Can't see us keeping a clean sheet against ba. In fact can't see us winning ba will rip. shaky defence to pieces! Hope I'm wrong but I think disappointing 1-3 with lambert scoring a consolation in the 85th
For me we've just dominated Swansea and QPR. We deserved to beat Swansea comfortably and the referee cost us that game. Newcastle are on a dreadful run. We are at home and it's a very long way for them to travel. Will be incredibly disappointed if we don't win. For me if we are at or close to our standard of the last two games we will win this. That's why I'm going for 3-1, I was abrupt before and didn't actually say why I'm going for a 3-1 win.
A lot will depend on which Newcastle turn up. If Newcastle turn up like Swansea and QPR did against us, which they could considering their form and injuries, we could get a big win in terms of importance and scoreline. If a Newcastle resembling the Newcastle of last year turn up... Ruh-roh...
A very undecided set of predictions so it seems. Evidently people can't make their mind up on whethe they're any good. Play like we did against QPR and it's at least a draw for me.
Can't see a draw or a newcastle win considering how well our team are playing. If we play with the same determination which we certainly should we will win. -------------Boruc----------- -Clyne-Fonte--Yoshida-Shaw -------Cork--Schneiderlin----- -Puncheon--Ramirez--lallana ------------Lambert----------- If Adkins thinks Gazza is up to it than so be it, he probably he is, just hasn't shown much for mine. I am a little concerned we might do what we did against Wigan and not turn up, hopeflly Nigel will have them fired up.
Well this is the thing. How well are we playing? We've faced Swansea and QPR who aren't great teams as it is, but both were at their respective worsts, the performances and results from our point of view were pretty good, but how good? At times against QPR our play seemed scintillating and beautiful, you watch some of it back and you see QPR players standing still or strolling around the pitch whilst our players played it into wide open spaces. And at the other end we have been much more steady and conceded less, but Swansea and QPR spent about a combined period of 5 minutes between them when either team had more than 4 men in our half, and neither team exactly has Aguero or Van Persie up front. I don't think you can completely dismiss the performances as just fluke results against poor opposition by any means, but by the same token we did not come up against very good teams on the day. And if you want to be even more critical you could say we should comfortably have registered 6 points on the board but registered only 4. Newcastle could be a bigger test, or they could play like toss and we could stroll to an easy victory, that would be nice.
I don't think we could have played much better against QPR and did enough against Swansea for 3 points. Against Man CIty and United we did enough for a point since then we have a far superior team. We should beat Newcastle.
I think that for the most part when you look at a game where a team has won or lost you can choose to see it one of two ways, either the winning team has played well or the losing team has played poorly. Of course it is usually a mixture of the two. In our case I feel QPR are a very poor side with no confidence but that we made them look a lot worse than they had in their most recent performances. I feel Swansea is an even better example of this as their form was on the up when we made them look very ordinary. To further emphasise this pointers interesting to look at all our fixtures for the season to date and their league position. Apart from the Wigan match, which I feel was a bit of an early season anomaly in no small part due to the city performance and result, we have outplayed and are unbeaten against each team we have played in the bottom half of the table (Fulham, villa, Swansea,and QPR). This would suggest to me that in actual fact out recent accumulation of points has not been down to the opposition playing poorly and is more to do with the fact that we are more than capable of outplaying the teams in the middle to lower half of the league. On this basis I fully expect a result against Newcastle as their form has been that of a team at the lower end of the table and therefore, as our form has shown, one we are more than capable of competing with.
Second half against Spurs and the perfomances against Swansea and QPR suggest we can get results, but there will be ups and downs. Not even the top sides win every game. I can see us winning...Newcastle are in a poorish patch at the moment and we are at home, but we mustn't panic if we lose as long as we play well. The bummer is being in bottom three...it could be a crawl to get a few places above safety.
Agree with th above. We have shown we can more than compete and should win more than half of games against the sides around us!
There is every chance of us winning this one, but I do think we are generally getting our hopes up just a little bit too much. I would be very ahppy to take a draw. In particular, Ba and Cisse are vastly superior to anything which Swansea or QPR threw at us. Lesser forwards than them have scored past our defence this season. Same ten oufield players for me. Maybe a change in goalkeeper. Can't decide.
As sad as it is to say it, if we are going to start using Boruc I think we are better off re-introducing him at an away game. A load of the "fans" who were behind him in the Chapel are bound to give him some grief. If he has a good away game first, all will probably be forgotten.
3pm: Southampton v Newcastle United Referee: Martin Atkinson; Assistants: P Kirkup, M Scholes; Fourth official: L Probert. http://www.soccerway.com/referees/martin-atkinson/44515/
Definantly would go for the same starting 11. No need to replace Gazza. Only way he'll improve is with game time. Think he is now Nige's man. Also was just looking at Newcastle's form after playing in Europe and it reads; played 6, won 2, drawn 1, lost 3. So they have clearly struggled somewhat. I think this game really is a 50/50. We have performed well last few games and are due something at home however Newcastle are a very good side. Don't really agree with people saying how poor they have been this year. They have been unlucky in a number of games and their performances have generally been pretty consistant. With their attacking players they will always cause problems. As for a prediction.... 2-2. A point gained rather than 2 lost for me. COYS
I think we'll nick it 2-1. A Rickie Lambert double, with a Demba Ba goal sandwiched in between. Rickie will get the winner from the penalty spot.
As well as the problem of having to focus our efforts on keeping Ba and Cisse quiet, I see an issue with their midfield steel dominating our crack gang of gentlemen. Another game with no yellow cards from our guys (bar ones for diving), and Tiote dictating the centre of the park, might mean we have our work cut out to get anything. Despite playing nice football. Could rest on the crowd to pull us over the line...
