (more…)
