Newcastle Utd vs Swansea City - 16/04/16

[biggeordiedave]

I agree his subs are good. Sometimes his team selections leave me a bit puzzled but it seemed to work yesterday when we'd all written the team off before kick off! One thing we haven't had for a long time is a manager that's willing to change things when they aren't working. Pardew was the worst for it. We'd be chasing a game and he'd bring on a CM and stick him at LB or something equally as ridiculous. He would also frequently leave the worst player on the pitch on for the full 90 and sub the best player off at HT .

[redguest]

Oh, he'll suddenly start scoring more- just you wait.

It's no surprise he scored yesterday. Rafa will have the rest of the team work to provide opportunities for him. Rafa's pragmatic and believes in the basics. Under McClaren, Cisse and co would've been taught to be many things to everyone else. I'm not saying they're alike, but think Brendan and Benteke.
That sort of instruction will work for players who've come through that system- especially Dutch and Spanish players, but for everyone else it can become all too much until they fall apart and can't tell their left from their right. They get confused, because they can't naturally put into place what is required of them and as a result, lose confidence.

Rafa drills in the basics and is very concerned about defensive work first.
There was one poster yesterday who said you might see a Leicester against City. Well, you won't see a Leicester since he's not uber-defensive, but you'll see similar tactics. He'll have this covered. You can be sure that he's had scouts on every team that you will face since even before his appointment.
Rafa lives a very quiet life and is enamoured by football. City's flaws and what/who you need would have been worked out by last week already.

Cisse didn't score yesterday

Haha! Got Cisse and Sissoko mixed up mate.
My point is that you'll see Cisse score more.

This win will give the players the lift they need and the confidence in what Rafa will have them doing everyday.

[Diggerman]

Good posts here Redguest. An interesting read. Thanks.

[Toondes]

If you take out that purple/lucky patch of form when he joined he has 23 goals in 95 league appearances. Despite this, some people on here like to think he's a good finisher for some reason and will argue that his goals record makes up for the fact his touch/passing/link up play/holding up the ball/running/dribbling/staying onside etc. are all really, really s***.

Easily one of the worst strikers in the league.

He's closer to worst than best that's for sure. I think that 'purple patch' you mentioned does hinder a lot of people's opinions about him. Personally I don't mind him coming off the bench, but he shouldn't be starting games.

So we don't take into consideration his good spell only his bad one? I don't rate Cisse but even I think that's biased!

[Heisen]

He's closer to worst than best that's for sure. I think that 'purple patch' you mentioned does hinder a lot of people's opinions about him. Personally I don't mind him coming off the bench, but he shouldn't be starting games.

So we don't take into consideration his good spell only his bad one? I don't rate Cisse but even I think that's biased!

Not really. His form and goalscoring since that first half season have surely proven that was a purple patch, rather than his natural level.

[biggeordiedave]

So we don't take into consideration his good spell only his bad one? I don't rate Cisse but even I think that's biased!

Not really. His form and goalscoring since that first half season have surely proven that was a purple patch, rather than his natural level.

Agreed. He has been here for four and a half seasons now and it's obvious we won't ever see that early form again.

[Toondes]

Not really. His form and goalscoring since that first half season have surely proven that was a purple patch, rather than his natural level.

Agreed. He has been here for four and a half seasons now and it's obvious we won't ever see that early form again.

Yeah but if we only take into account his "purple patch" then he's world class. Just having a blip

[PFT]

Not really. His form and goalscoring since that first half season have surely proven that was a purple patch, rather than his natural level.

Agreed. He has been here for four and a half seasons now and it's obvious we won't ever see that early form again.

Looking back it was an incredible run , everything he touched seemed to end up in the back of the net. Halcyon days

On the subject of Rafa I'm looking forward to seeing how he sets us up for City on Tuesday night. Part of me thinks it could be similar to yesterday, I also feel Sissoko is gonna have one of his top games where he bosses it mainly due to the fact its on Sky & against a big club.

[Hjl]

Based on his form this season I think it's likely sissoko will suddenly burn bright. Doesn't seem any more likely than Wijnaldum scoring another 4.

I'm usually wrong though. So hopefully I'm wrong here too.

[el héroe]

I think Cisse's goalscoring record when he first came had to be credited a lot to Demba Ba who was an amazing player !!

[Mbemba You're a Womble]

And shear luck. Luck and confidence. A lot of his goals on that hot-streak weren't exactly finishes that you work hard on in training, and for all of those types of goals to fly in - not be saved, shanked wide, or blocked - was of huge odds. In the seasons since he finished 11/12 we've seen he's a below average PL striker, and no where near the no.9 we all thought he was.

[seaside nipper]

Ok, just for the hope, I ran a possible salvation forecast..............

Newcastle 28 pts, Man City H, Liverpool A, Crystal Place H, Aston Villa A , Tottenham H, = forecast a mix of two wins and two draws , 8 point yield, puts us on 36 pts. Optimistic run, but hay hoh, its what we need to do, it is possible

Sunderland 30 pts, Arsenal H, Stoke A, Chelsea H, Everton H, Watford A, = forecast a 6 point yield, gives them 36 pts, but probably a better g/d as they are 8 better than us. Need to see them losing three out their five

Norwich 31 pts, , Arsenal A, Man Utd H, Watford H, Everton A, = forecast a win and a draw, 4 point yield, gives them 35 pts. Tbh dont even see them winning again , bottle gone, I think they are embracing relegation.

So , lets see, it looks marginally possible for us, however, damn it, what a sickener, we could possibly go down on goal difference.................... unless we win on the last day of course , landing a possible 38pts, having taken ten points out the last fifteen available.

Nope, that didn't help, my expectometer default now shows us as Down

[bodacious benny]

Beat Liverpool, Palace and Villa and we'd be safe IMO.

Not unrealistic. Liverpool will play a reserve team against us (we're between the Merseyside Derby) and the EUROPA League SF), Palace are pretty crap, Villa are Villa.

[MulticulturalMag]

I think the FA Cup semis could play an important role in the Norwich and Sunderland fixtures. Both of them are playing Watford and Everton towards the end of the season, who are playing Palace and Man U in the semis respectively. If they both progress to the Final they'll play a weaker team in the run in to the final and those games coincide with the Sunderland and Norwich fixtures. All of this is very speculative, but on this pessimistic basis I hope Palace and Man U go through. Pardew in a cup final <grim>

[KyzaSoze1888]

Excellent performance on Saturday by the players, rode our luck a bit in the early stages of the 2nd half but for once luck was on our side. Going into the Citey game on the back of a victory hopefully boosts another performance out of the players, but to get the win we need we have to be fighting for every ball, be strong but fair in challenges and get right in amongst them as Citey players might not be up for that type of game and risking injuries with the Madrid CL game next week. Hopefully Pellegrini rests some of his 1st team squad and we go 2 up front i'd put Cisse up against Demachellis as Cisse's pace would draw fouls from the Argentine risking a Red card as the game progresses and Mitro up against Otamendi strength vs strength, if we go 1 up front i think Citey will cope better... could maybe see Kompany starting the game with Citey giving him some game time and 90 mins under his belt with the Madrid game in mind which could work in our favour as he won't be 100% match-fit which is something else for us to exploit if he starts and fingers crossed Aguero gets rested if not someone takes responsibility and clatters the wee fcuker in the first few minutes and puts him off his game as i think he'll single handedly destroy our back 4.

Lacelles is surely a future Captain for us if we can manage to keep hold of him.

[ALF]

He's closer to worst than best that's for sure. I think that 'purple patch' you mentioned does hinder a lot of people's opinions about him. Personally I don't mind him coming off the bench, but he shouldn't be starting games.

So we don't take into consideration his good spell only his bad one? I don't rate Cisse but even I think that's biased!

His good spell was about 15 games. His bad spell has been over 100 games...

[Southern fairy]

Hopefully Pellegrini rests some of his 1st team squad and we go 2 up front i'd put Cisse up against Demachellis as Cisse's pace would draw fouls from the Argentine

Are we thinking of the same Cisse here?

[beatski]

I'm praying they rest Aguero (can he handle 2 games in 4 days with his injury record?)
Also that De Bruyne gets lost on the way to the game or something.

2 up front against city is pretty much suicide though. I think we should play Colback and Tiote, with Shelvey ahead of them

[Colback's Orange Tufts]

I'm praying they rest Aguero (can he handle 2 games in 4 days with his injury record?)
Also that De Bruyne gets lost on the way to the game or something.

2 up front against city is pretty much suicide though. I think we should play Colback and Tiote, with Shelvey ahead of them

Dropping Sissoko from AM after he has a rare good game? We haven't had anyone else play well as AM since Wijnaldum ageeees back

[Southern fairy]

I'm praying they rest Aguero (can he handle 2 games in 4 days with his injury record?)
Also that De Bruyne gets lost on the way to the game or something.

2 up front against city is pretty much suicide though. I think we should play Colback and Tiote, with Shelvey ahead of them

Dropping Sissoko from AM after he has a rare good game? We haven't had anyone else play well as AM since Wijnaldum ageeees back

I wouldn't be against dropping Gini, and having Beatksi's suggestion with Sissoko and Townsend on the wings.

Not that it'll happen, mind.