[Archived] Loony Toons: Newcastle Preview

[joey_big_nose]

Don't think Roberts is technically good enough to play lone against Utd. The ball will keep coming back

Worked fine last year.

To be honest Ferdinand and VIdic are so good it is going to be very very difficult for anyone to deal with them. Derbyshire will get out muscled big time (he won't win a ball!), as would Fowler or Benni Mac. Even Cruz would find it hard to win much. However Cruz would murder Evra in the air and on the floor which is what Hughes spotted last year.

Roberts would give them something to think about as he has pace to get behind them and is powerful enough to compete with them physically, although he won't win a sausage in the air. Has to start against Man Utd in my opinion, they will play a high line and we need to exploit it.

i would go for this:

----------------Roberts

--Pedersen----Carlos----Cruz

--------Warnock--Andrews

Olsson---Ooijer---Samba---Emerton

---------------Brown

I would look to play diagonal balls to Cruz and Pedersen and try to get it into Roberts feet to hold it up for Carlos. Problem with Man U is they leave themselves exposed on the flanks time and time again. Cruz and Pedersen's aerial ability would really really hurt them I think (like last year)

It would be harsh to leave out Tugay and Derbyshire who have done really well, but we need to play to our strengths and Man Utd's weaknesses and this would, i feel, be a good game plan. G Neville can dominate Derbyshire easily and Tugay's legs are too old to cover the ground we are going to need to close down Scholes/Carrick/Hargreaves/Anderson.

[Jan]

Why on earth would you have Pedersen in the team? Once of Ince's best moves so far is putting Pedersen on the bench.

[Bobby G]

Great result and for about 25 minutes in the first half we were very good. We didnt kill them off, and at the start of the second half we committed suicide.

Nelsen with a needless challenge, absolutely needless. I truly believe that one of Samba or Nelsen shouldnt be starting and that they should both be fighting it out to partner Zurab who has been shafted in my eyes. He is a composed and solid defender, combining assets of both Nelsen and Sambas play.

I thought Villanueva kept on trying and trying and even though sometimes things didnt come off, he continued to try and try again and he was a menace for their defence. He will only get better, as his decision-making at times was questionable, not going for the pass or taking the shot early at times.

Derbyshires energy for about 60 minutes was excellent. He was really working his socks off.

Tugay was good and he was popping up on the left wing in the 80th minute. What a legend.

Warnock scares me everytime he goes in for the challenge, but he was good at central midfield.

The youngsters Simpson and Ollsson had encouraging performances BUT, both of them spent too much time protesting for fouls when they lost the ball going forward instead of getting their head down and tracking back quickly, especially the Swede.

All in all, we are getting better and better by the game, and I am enjoying the attacking play with Villanueva at the heart of it and Tugay at the back. We were easily read in the past one or two seasons with Bentley pulling everything for us, and now for the first time we are able to open defences up through the middle as well.

[ihateburnley]

Is it only me that thinks Stevie Warnock is probably our best player at the moment. He never fails to impress me, and it's good to see him shine in an 'unfamiliar' position. He has all the right attributes to be a great midfielder and I think having Olsson out wide is probably a better idea as he is pretty rapid!

It's nice to see us mixing the team up a bit more depending on who is playing better at the current time and which opposition we are playing - sometimes under Hughes I felt that he would stick with certain players just for the sake of it even if they were clearly not performing ie MGP, Reid, McCarthy etc. Our squad seems a lot more refreshed this season, and it's very healthy for our players to realise that if they give their all and produce the results, then they will get the starts.

[rover6]

What I gathered from a bit of the match I watched:

- Newcastle in the first half were TERRIBLE. We were not great, imo, but they were just desperate. We only had to put in a bit of effort to steamroller their feeble first half efforts. They could barely pass the ball. It was almost farcical how often our strikers had the ball in dangerous areas with no-one in attendance.

- Villaneuva, whilst tidy and definitely a creative force, is too slow and unaccustomed to playing on the wing (he was playing left wing, wasn't he?). It just isn't his position. He would be far more effective in the hole where he would have space on the ball. Den's criticisms have some validity, it would seem.

- Emerton and Warnock played like a pair of madmen, not letting the opposition a second to think. I was expecting one of the two to get dangerously close to a sending off but they didn't. Warnock seems to have graduated from the Robbie Savage school of ball-chasing midfield. It was good work today but I fear that against better opposition he has to play a more disciplined, thoughtful game.

- We could still do with a right winger, although Emerton put in a brilliant cross for Santa. There were a lot of times when we had the ball on the right and the absence of any creativity caused attacks to dwindle.

It's great that we won but everyone has to recognise that Newcastle actually gave us that two goal lead. If I was one of their fans I would be absolutely disgusted. It doesn't matter if you have no manager and the club's in turmoil. You can at least try.

[T4E]

How good did Duff look?! Albeit I'm saying that from highlights, but it appears that he had a few of the old tricks on display.

[Exiled_Rover]

What I gathered from a bit of the match I watched:

- Newcastle in the first half were TERRIBLE. We were not great, imo, but they were just desperate. We only had to put in a bit of effort to steamroller their feeble first half efforts.

- Villaneuva, whilst tidy and definitely a creative force, is too slow and unaccustomed to playing on the wing. It just isn't his position. He would be far more effective in the hole where he would have space on the ball. Den's criticisms have some validity, it would seem.

- Emerton and Warnock played like a pair of madmen, not letting the opposition a second to think. I was expecting one of the two to get dangerously close to a sending off but they didn't.

- We could still do with a right winger, although Emerton put in a brilliant cross for Santa. There were a lot of times when we had the ball on the right and the absence of any creativity caused attacks to dwindle.

It's great that we won but everyone has to recognise that Newcastle actually gave us that two goal lead. If I was one of their fans I would be absolutely disgusted. It doesn't matter if you have no manager and the club's in turmoil. You can at least try.

Villenueva wasn't playing on the wing and Warnock could easily have been sent off for a second yellow in the last few minutes had the Newcastle player gone down.

[rover6]

Wasn't he...? I take it back. But it was him, was it not, who dwelt on the ball a few times in the first half and ended up having to desperately offload?

Would you agree that the performance was made to look much better than it was by a truly shocking display by Newcastle first half?

[joey_big_nose]

Wasn't he...? I take it back. But it was him, was it not, who dwelt on the ball a few times in the first half and ended up having to desperately offload?

Would you agree that the performance was made to look much better than it was by a truly shocking display by Newcastle first half?

We lined up like this:

-------------------Cruz

--Derbyshire----Carlos----Emerton

-----------Warnock---Tugay

Olsson-----Nelsen---Samba----Simpson

-----------------Brown

Carlos seemed very central all match.

Very attacking lineup btw.

Why on earth would you have Pedersen in the team? Once of Ince's best moves so far is putting Pedersen on the bench.

I agree generally, Treacy and Derbs have looked much better this year as allround footballers. But against Utd an aerial approach into the wings will be clever, and Pedersen is very very good in the air. He will take Neville. I am certain Derbyshire would be in Neville back pocket which ever way you play it - in the air, on the ground or in behind - same goes for Treacy although he does have a little more pace and physicality.

Not sure if Ince will go for it but I think there is a decent chance.

Just a one off, but I think it would pay dividends.

[Bobby G]

Yes I would agree.

Nevertheless, it was a decent away performance against one of the more difficult home sides.

[RoverRich]

Why on earth would you have Pedersen in the team? Once of Ince's best moves so far is putting Pedersen on the bench.

Pedersen does have good work rate and will do a lot of work defensively which will be needed against Man U especially with someone inexperienced like Olsson possibly playing left back. The work he gets through plus the fact that he has the ability to produce something special at the other end (although we haven't seen anything yet this season) should see him named in the team, I think anyway. I admit that he has looked poor this season and Treacy and Derbs have done well but he is what will be needed.

[Mozzer]

just back from match-what a day..

shame before the match we didnt even have time to chill out-we literally got to our seats then the players started coming out...

anyway as for the match-

jason brown-everytime i seen him play ive never been confident-his lack of height doesnt fill me with confidence-but today he did very well-collected every ball and his kicking was pretty good too..

simpson-first half he was good-second half damien duff got away from him a couple of times..

olsson-before the window shut i thought a left back was needed-but this guy has proven me wrong-i think he can hack it in the premierleague..

samba and nelsen-samba i thought was solid-nelsen i wasnt that confident with-how can he not even win headers against michael owen..

matt derbyshire-ok he isnt a left winger-but he did alright-tracked back and put 100% effort in..

villeneuva-for me he was pretty poor-he had a few good moments-but his first touch was so terrible-he couldnt keep hold of the ball at all..

overall good day and what a great result..

[joey_big_nose]

What I gathered from a bit of the match I watched:

- Newcastle in the first half were TERRIBLE. We were not great, imo, but they were just desperate. We only had to put in a bit of effort to steamroller their feeble first half efforts. They could barely pass the ball. It was almost farcical how often our strikers had the ball in dangerous areas with no-one in attendance.

- Villaneuva, whilst tidy and definitely a creative force, is too slow and unaccustomed to playing on the wing (he was playing left wing, wasn't he?). It just isn't his position. He would be far more effective in the hole where he would have space on the ball. Den's criticisms have some validity, it would seem.

- Emerton and Warnock played like a pair of madmen, not letting the opposition a second to think. I was expecting one of the two to get dangerously close to a sending off but they didn't. Warnock seems to have graduated from the Robbie Savage school of ball-chasing midfield. It was good work today but I fear that against better opposition he has to play a more disciplined, thoughtful game.

- We could still do with a right winger, although Emerton put in a brilliant cross for Santa. There were a lot of times when we had the ball on the right and the absence of any creativity caused attacks to dwindle.

Agreed - Newcastle were awful in the first half.

Carlos did look like he was a little lost - although his set piece delivery was good. Could be down to the fact that he likes the whole width of the pitch to roam but due to the system we were playing he really had to stay right in the middle as otherwise he would encroach into Emo's and Derbyshire's areas of the pitch. Seemed to make it much harder for him to find space.

Warnock is an absolute revaltion. ALong with Olsson's emergence it seems we have (yet another) great central player as he is not a neccesity at left back. I think he will hold down that spot in the coming weeks as he injects an energy we have not had since Savage left plus decent distribution (unlike Emerton when he plays there who is very head down). i coul see him there all season and he is versatile enough to play in anything - 442, 4231, 451, 433. He can get forward on that left flank when given the opportunity from the centre which is a potent weapon.

Emerton is not a great player in a flair sense but you put in clever guys like Carlos and Tugay you get a lot more out of his (extraordinary amount of) running into the room they find. The way we are set up at the moment I think Emo will do fine as he is not expected to create, just exploit which is what he does best. Say we got in Pennant or Ireland it is hard to see how they could fit into that system as they are just not that physical. But then I guess we would just play a different system.

[Presty On Tour]

I'm a fan of Pedersen's and he is my favorite Rovers player. I hope after Ince has dropped him for the last 2 games that it's the kick up the backside he needs. He is one of the best left sided midfielders in the prem and now knowing he needs to perform to make the side will bring the best out of him. Maybe he got complacent but with the competition for places heating up all over the park and Ince not scared to give players a chance, it can only be a good thing for Rovers.

[joey_big_nose]

I'm a fan of Pedersen's and he is my favorite Rovers player. I hope after Ince has dropped him for the last 2 games that it's the kick up the backside he needs. He is one of the best left sided midfielders in the prem and now knowing he needs to perform to make the side will bring the best out of him. Maybe he got complacent but with the competition for places heating up all over the park and Ince not scared to give players a chance, it can only be a good thing for Rovers.

Not sure I would go taht far. In an attacking sese he has been terrible for about 18 months!

I am up for him coming in to do a job defensively and in the air against Man Utd but I fear in the long run Treacy has got his number..... especially under Ince who prefers the pacy type.

[brfcs5359]

Warnocks a revelation. His performances (goals excepted) remind me of Bryan Robson constantly winning the ball and driving the ball supporting the man in possession each 10 or 20 yard advance.

I am fed up of all the talk of Newcastle as to any reason why anything happened. It's 90 minutes 11 v 11 and if Fulham, Newcastle Everton aren't good enough to beat us that's because on the day we were more effective. Besides putting rubbish to the sword has been a Rovers weakness so job well done.

And in the light of Hulls performances at Newcastle and Arsenal tonight, Rovers result (Rovers in transistion as well) doesn't look as awful as it did then.

8 Games in, I suspect most people believe Ince is doing a very good job BUT it will take time.

[Hasta]

I'm a fan of Pedersen's and he is my favorite Rovers player. I hope after Ince has dropped him for the last 2 games that it's the kick up the backside he needs. He is one of the best left sided midfielders in the prem and now knowing he needs to perform to make the side will bring the best out of him. Maybe he got complacent but with the competition for places heating up all over the park and Ince not scared to give players a chance, it can only be a good thing for Rovers.

Whilst I respect your opinion a lot and do not wish to disagree or argue with anyone, Pedersen has been poor in half of his games for the last 18 months. In the other half he's been complete tosh. Maybe we've won the last two games because we've played with 11 men and not 10.

Pedersen had the shirt in the first team for 3 seasons and didn't make it his own. He kept it due to lack of competition for his place in the formation Hughes was playing. He's shown Ince nothing this season to warrant his place and I hope the manager is of the opinion his chance has gone.

Sorry if this sounds harsh but I feel that Ince has taken a 'hard' decision to drop MGP rather than the easy one to retain him. If he still has a silly £4million+ valuation in January even better.

[Tim Southampton Rover]

The MOTD commentator for our game sounds depressed. Toon in disguise probably!

[Exiled_Rover]

The MOTD commentator for our game sounds depressed. Toon in disguise probably!

With the way he described the Owen 'penalty', despite video evidence to the contrary I'd agree with that.

[Darwen Rover]

Damn it!! settled down to watch the highlights online and woudnt stream!!!

anyone got a link to some highlights??

[roversmum]

From my seat with the angels I was rather worried as the game progressed. We were second to every ball and players didn't seem to even be running for it. As for Fowler, I'm trying to see something positive in him but I'm sorry it just isn't happening. There was a lovely chance late on which he once would have pounced on and put in the net but he couldn't even muster up the few yards to get to the ball. We could have easily killed off the game in the first half which was excellent, we just lost the plot in the second half which was very disappointing. Still, we'll take the points thank you.

note - just popped on to the official side and found Ince's comments showed that he is on the case

Not good refereeing though, two of our yellows were for challenges replicated by Newcastle who got no cards at all. No consistency as usual. Have Newcastle been having drama lessons from Arsenal, they seem to fall over a lot?

[LeChuck]

Not good refereeing though, two of our yellows were for challenges replicated by Newcastle who got no cards at all. No consistency as usual. Have Newcastle been having drama lessons from Arsenal, they seem to fall over a lot?

I don't really think we should complain about a referee that gave us a goal that was offside, didn't give a penalty for Olsson's handball and didn't show Nelsen a second yellow for hacking down Nzogbia.

[colin]

No consistency as usual.

Sorry Roversmum. I'm collecting these.

[waynerovers]

Damn it!! settled down to watch the highlights online and woudnt stream!!!

anyone got a link to some highlights??

ditto, missed highlights cos of work, a link would be greatly appreciated

Can links to websites showing todays goals please not be posted.

[Shevchenko]

So what's the story with Santa Cruz's jersey?