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Newcastle 2-2 Wigan – The final inquest.

Posted on October 18th, 2010 | 30 Comments |

Captain Colo saves the day.
Captain Colo saves the day.
A few clangers, from players and management alike might just have set a few alarm bells ringing.

We, as fans, have every right to expect and demand better than the display on show on Saturday.

What I, for one don’t understand is why we just cannot start out with a more attacking formation, the likes of which we send out in the last 20 minutes when we realize that almost all is lost. That formation gets us goals, and somehow seems to keep the opponents at bay.

That being said, I am not the manager, and therefore cannot do much about it. However, if by some chance you’re reading this Chris, I’ve aired my views. Hope you’re taking notes….

Anyway, my take on the individual player’s performances, as ever, are summed up below;

Tim Krul – Seems to have gotten a confidence boost after having been made the Holland U-21 captain. Well, it showed in my opinion. However, as I’ve mentioned before his positioning (especially for the second goal) is questionable as a goalkeeper should not be beaten at his near post. In his defence though, that was quite the cracker from N’Zogbia.

James Perch – Though I have defended him in the past, his performance was appalling. Beaten practically every time by Charlie Boy and looked to be wondering where he’d vanished every time he’d been blitzed by him.

Mike Williamson – Though there are people blaming him for the first goal, upon watching the replay, you will find that it was Perch who bumped into him which caused a fair bit of confusion. Though it wasn’t one of his better games to be honest.

Fabricio Coloccini – Sturdy defensively yet again. Seems to be rather good captain material I believe. And the goal that was our salvation will definitely be remembered at crucial parts of this season.

Jose Enrique – Though the final touch for the cross to N’Zogbia came off of his leg, you can’t hold him responsible for that. Fair performance, all in all. And as always, great link up play with Jonas yet again.

Danny Guthrie – The poor lad was once more played out of position, and some may argue that Perch was playing out of position and further up field as a result of his tendency to drift far into the centre, leaving a huge vacant space in his original position.

Wayne Routledge – His pace, even if it does nothing else, distracts the opposition, and I don’t know why people were whinging when he came on as he added a nice dimension to the play on the right that seemed to open the field up more than when Guthrie was on the field.

Cheick Tiote – His quietest game thus far, but another solid performance. Wish he’d ‘De Jonged’ Nzogbia though. A nice ‘clean but hard and heavy’ reducer.

Joey Barton – Terrible passing yet again. He seems to have the vision, but not the ability to see it through. In all honesty, I would have liked to have seen Guthrie move into his position and have Barton off for Routledge.

Jonas Gutierrez – Has put in spellbinding performances in back-to-back games now. Great ball in to Ameobi for the goal. Stellar cross.

Peter Lovenkrands – For those saying he should’ve started (myself included), he proved why he shouldn’t. Missing for most of the game.

Shola Ameobi – Proved that he now warrants a start. Knows how to find the back of the net. About time he stumbled and yet produced something at the same time. Good show.

Andy Carroll – Seems to have returned to form, bags of effort, but still not much end result. The more I watch him play, the more I realize that we shouldn’t pressure him too much as far as being our chief source of goals is concerned. I think he needs a little time off to rest. Being a Geordie and the number 9 doesn’t make him a dead cert starter.

Nile Ranger – In keeping with the above, I’d like to see this lad given a run out. Simply because he offers something a little different, and is quite clearly an offensive threat to our opposition. That much was evident from his performance not only on Saturday, but for the last few games aswell.

Based on what I’ve seen this far from our lads, I think that the following players definately deserve a go:

Ryan Taylor – At least until Danny Simpson is fully fit. He can’t be worse than Perch defensively, and offers much more going forward.

Danny Guthrie – Based on Barton’s recent dip in form, he should start in the centre alongside Tiote.

Nile Ranger – Has that cutting edge to play just off the main striker and a tendency to get in amongst the thick of things.

Shola Ameobi – If a striker is getting you goals then he should start. Whether he’s generally first choice or not.

Chin up lads and lasses. If we can play like we did we played in the last 20 minutes against Wigan then I see better days ahead.

Howay the lads!

NUFCBlog Author: fernando666 fernando666 has written 8 articles on this blog.

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Comment on this post

30 Responses

  1. Toonsy mate, I agree with much of what you’re saying except the part about Shola starting a game, he did that against Manc ‘cheating’ Citey & we got nowt, he’s probably best coming on around the hour mark & using what pace & strength he has to hassle defences for the last 30 mins, he’s crap as a starting striker & always has been, he tires to quickly imo & that why most of his goals have been scored when he’s used as a sub, not as the main striker!!!

    I think Colo should be made captain with Nolan being vice, as it seems Smudger isn’t going to get a game now that we have Tiote, unless he’s injured but from what I’ve seen of him & his tackling so far, it’s gonna take a steam train to hit him to take him out.. lol

    I said before the match on Saturday, that we should be playing more attacking at home with the following players starting:

    Krul
    Perch, Willo, Sol, Enrique,
    Routy, Barton, Gutherie, Jonas,
    Carroll, Loverboy

    Then bring Tiote on later when we need to defend, I was shot down by so many people who said we need Tiote to start.,… its seems that CH is listening to fans & thats why we’re being so defensive in attack, it isn’t working, all thru the KK years, our best defence was attack & that shows these days too…. if you attack teams, they go defensive & it work, so why not do it more often???

  2. Sorry, but I have to disagree – Jonas, Spellbinding?!
    Not from where I was!

    He put 2 very good balls in for the goals but apart from that did nothing much.

    The entire team was lethargic, lazy and unmotivated from the start. This tells me that they underestimated Wigan and though they simply had to turn up to beat them – Big mistake!

    However, Perch was the worst of the lot by a country mile. His play is bad enough but now his confidence is shot to pieces, he’s even more of a liability.

    Both goals came from his side and this will continue until he’s dropped (The percentage of goals coming from his side come the end of the season will be ridiculous if he stays in!)

  3. Cyprus-we got nowt at city because of their bent referee, you can’t blame our inability to take points from that game on bloody Shola! Play him up top with Carroll and see how it goes. He’s scoring goals, he should be on the field. Benching him on reputation as opposed to taking current form into account would be silly. Also, Tiote is a must to start, every week. He breaks up play well and distributes the ball well. Far better than Barton has recently. We’d be leaving our back four with no protection and leaving ourselves without someone who can regularly (and fairly) win the ball in the middle of the park.

  4. Sadly I think it’s all coming home to roost a bit with CH and Calderwood. We won the championship with the most expensive team.

    Now we look as clueless as we did when we got relegated.

    No plan B, over cautious, too much long ball and hit and hope crosses, ”untouchables” who are never dropped, very limited youth opportunities (Ranger – is he worse than Loven, Kadar – is he worse than Perch, Lua Lua – is he worse than Routledge ? etc) and some very dodgy signings (Perch, Best etc)

    It gives the lie to clowns like Allardyce, Pulis and McCarthy who say they have to play a certain way as they don’t have the techncial players, when you see the way Wigan, West Brom and Blackpool play the game ”the right way” on equally limited resources.

    Personally I think we missed a huge opportunity not taking a chance on a ”footballing” manager like Di Matteo, Martinez, Holloway or even Poyet lower down.

    CH is a defensive coach and it shows. Then again he keeps playing Perch !!!!

  8. davy,
    Carroll nicked and charged with common assult against a female. This happened on Saturday night.

  9. Well if the rumours are true, we’ll have to play Shola up front every games as it seems Carroll may not be back for a while!!!!

    Ross – yes we lost to Manc ‘cheating’ Citey because of the ref but if Shola was good enough for 90 mins & not just 30, then we’d have taken that result out of the refs hands & not needed to rely on getting the right decisions, its the same with every game, we shouldn’t be relying on what decision we get, we should go for the kill like we did against the Villians, no need for penalties or fouls to get goals….

  11. Cyprus – Right at the top if you look at te articles on the main page, or right at the bottom just before where the comments starts. It’s not just me. There is Worky, Paul and Fernando aswell :)

  13. Oic, sorry, not got me glasses on :(

    It’s defo looking that way now but considering we’ve not played offensively since the Villians game, thats why it’s looking like a fluke result!!

  14. Cyprus – We didn’t play offensively against Villa. We only had the one up top again. The only difference was that EVERYTHING went our way that day. From Carew missing the pen to everyone of our shots going in, they all went our way.

  16. seaton carew missing that pen was poetic justice for a ‘won’ pen by that cheating qunt young(he’s still diving for england).
    ;)

  17. TGS – How do mate? Hows tricks?

    Yes, the NUFC panto looks to be making it’s appearance again :)

  18. toonsy,

    I’m good m8 thanks.

    Some reports today are saying that CH’s job is at risk!
    What a load of bollocks.

  19. TGS – I agree. There is nowt wrong with Hughtin that decent sized transfer budget and a bit more luck wouldn’t have sorted.

    Injury to Ben Arfa, Taylor, Simpson haven’ helped him at all, and now this trouble with Carroll :roll:

  21. Perch is our weakest link,and this has been true against Blackpool and Stoke. Poor Williamson wasnt good enough to cover for him. Campbell may be though. Surely Ryan Taylor is better at right back.We need to stop letting in goals at home.

  22. morning fella’s.well saturday was a mixed day for me at the match.
    first the performance in first 70mins was awful and was really worrying tbh.but then we picked it up and did well to get a point out of it.
    was impressed with the spirit we showed and shola,jonas and colo were real leaders of men.

    i said at start of season that some people who thought we would breeze past the wigans,stokes,blackpools would be in for a shock,there is no such thing as a home banker anymore.we are aiming for survival and this was a crucial point after last few defeats.
    but we need to start playing better at home.maybe we need to work on some new tactics as we seem to have very little variation and have been worked out already.we are not getting the best out of carroll,we need to get to the bye line and whip in those crosses.

    then things picked up-
    first the joy of colo’s bullet header in stoppage time and then on my way out of the ground who should i bump into but chris kamara!
    got my photo taken with him and he was a real gent.that soul glow hair is awesome close up!

    then on my return home i had 3 new match worn shirts waiting for me,including ben arfa’s! to view them go to my site footballmatchworn.blogspot.com if you have time.these arent for sale but are worth a look

  23. ‘However, as I’ve mentioned before his positioning (especially for the second goal) is questionable as a goalkeeper should not be beaten at his near post. In his defence though, that was quite the cracker from N’Zogbia.’

    Could have put Harper, Krul and Forster in goal and they wouldn’t have stopped that missile.

  24. zog’s second goal also took a slight deflection, which took it above Krul’s hands.
    Check the replay.

  25. Seems this team is not as deep in talent as many of us thought. Opposing managers have taken the time to find the weakness of each NUFC player and plan their attack and defense accordingly. The Newcastle right side is a mess, the strikers are fumbling, only the left side is world class.

    This leaves CH is a position of having to stick his neck out and suffer the weakness, or stick his neck out and promote some reserves.

    I feel sorry for him, but it will be a massively unjust firing of CH if MA does not buy him some talent in January. It will be a great triumph if CH can improve the right side with his curreent roster.

  26. CLINT it was bad defending at the end of the day,even the first blameing will/perch,jose should never have let the guy cross his effort was sunday lge stuff did you see his effort?

  27. We shouldn’t have had Guthrie on the right, he’s a CM.
    He tried something different, it didn’t work, shoulda played Routledge on the right. He draws a marker.

  28. ice,
    aye, y’right mate.
    But shit happens, this is Newcastle.
    At least we clawed it back though.

  29. i think we should keep jonas down the left and r.taylor down the right with either simpson or s taylor at rb.we really need r taylor out there for his dead ball and crossing abillities coz at the mo we are getting diddly squit out of carroll

  30. Funnily enough I was going to say the same thing as salty.

    If you have two players like Perch and Routledge who are cross for AC then bring in someone who can ?

    OK Simmo and Raylor need to work together to tie down their defensive responsibilities so that we’re not caught out down the flank by the quick ball over the top but both IMO are capable of delivering better crosses than either of the two incumbents although I still wouldnt trust Raylor at RB as the last line of defence.

    Ultimately though its not so much balance as confidence thats missing from the side at SJP. The fear factor was in evidence all over the park on Saturday butif you’re bombing forward safe in the knowledge that someone is covering your arse then it makes it a lot easier to focus on delivering quality balls into the box.

    We’re not blessed with pace, we dont have supremely gifted attacking midfielders so crossing is our major weapon unfortunately. If we dont even do that how the f can we expect AC to get anywhere near a sight of goal ?