Demba Ba: Newcastle United’s hottest hitman in recent times.Below is a table comparing the main statistics of all of Newcastle United’s main strikers who have played in the Hughton / Pardew years. There are six, Shola Ameobi, Peter Lovenkrands, Andy Carroll, Leon Best, Demba Ba and most recently of course, Papiss Cisse.
Please note that this is for Premier League games only. Championship stats have been excluded as they would obviously give the players who played a full season in the lower division an unfair advantage. As well as that, cup games have also been escluded too to make as level a playing field as possible (if you’ll pardon the pun). I think you might find one or two surprises in there, which was partly the reason I did this post in the first place.
I suppose I could have included Kevin Nolan too, as his goalscoring and assist figures would also stand up with the names below after Chris Hughton moved him further forward into the “hole” as they say, however this one’s for strikers and Nolan has always been a midfielder, albeit a highly attacking one in recent seasons. (more…)
Williamson: Settled Toon nicely.Mike Williamson has been somewhat of a revelation since his arrival on Tyneside, which is more that can be said for other more high profile names that have had the chance to wear the famous Black & White stripes of Newcastle United.
Williamson was signed by Portsmouth in September 2009 but was subsequently forced to play in the reserves as the financial rot set in at Fratton Park. That meant that the South coast club couldn’t afford to pay any more of the fee owed to Watford if he made a first team appearance, which was a shame on a personal level for him but ended up being beneficial for us.
When the new season starts and August rolls around it will see Mike being given the chance of playing top level football for the first time in his career. Again, the ability of Mike to be able to make the step up has been cause of debate between some fans. Some argue that he hasn’t played top flight football for a reason, others say he was just unlucky at not getting his chance last year with Portsmouth. Given that he hasn’t put a foot wrong, other than on his surf board, since he has been here then surely he deserves his shot at the big time, and I will be backing him to succeed. (more…)
Lovenkrands: A story of turmoil, tragedy and success.The last in the series of our player reviews for the 09/10 season will take a look at our strikers and how they have done this season.
We have already worked our way through the team starting with goalkeepers before moving onto have a look at our defence and midfield. Our strikers have been very important for us this season and have combined to score over half of our goals this season, 47 of them in fact, and they have been spread pretty evenly between the various front men. For the first half of the season we spent our time playing mainly one striker with Kevin Nolan in an attcking support role, something that has probably helped Nolan score so many goals whilst limiting the chance of any strikers hitting the 20 goal mark. Still, it’s a team game as the saying goes, and as long as the ball is hitting the back of the net I don’t really care which player scores them. Let’s take a look anyway. (more…)
Routledge: Key man since his arrival.Now the job of promotion has been achieved we can pick start to pick through it and have a look at what we have done right and wrong throughout the season.
The very fact we have won the title would indicate that the right outweighs the wrong through the course of the season, but it’s January that held the key to promotion for me. In the first half of the season we tended to wear opposition down and never really looked like a balanced team, with most of our play coming down the left side with Jonas Gutierrez and Jose Enrique whilst virtually nothing coming down right through Danny Guthrie. That sounds harsh on Danny G, but it wasn’t meant to be. What I was trying to say is that Danny Guthrie is not a winger, although he did get his fair share of assists from crosses and free-kicks out wide. Guthrie is a central midfielder, that is his favoured position which meant he tended to be drawn into the middle of the pitch, forcing us to look more lopsided as a team. Anyway, he was just doing as he was told and it was a case of needs must, so credit must go to him for giving it a go and playing where he is needed, Kieron Dyer should take note! (more…)
(L to R): Hall, Routledge, Williamson, Best, SimpsonJanuary came and went for Newcastle United fans but not with the usual disappointment following zero investment. No, the 2010 January transfer window proved to be an opportunity when even Mike Ashley realised some financial speculation was the right thing to do, not least because it might see a return on his money. But this isn’t a debate about the owner or his intentions. This is a first glance review of the lads we brought in during the January transfer window and what I think of them so far.
It was clear to a lot of us that we needed recruitment in various areas and while some of the gaps were filled, we also got the surprise package of Wayne Routledge. Not all of the players met with universal glee and obviously the jury is out for all of them still. Each were signed for an ‘undisclosed fee’ which seems to be the order of the day in many modern transfers. So it’s difficult to conclude whether they’re value for money or not, but here goes anyway: (more…)
