Newcastle United Preview
Well, we're at that point in the season where the football is played during the week. You've got 4-6 games on the weekend, your standard Monday evening match, two Tuesday matches and a Wednesday, if not more. At this point in the season, things have been shuffled, irregularities have begun to settle. The order has begun to emerge from the chaos (barring the previously mentioned scheduling pitfalls). And at this point in the season, if your team is in the drop zone, you're not sleeping too well at night because you know that A) teams deserve to be where they are by now and B) you're beginning - just barely - but indeed, beginning to run out of time. For instance - Arsenal has basically dropped all hopes for winning the crown. Well, if Arsenal (currently 12 points clear of the Toon and in third place) have given up hope - what does it say for our misery?
Anyway, enough. On to the preview.
Reading are coming to SJP today with a great streak of wins behind them. They're scoring goals and they're keeping clean sheets. Strangely enough, Newcastle have also been playing probably the best football that they've played all season. But injuries are absolutely ripping this team to shreds. This is the second season in a row now, where I would imagine pretty much every manager is looking at the NUFC squad and actually feeling pity for Glenn Roeder. As much as I disagree with some of his decisions this season, the man can only work with the players he has. And when you've got Kieron Dyer, Titus Bramble, Michael Owen, Scott Parker, Damien Duff, Shola Ameobi, Craig Moore, Steve Harper, Olivier Bernard and Tim Krul all on the list, that doesn't leave a very deep squad of first-team players. But it still does leave us with a Premier League-worthy club, in my opinion.
We'll hopefully line up with Given in back, Solano filling in at right back, where he proved he can dominate, Taylor and Ramage in the middle, where they belong EVERY MATCH, and Babs on the left, who's just coming back from injury. I'm not a fan of Babayaro, but he's the only player we've got left back there. In the midfield, Milner on right, Emre and Butt in the middle, and Zog on the left. Up front, Rossi and Martins.
On paper, it's not too bad of a starting 11, but it's how they play together. And unfortunately, with so many lineup changes due to injury this season - the players don't know each other as well as they should. It's Roeder's job to teach that in training, but I'm beyond believing in his ability to do that. So we'll just have to wing it.
Watch for Rossi and Martins to decemate the Reading defense with their speed, and watch (again) for Given to keep a clean sheet in a game which should PROBABLY deserve to be won by Reading.
My official Prediction:
Newcastle United 1:0 Reading
Anyway, enough. On to the preview.
Reading are coming to SJP today with a great streak of wins behind them. They're scoring goals and they're keeping clean sheets. Strangely enough, Newcastle have also been playing probably the best football that they've played all season. But injuries are absolutely ripping this team to shreds. This is the second season in a row now, where I would imagine pretty much every manager is looking at the NUFC squad and actually feeling pity for Glenn Roeder. As much as I disagree with some of his decisions this season, the man can only work with the players he has. And when you've got Kieron Dyer, Titus Bramble, Michael Owen, Scott Parker, Damien Duff, Shola Ameobi, Craig Moore, Steve Harper, Olivier Bernard and Tim Krul all on the list, that doesn't leave a very deep squad of first-team players. But it still does leave us with a Premier League-worthy club, in my opinion.
We'll hopefully line up with Given in back, Solano filling in at right back, where he proved he can dominate, Taylor and Ramage in the middle, where they belong EVERY MATCH, and Babs on the left, who's just coming back from injury. I'm not a fan of Babayaro, but he's the only player we've got left back there. In the midfield, Milner on right, Emre and Butt in the middle, and Zog on the left. Up front, Rossi and Martins.
On paper, it's not too bad of a starting 11, but it's how they play together. And unfortunately, with so many lineup changes due to injury this season - the players don't know each other as well as they should. It's Roeder's job to teach that in training, but I'm beyond believing in his ability to do that. So we'll just have to wing it.
Watch for Rossi and Martins to decemate the Reading defense with their speed, and watch (again) for Given to keep a clean sheet in a game which should PROBABLY deserve to be won by Reading.
My official Prediction:
Newcastle United 1:0 Reading
posted by darkred at 6:22 AM
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