Article: The positives of losing Joey Barton | Football, Newcastle

Damien Duff
Playing position: Left winger

Jonas is a natural right sided attacking player, He started on the right for us, before duff left then we switched him.

Also Messi is left footed, and plays left wing when not up front, can't see Jonas displacing him from the wing, can you?

 

Jonas is a left winger naturally. I do think he could play the other side but I doubt he'd be so effective. He rose to prominence as a left winger for Mallorca. Check out You Tube if you're not convinced, there's bound to be some footage from his Mallorca days on there. The player himself prefers to play left, and Maradona used him there plenty until the world cup when he decided he was a rampaging right back! You gotta love crazy Diego. All of his managers have used him as a left sider primarily, quite why you'd think he is a right sider I'm not sure?

 

He was asked on the official site and said his position is attacking midfielder or winger, he is comfortable as either.

 

Duff and Jonas were both left wingers, one had to play on the right.

And Messi played on the right hand side of a front three, he now plays centre forward.

 

Injuries are all part of it. How often did Ben Arfa play? Four times more than he has done this season. What if Tiote does his cruciate? Where does that leave us? You're banking on the fact that all our key players are going to stay fit for us to be stronger than last season. It's not going to happen. There are things that are out of the club's control and things that aren't. We've weakened the squad and are now relying on fate to bail us out. It's like putting out a weakened team for the derby and saying "But if they get a player sent off early and we get a dodgy pen, we could still win the game." We're weaker than last season.

 

Oh Wiki that reliable source, having watched Duff the few year he was at the toon he played more games RW than LW as he did at Chelsea.

Messi is used in a free role for Argies, again al go on what I have actually seen rather than trust Wiki and Fifa as my sources

 

I have NUFC TV and in his 1st interview he said 'i'm a DM who likes to have the ball and play it around'

 

It's all well and good saying our team is weaker than last season, but our most used players last season were:

Krul
Simpson Williamson Coloccini Enrique
Barton Nolan Tiote Jonas
Shola Lover

No Carroll, no Ben Arfa, no Taylor.

 

Mehdi, what is the most comfortable playing position for you - is it winger or attacking midfield?
From Ville Halttunen, Finland

Mehdi Abeid: I'm just happy to play anywhere if it means I'm in the team. I like going forward, passing and creating chances, but I can also play defensively too. I think it's important to develop the skills to play in different roles to suit tactics against different teams and be as flexible as possible. I like to think I can do a good job in either position. I'm learning a lot here in Newcastle from some very good players, which is so good for me and my game.

 

**** it man AG. There is no point in worrying. Coco and Frosty are gonna do things they're own way and there's nothing anyone can do about it. There is no doubt in my mind unless we get a good quality striker and a left back, we are certainly weaker than last year. Mainly because at the beginning of last season we had more of a goal threat. And goals are the single most important commodity in football. If we get those two players, we'll maybe be on a par overall for me. But its high risk due to the number of injury prone players on the books.

 

Why would you keep Jonas on the left? It's been proven season after season that his shooting is consistent enough to justify keeping him on the left, he scores 2 maybe 3 crackers a season with his right boot... not that great.

His crossing is much better on his right boot, he should be tried on the right so we can have more quality crosses and deliveries coming into the box.

 

Think he is a central midfielder by trade. But as with most young players, he'll be adaptable. I don't think he'll be involved much wide unless we're down to the bare bones. Gosling, Vuckic, swapping Jonas or Marveaux are all more likely options for me. I think he sees himself in the Ben Arfa role but can cover DM equally well. At the end of the day young players will play anywhere they're told if it means getting in the 11!

 

Depressing that. No question we've lost/are losing our 4 best players and replaced them with... people we don't know much about. From that best team sheet, I'd have kept everyone, except maybe Cabaye for Barton seems a balanced trade.

Not saying they won't perform, but on paper, we've really weakened the team.

The point is though, the big wages are all of the books. I have no idea what we're paying Ba or HBA or Cabaye, but I'm pretty confident it's more like 30k rather than 60 or 80k. These steps were necessary to make the club stand on better financial footing. Let's hope it doesn't back fire and we get relegated. So far so good though, 4 points out of 6. I can see us doing a man city under sven, getting 25-30 points quickly and then falling completely apart when winter arrives. These french guys will not be used to playing in winter.

Then we have players like Best and Gosling, whom I don't know what to expect of. Still don't understand why we let Routledge go. He hardly could have been on high wages.

Let's just all pray Ba is a total crock joke and actually plays and scores goals.

 

Your point on injuries just emphasises that we have a stronger squad even more. Who did we have to rely on last season for back-up? Perch? Smith? Lovenkrands? Raylor as a winger?

Now we have Gosling, Marveaux, Vuckic, Obertan, Best, Ba, Ferguson and more on the way. Quality can finally be replaced with quality.

Injuries do come and go, and they're an inevitability, but at least we have stronger cover to the point of actually having competition for first-team places. No more huge gulfs in quality, like replacing a suspended Tiote with someone like Alan Smith.

And personally, I don't see the big deal about Carroll. I'm fairly sure we scored roughly the same amount of points with him in the team than we did without him. The only people we've lost who made such a big impact last season were Enrique, Nolan and possibly now Barton. Nolan has been happily replaced by Cabaye, a replacement for Enrique is on the way, and as for Barton, who knows. He'll either be replaced or perhaps someone will step up like Marveaux. Fingers crossed.

We're not stronger yet, but we might be by the time the transfer window is over. Most importantly, key weaknesses in our team have been filled. Let's be optimistic.

 

also this
http://www.skysports.com/story/0,,12874_7123486,00.html
looks like we're gonna get the dutch left back after all. God knows we need him.

 

The last 2 big earners (60k +) we now have at the club are Smith and Colo, as I understand. Wage bill considerably cut.

 

Jonas = LW

his crossing might be better on the right, but with one upfront not a lot of those crosses will find our ST anyways. cutting in from the left and playing short passes to feet on his preferred foot is the better gameplan IMO (same with Marveaux on the right, also he can cut in and shoot)

 

Smudger - You seem to be preparing us for some Colo news!!

 

i ll be honest the idea of besty leading our star studded line up makes me cringe

 

I'm gutted Joey is going but the old saying sticks, no player is bigger than the club. He will move on and so will we.

QPR are getting a good player and a one that wears his heart on his sleeve for the club he plays for.