Colo and Saylor out for a month.

Colo has a thigh muscle tear and Taylor has an ongoing knee problem. When is Williamson due back? If he's still someway off being fit then I guess we'll be seeing Dummet and someone like Ryan Taylor filling in... Possibly we'll get to see how Streete does... All in all it's bad news and underlines the daftness of only having 3 senior CBs.

http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/sport/football/newcastle/11605500._/

 

Completely ****ed now. Good thing we let MYM leave...

 

Comical that we didn't replace MYM. I'm not his biggest fan but you can't have three senior centre backs. Haidara will really need to up his game now as Dummett will have to go into the middle. It means a return for Willo too at a crucial stage which is worrying. Young Streete may have to play at some stage but its a big ask to have him and Dummett. Both inexperienced in the role. We need to sign someone who can run a defence in Colo's absence. They need to be from these shores as we haven't got time to blood someone.

 

Apparently Janmaat can play CB if needed and we have Santon coming back too.

 

Should play Dummett and Satka with Streete on the bench. Where the bejesus is Good?

 

Good is still injured.
Maybe worth giving Satka a go, rather than Williamson.

 

Will they actually be out though?
There are conflicting reports this morning, depending on what you read.
The one I trust has them both at 75% of playing.

 

I could see Satka getting a mullering. Looks a canny player but that Stoke lad gave him some serious issues physically. I think with Satka you'd have to select the right games. I don't think someone like Austin is right for him. I'm not sure there are many in the next run of games I'd feel comfortable sacrificing him in. He needs to develop physically a touch first. Only 18 yrs old and not quite there yet. Technically he looks good and he has great composure. Whether that frame is ready for a PL war I'm not so sure. I look at how much Nastasic (who I think is a big talent) struggled at Man City. He was physically better equipped to cope than Satka but got bullied.

 

Jesus titty f**ing christ. If Colo is out and Saylor plays with Williamson I don't even want to think about the s**tness that will occur. If Saylor is out as well that means Williamson and some other ****er and that means beyond ****ness.

 

But surely Dummett can do that? Williamson would also be pushed over by Austin!

 

Not to the same extent as Satka. Willo is fairly strong. He does lose aerial tussles that he really shouldn't (normally in the box), but man to man he actually does ok. Its a whole different thing asking a kid who is fairly slight to be step in. Certainly Streete is better equipped at this age than Satka but even he might find it tough. I think he'll come good if we give him time but I don't think its really fair on the lad to just chuck him in when clearly not ready. You could ask Dummett, but its not a case of saying "he is my man". Most have enough about them to switch centre backs. They would target him obviously.

I don't really rate Willo outside of maybe cover as 4th choice, but I'd be infinitely more confident than with Satka. As I say I actually rate him, it just doesn't mean he is ready. Like most centre backs, they need time, particularly when they are built like him.

 

If this is the case it doesn't matter what we think the line up should be, Pardew will play the following:

Janmaat, Willo, Dummett, Haidara

For me if Colo was fit he'd play instead of Willo but other than that I think that's our strongest back line. So essentially only one first choice defender missing.

Still a concern obviously but all teams suffer in this area, Man Utd and Arsenal also both have shocking depth in defence so we can't be too critical.

Simply put, we aren't the sort of club that can have three first choice CB's on the books, let alone four, purely because we don't have enough games to garuantee them minutes on the pitch. For the foreseeable it'll always be two first choice that are of a top 7-10 standard, an experienced back up of bottom half standard (think Saylor & Willo) with a kid as fourth choice.

It's exactly why MYM left, he's far too good (maybe not in the English game) to be warming the bench at a mid table club.

I'm happy with our defensive options, Dummett is twice the player when playing in the middle, Haidara is obviously suspect defensively but he'll only improve this aspect of his game by getting minutes on the pitch.

We have two right backs (Janmaat, Raylor), two/three left backs (Santon, Haidara, Dummett) and three/four centre halves (Colo, Saylor, Willo, Dummett) with Streete and Satka for emergencies.

Eight senior defenders which is two for each position, all of which are a minimum of 11th -15th place quality at worst (I'm think Willo and maybe Saylor fall in to this category).

It's where we are at the moment as a club. We'll only ever be two, maybe three injuries away from a potential defensive crisis. I'm comfortable with our squad defensively. In the next two years Colo will need replacing and a non injury prone upgrade on Saylor and Willo will need to be signed (meaning both Saylor and Willo are to be sold too). We'd then have Colo's replacement, upgrade on Saylor & Willo, Dummett and a youngster. Four players covering two positions.

 

That would be acceptable if two of the three weren't extremely injury prone. Colo regularly misses games due to injury - usually in the winter. Saylor is a walking injury waiting to happen. Therefore we must have more senior options if we are going to have these two in our first choice ranks. Everyone said it before the season and it has unsurprisingly come to bear. The only saving grace is the timing being on an international week. Gives them an outside chance of making it and also means they miss one less game.

You are right it is exactly where we are - low ambition concerned more with cost. We had Mbiwa so obviously knew we had this problem and had tried to resolve it. Once he wanted off it should have been a straight like for like as Pardew said he wanted. Once again though, we just chopped our own cock off.

 

This could be devastating. just when we were looking quite solid.

We're one more injury/suspension away from being in serious ****e.

 

Evening Obi.
You still in JPF's dreadfort?

 

No, I was let out for good behaviour!