Newcastle – French shopping spree
By David, BettingExpert.com | Published
Since last year’s sale of Carroll and the appointment of Pardew as head coach the Magpies’ fans have seemingly lost the enthusiasm. The Magpies had been promoted from a lower division but this is where they belong. Can they do more than just belong and challenge for a place in Europe next season?
Manager: Pardew
Tactics: 4-4-2
Players In: Demba Ba, Marveaux, Cabaye, Abeid
Players Out: Sol Campbell, Kuqi, Nolan, Enrique
Current Probable Formation: Harper, Simpson, Williamson, Coloccini, S. Taylor, Obertan, Cabaye, Tiote, Gutierrez, Ben Arfa, Demba Ba
The club has decided to bring in players from the Ligue 1, opting only for Demba Ba as the proven player in the Premier League. In his short stint at West Ham he did enough to prove his worth. Very strong and rapid with good goal scoring skills. He was a good buy for Pardew.
As for the rest of the new faces they are midfield players. Of the trio it will be Cabaye who gets the highest chances of making it into the first eleven from the start. He fared well with Lille and is a creative kind of player. With Tiote partnering him in midfield they should get along well. He will be required to take the place of last year’s midfield maestros Nolan and Barton with the latter offloaded by the club as Newcastle have already stated they will not be demanding a fee for anyone who approaches him. Nolan, last year’s team top scorer with 12 goals, has been sold to West Ham.
With Carroll having departed in January for a huge sum of money Pardew’s major preoccupation this summer would have been expected to be getting strikers on board given the poor choice he has at the moment. Demba Ba should settle in as a starter with Ameobi unlikely to be employed as his partner whenever it is possible to play Ben Arfa instead. Demba Ba and Ameobi, in fact, are very similar to each other and Pardew should prefer to have the creativity of Ben Arfa on the pitch instead of the duo. However, a lot will depend on how the Frenchman recovers from last season’s injury troubles and whether he confirms himself a new Keiron Dyer – to injury prone to be a professional footballer.
Wingmen should play an important part in Pardew’s strategy. Gutierrez has affirmed himself as one of the better players in his role in the league whilst new boy Obertan has made the right choice in moving on from Manchester United where he was closed down by clearly stronger players. There are few back-up players to act as wingers though. Options are Alan Smith, Guthrie, Gosling, Ryan Taylor, Marveaux, Abeid and Shane Ferguson. Wide selection but not very varied with all of them being more or less capable of doing their part in a central role.
Whereas before the team could also count on the runs on the left side of the pitch by Jose Enrique latest news reveal the left-back has signed on for Liverpool. That makes Newcastle a weak side in terms of full-backs, and that is quite a hole in a team targeting a 4-4-2 style of play. Central defenders are quite competent – Coloccini and Williamson the starters – but somewhat inconsistent.
Pardew’s is rather an unbalanced side. The starting eleven are not sparkling enough and in case of injuries he can only count on central midfield replacements. The defence should not be impenetrable but the bigger problems should lie with their striking force. There are players capable of scoring goals but not as much as they should be netting.
Predicted finishing position: 17th
Last season’s finishing position was 12th, just seven points clear of relegation. It was a tight battle for avoiding the drop back in May and this time around it may be different. Yet Newcastle can be a team which gets involved in a similar battle this season. It will depend a lot on how the new players adapt to the Premier League and how much goals the midfield players have in them. In their better days last year Carroll, Nolan and Barton were the leaders of the team and scored the biggest share of the goals. That trio has dismantled over the past months with just Barton still in the team but not in Pardew’s plans.
Ben Arfa and Demba Ba should be the main men to get the goals but we know we will be questioning a club depending on just two players for goals, one of whom is coming from a whole season on the sidelines, until the very end.
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