Comments on: Newcastle United Survival!

By: Simo

Simo — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 18:19:52 +0000

Didn’t think we’d win, but I feel actually sick knowing we’re going to go another fortnight, via a beating from Liverpool, before we have any chance of getting some points…

By: snick

snick — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 05:09:45 +0000

i dont see any reason why we cant play oba and owen upfront? i know owen needs a big front man, but in reality he’s being playing alongside smith for the last couple game, and smith hasn’t been performing?? the blackburn defence isnt the most solid in the league they have ooijer and samba, who aren’t the quickest cbs in the world, the pace of oba and owen might be a good thing. i see emre and viduka aren’t able to play which means butt and barton in the middle. i’d leave butt on the bench and play nzogbia as an attacking mid with barton as the box-to-box player. with jimmy milner on the right and duff on the left. (thats providing enrique can play at lb) we need to man mark bentley out of the game, the boy is class and is having a gr8 season. gamst pederson has had a quiet season by his standards, and i’m sure beye can keep him quiet. benny mccarthy is good, and roque santa cruz has been playing well, but i think faye and taylor are better in the air than both of them, i just hope taylor doesnt dive in, benny seems to fall over quite easily (i’m south african too, so i know him well enough Harper pulled off some good saves against united, i just hope he has the confidence to carry on today. I really think if the toon army gets behind the lads we can pull of an unlikely win. its all we need to kick start this relegation fight. Howay teh LADS!

By: Simo

Simo — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 16:57:08 +0000

Anyway, team for tomorrow, who do you think? I reckon we should keep Owen in, possibly with Carroll starting next to him as Owen needs a big lad playing next to him. In which case how do we find space for Oba, whose pace we desperately need..?

By: Simo

Simo — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 16:55:52 +0000

I agree, I can’t see him signing long term, but possibly until the end of the season? He’s a free agent so hasn’t got anything better to do until the summer… If he adds some stability I’ll take it for now!

RDHGeordie you’re completely right, on paper we’ve got some good players. Only problem is they’re not playing well on the pitch, confidence is shot to pieces. My predictions were taken on a game by game basis. Looking at the last few games I can’t see us beating Blackburn – same for Liverpool. If that happens we’ll be so low on confidence we’ll struggle to beat Birmingham, and so on. If we get a big win under our belts and show some strength I’ll revise my predictions… As you say we’ll be fine after we get a win or two on the trot, it’s just seeing where that win will come from… Sigh!

By: rdhgeordie

rdhgeordie — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 15:04:31 +0000

I think we are all hitting the panic button too soon… the fact is we have a team of class players that not so long ago all teams were wanting them. We have the potential to have the best strike force in Europe (if not the world) and really an exciting Mid. Our defense is not the best but nor are they shabby. The confidence is low but I think Owen is right when he says after the first win we are going to start firing again. When I look at the predictions against team like the Makems and others of that class I feel we will take all 3 points off them and will definitely start harassing the likes of the Pool. Maybe I am too optimistic but when I look at who we have and if Keegan can get them firing we should be the team to stop.

By: Toonrobbybobson

Toonrobbybobson — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 14:29:31 +0000

Hes the wrong side of 30 i recogn for Keegan. I honestly think that the current board/manager have a buying policy now and they stick to it. If a player dont fit it then no chance. Its probably just agent talk. Senegal hardly did well in the African cup of nations now did they?

By: Simo

Simo — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 12:52:21 +0000

Looks like we’re trying to buy the entire Senegal defence! Lamine Diatta, currently a free agent having bought out his contract at Besiktas, looks like he might be heading here on a short-term contract… 32 years old, looks like a big strong lad. He might help if we sign him – can’t see what harm he would do…

By: Simo

Simo — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 14:48:57 +0000

I also can’t entirely say I’m not having some minor doubts about Keegan… I know it’s not his team, I know it lacks quality, but we’ve MUCH more quality than those around us and we’re shipping 4, 5, 6 goals a game. Losing by that many in one game is seen as humiliating, but week after week? Most of the bottom teams manage to keep the score much more respectable even against Arsenal, Man Utd etc. I’m just worried that Keegan doesn’t have a plan for how to grind and fight out a relegation battle (despite his arrival at the club the first time).

I’ll obviously back him to the hilt and do think he could possibly get us moving back up the table if we survive, but I do have to think that the likes of Houllier, Van Gaal etc, if they had come in/been interested would have had better results so far. I love Special K as much as any fan but privately I’m a little worried…

By: Simo

Simo — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 14:44:04 +0000

Okay, being as impartial as I can be and not looking to the final points total until the end, I’d have to say:

Blackburn (h) [ 0 ]
Liverpool (a) [ 0 ]
Birmingham (a) [ 1 ]
Fulham (h) [ 3 ]
Tottenham (a) [ 0 ]
Reading (h) [ 3 ]
Portsmouth (a) [ 0 ]
Mackems (h) [ 1 ]
West Ham (a) [ 1 ]
Chelsea (h) [ 0 ]
Everton (a) [ 0 ]

So 9 points then… Ouch… That’s simply on current form – if we get a decent win somewhere then we could recover and give a few teams like Sunderland, Wham and Birmingham a beating and survive relatively comfortably. Unfortunately I can’t see us beating Blackburn this weekend and I’m worried that so many people are half expecting a result. They’re playing well enough and put 4 goals in last week. We on the other hand are in bits. Another two bad losses and we could fall apart just as we get to the Birmingham game, the beginning of a run of winnable/drawable games. Sorry to be pessimistic but this is maybe a worse-case scenario.

I agree re. Fulham and Derby, unless Fulham pull out all of the stops they’re gone. The last place in my opinion is between us (unless we string a win or two together and boast morale), Reading and Sunderland. I think Birmingham, Bolton, Boro and Wigan are all slowly coming to life and showing enough fight – the same could arguably be said for Sunderland. My real worst case scenario is us and Reading being like two cars failing to start inches from the line, essentially being a race to see who can get the engine started first…

By: Toonrobbybobson

Toonrobbybobson — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 12:13:01 +0000

Whats keeping our head above water atm is there is worse teams than us. As far as I am concerned Derby and Fulham are down. I think we are safe from those teams. So its the final spot we are fighting against which is currently Reading on 22. If we can win our home games against those below us we won’t be going down. It will put too much of a gap between us and them for 6 pointers. The win against Blackburn though is a must to keep some distance between us especially with Liverpool away the next game. If we get 3 points against Blackburn and a good performance we might be surprised at Anfield with an upturn in confidence. Who knows football is a funny old game.