Category Uncategorized

Resignation – something tendered by the now former President Christian Wulff on Friday morning. No one at Bayern Munich will offer theirs yet but in deepest Badem-Wuttemberg, Germany’s most successful club slipped further behind Borussia Dortmund in the race for the title.

The Reds are now third, the same position they finished last season after another tepid away showing. Jupp Heycnkes, who was in charge last year at runners up Bayer Leverkusen, is unfamiliar to poor showings on the road. With his previous employers, he enjoyed the best away record in the division in the 2010/2011 season.

However, Bayern’s off colour showing at lowly Freiburg means his side have only won two of their last eight away matches in the Bundesliga. Their opponents on Saturday evening deserve credit for their determined performance. It might just irk Freiburg fans though that they’re the bottom placed side in Germany’s elite, in the knowledge their team can perform to that standard.

Two of their relegation rivals also had the challenge of trying to upset another two of the division’s high fliers. However, neither the recently wretched Hertha Berlin nor Kaiserslautern were able to overcome either of the league’s Borussias. Both victories were narrow which is of credit to the basement battlers. Hertha were greeted with the news on Friday that Otto Rehhagel would take over the vacant manager’s position or should it be Captain Otto?

He told Bild: “The Hertha ship has not sunk, but it has a large leak. I always have the last word. I am now there for Hertha, day and night, and I am always punctual.” His imminent arrival was unable to prevent Kevin Grosskreutz from grabbing a 1-0 win for Dortmund, maintaining the Champions position at the top.

Monchengladbach moved into second meanwhile as they emerged victorious at the Betzenberg, in a game which had two outstanding goals. Hermann put the away side ahead before a beautiful intricate move ended in Arango using the outside of his left foot to curl the ball past Kevin Trapp. Leon Jessen’s 30 yard thunderbolt halved the deficit but the counter attacking demons of Gladbach held on, meaning the Foals moved ahead of Bayern Munich for the first time since August.

The one place where Bayern have found consistency is at home, winning nine of their eleven at the Allianz Arena. However, Schalke visit next weekend.They’re now the top scorers in the Bundesliga having beaten Wolfsburg 4-0 on Sunday. Next weekend’s match-up will see the league’s top goalscorers, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Mario Gomez go head to head. Should the Royal Blues win, they’ll move above their hosts. Huub Stevens must seek inspiration from the forces above – no, nothing supernatural, just Gladbach and Dortmund who have both won in Munich this season

Each of the top four have key players missing currently and the table shows who’s currently coping the best. Lying just four points off the top, it would be foolish to rule Bayern out of the title race, although they are starting to lose vital ground on leaders Borussia Dortmund.

However, they haven’t had the panache of Champions. As Captain Philip Lahm stated after Saturday’s game, “If we continue to play like we did today, it will be hard to win the title.” Whilst they are not resigned to losing the title just yet, anyone connected with Bayern Munich will have felt more than an air of resignation after their latest performance.

For more on the Bundesliga, follow @arhindtutt on Twitter.

Matchday 22 Results:

Hoffenheim 1-1 Mainz

Bayer Leverkusen 4-1 Augsburg

Hamburg 1-3 Werder Bremen

Hertha Berlin 0-1 Borussia Dortmund

Kaiserslautern 1-2 Gladbach

Nuremberg 2-1 Cologne

Freiburg 0-0 Bayern Munich

FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. Subscribe FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.

---

Subscribe

By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.

Schalke 4-0 Wolfsburg

Hannover 4-2 Stuttgart

Bundesliga Table

Rank

Club

Matches

W*

D*

L*

G*

GD*

PTS*

1

Borussia Dortmund

22

15

4

3

47:14

+33

49

CL*

2

Borussia Mönchengladbach

22

14

4

4

36:13

+23

46

CL*

3

FC Bayern Munich

22

14

3

5

49:14

+35

45

CL*

4

FC Schalke 04

22

14

2

6

50:28

+22

44

CL* Qual.

5

SV Werder Bremen

22

10

6

6

37:36

+1

36

EL* Qual.

6

Bayer 04 Leverkusen

22

9

7

6

32:29

+3

34

EL* Qual.

7

Hannover 96

22

8

10

4

27:27

0

34

8

VfL Wolfsburg

22

8

3

11

27:42

-15

27

9

VfB Stuttgart

22

7

5

10

33:32

+1

26

10

1899 Hoffenheim

22

6

8

8

24:26

-2

26

11

Hamburger SV

22

6

8

8

27:37

-10

26

12

1. FC Nuremberg

22

7

4

11

21:32

-11

25

13

1. FSV Mainz 05

22

5

9

8

30:36

-6

24

14

1. FC Köln

22

7

3

12

30:43

-13

24

15

Hertha BSC Berlin

22

4

8

10

25:37

-12

20

16

1. FC Kaiserslautern

22

3

9

10

16:28

-12

18

Play-offs

17

FC Augsburg

22

3

9

10

20:37

-17

18

Relegation

18

SC Freiburg

22

4

6

12

27:47

-20

18

Relegation

Table thanks to Bundesliga Official Website

[ffcvideo file=”tfcbtitle3″ type=”mp4″ image_type=”jpg”]

The Sun reports that Tottenham winger Niko Kranjar will interest Lazio, Roma and Juventus in the summer that is according to Kranjar’s agent. The Croat was a regular in the Tottenham starting eleven last season – but this season has found his opportunities more limited largely due to the emergence of Gareth Bale and Steven Pienaar.

This season the 26 year old has only started 10 Premier League games. The winger has two years left on his contract and expressed his concern about a lack of first team football and is becoming disheartened by the lack of first-team football this season.

Kranjar turned down a move to German side Werder Bremen in January. However, he may be more interested in a move to one of these Italian giants – especially if Spurs can not give the player assurances about his future.

Kranjar’s agent Adrian Aliaj says “Niko is not happy with the situation at Tottenham at the moment. He wants to play. It is a shame that a man of Niko’s quality is on the bench. He is loyal to the club and he has a contract but it’s difficult for him. Some clubs are interested in Italy are interested in him. Lazio, Roma, Juventus – they are all interested, as well as some teams in Spain and Germany.”

Follow me on Twitter @jimlk2007

FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. Subscribe FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.

---

Subscribe

By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.

Chelsea and England midfielder Frank Lampard is set to be sidelined for another fortnight as he struggles to recover fully from recent hernia surgery.

The 32-year-old has not featured for the Blues since the 2-0 win at home to Stoke City a month ago and will definitely miss the Champions League clash with Marseille this week.

Lampard is also highly unlikely to feature in the showdown with Arsenal next weekend and he is a major doubt for England European Championship qualifier against Montenegro at Wembley on October 12.

Meanwhile, Lampard’s Stamford Bridge team-mate Didier Drogba has dropped a major hint that he may not end his career with the Blues.

He told The Sun:“When I signed a new contract at Chelsea, I always said I wanted to finish my career here. But I am well placed to say that anything can happen.

“When I was at Marseille I said I would finish my career there but, one week later, everything changed.”

FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. Subscribe FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.

---

Subscribe

By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.

Striker Drogba, 32, still has another two years left on his current contract, having joined the Blues in the summer of 2004 and gone on to score 136 goals in 267 appearances in all competitions.

Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email

Aston Villa winger Marc Albighton has stated that he is not a cheat, despite Wolves fans venting their frustration against him at the weekend.

Karl Henry was sent off for kicking out at the Villa midfielder in Alex McLeish’s side’s 3-2 win over the Molineux club, and Albrighton was given a hard time by the home fans after the incident.

Despite this, Albrighton has maintained that he was the victim and should not be accused of playacting.

“It [the kick] was pretty hard and it winded me. It’s something I wouldn’t want again,” he told Mirror Football.

“It hurts, definitely, when I read the papers on Sunday and Monday. It does hurt a lot, especially when people in the crowd call you a cheat when I was the victim, on the floor getting kicked.

“But that’s football, part and parcel of the game these days, and you have to take the criticism thrown at you. It spurs you on to do even better when people are booing you and calling you a cheat.

“I think he probably saw the red mist and lost his head a little. He’s probably a really nice guy off the pitch although I don’t really know him.

“Something stupid came over him. I’m not saying it’s right to go around kicking people on the sly but in the heat of the moment, these things happen. The emotions are high and the pressure is there,” he admitted.

FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. Subscribe FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.

---

Subscribe

By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.

By Gareth McKnight

[ad_pod id=’unruly-2′ align=’left’]

Tottenham are known for shooting themselves in the foot and this afternoon proved no different as they threw away more vital points at White Hart Lane.

Harry Redknapp must wonder what the hell is going on at the moment as the North Londoners slowly become the draw kings of the Premier League. The amount of points thrown away at home is arguably what they’ll look back and regret come the end of the season, should they miss out on a top four finish. They certainly had their chances in the game to put the game to bed, but like many times this season have failed to do so. The result means that their hopes of Champions League qualification are out of their hands and they’ll have to hope results go for them elsewhere.

So how do Tottenham fans feel about the performance today and what are the five things we learnt about Spurs this afternoon?

[ad_pod id=’unruly-2′ align=’right’]

FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. Subscribe FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.

---

Subscribe

By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.

[divider]

Described by Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger as ‘a centre-back of quality and experience, and at the right price’, the signing of French international Sebastien Squillaci from Sevilla certainly appears to be an astute addition to The Emirates set-up.

The Gunners completed the signing of the veteran central defender on Thursday and the former Lyon star will compete with fellow new signing Laurent Koscielny for a place in the heart of Wenger’s defence, alongside Belgian international Thomas Vermaelen. It leaves 23-year-old Swiss international Johan Djourou as the club’s fourth choice defender.

Central defence has been a problematic position for the North London side over the last few seasons, with Wenger so far failing to find the perfect combination at the back as he attempts to bring the club its first trophy since 2005. A side so intent on delivering free-flowing, attacking football needs solidity in defence and Arsenal fans have urged Wenger to finally solve his side’s back four frailties. Wenger has moved to address this over the summer and the experienced Squillaci could be the answer having impressed in spells at Monaco, Lyon and Sevilla.

Wenger lost an astonishing four centre-backs over the summer with William Gallas, Sol Campbell, Mikael Silvestre and Philippe Senderos all moving on. The arrivals of Squillaci and the highly-rated Koscielny from French side Lorient will ensure Arsenal have more than enough cover to cope with these departures.

However at the age of 30, Squillaci cannot be viewed as the long-term answer to Arsenal’s defensive problems. While Wenger has previously refused to sign players over the age of 30, it is a positive sign that he believes Squillaci can continue to deliver in the latter stages of his career. The £5m signing is expected to start ahead of the less experienced Koscielny this season and he will bring some much needed experience to the Arsenal side following the departure of Gallas to arch-rivals Tottenham on a free transfer.

Squillaci is renowned for his anticipation and heading ability and this should make up for what he lacks in pace. Wenger believes his new defender will give his side a more physical edge and will have no problems adapting to the physicality of the Premier League:

“He is a real defender and is good in the one against one, good in the air, and can score goals on set-pieces as well. I believe he will be suited to the English game,” revealed Wenger.

Squillaci has made over 350 appearances in club football and has been capped 21 times for France. He also has three French league titles to his name and was a key member of the Monaco side in their remarkable run to the 2004 Champions League final. His experience will be invaluable in the Arsenal dressing room.

While Arsenal fans were expecting a big name signing in central defence they can be pleased with Wenger’s business in the transfer market. Squillaci still has at least three years left at the highest level and will complement Vermaelen perfectly. The Frenchman is physically and mentally strong enough for the challenges of English football and will certainly be a force for Premier League strikers to reckon to with.

You can subscribe to this author’s RSS feed or follow him on Twitter. If you like this article then you can read more of Mr Molloy’s blogs HERE

Click on the image below to see the gallery of  Valon Behrami’s stunning girlfriend

FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. Subscribe FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.

---

Subscribe

By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.

While the Luis Suarez racism case has enveloped the club for the past couple of months, intense scrutiny on the performances of certain individuals on the pitch has become somewhat slacker. Summer signing Stewart Downing, who arrived from Aston Villa for the staggering amount of £20m, appears to be a player going through a serious crisis of confidence. The disparity between his performances on the pitch and his value off it are so great at the moment that it beggars belief that he ever cost that much in the first place. Is he Dalglish’s worst signing since returning back to the club?

The gigantic white elephant in the room is, of course, Andy Carroll. The £35m frontman does himself no favours, though. Arriving at the club as the ‘big man’ to Luis Suarez’s ‘little man’, the two have played very few games together. Carroll has either been in the process of returning to full fitness or has been out injured. It has been a never-ending cycle of disappointment.

The galling thing about Carroll is the misconception that Liverpool are not playing to his strengths. The club’s summer purchases of the likes of Downing, Henderson and Enrique were all geared towards getting the best out of Carroll and getting balls into the box. Liverpool, out of all the teams plying their trade in the top flight this term have had the most crosses.

Carroll has varied between lazy and disinterested. His work-rate is at times non-existent and he simply doesn’t look as strong as the bulldozing number nine of yesteryear at Newcastle. His hold up play resembles a man trying to control a balloon and more often than not, balls played up to him come straight back.

He’s not difficult to defend against for ninety per cent of the time, yet on that rare occasion when he does threaten, he can look a real handful. Carroll has been abysmal so far, let’s make no bones about it, but his one saving grace is that there is at least something to work with there. He has the potential to be a great number nine in the future, but only if he starts to believe in that himself and focus less on the price tag hanging around his neck and more on improving his performances on the pitch.

This brings us to Stewart Downing; a player whose reputation has always proved greater than the sum of his parts. Downing should be a byword for underperformance. The creeping suspicion is that he has always struggled when there has been any pressure placed upon him. Poor England performances against the likes of Andorra and Macedonia have become a hallmark of his international career.

Downing has never been blessed with pace and his strength is supposed to lay in his delivery from wide areas. In 20 Premier League games this season, Downing is without an assist. That is not to say, of course, that he has been complete and utter pony for the entire time, but more often than not his delivery leaves a lot to be desired. Frequently unable to beat the first man, too slow to take on a full back and with a worrying propensity to come in off the flank and narrow a midfield devoid of width in the first place even further – Downing has been a huge disappointment.

A lot of the disappointment originates due to the nature of his hefty price tag. Downing always performs well when he’s a big fish in a small pond. His final season at Villa, in a side little was expected of, Downing at times outshone Ashley Young – a player who himself started brightly at Man Utd but has since gone off the boil and faded terribly.

[ad_pod id=’unruly-2′ align=’left’]

The relative size of the Downing fee appears to derive from two consequences. Firstly, the fact that Villa themselves appeared to have overpaid for him back in 2009 when he signed for £12m, which meant that even a modicum of success at Villa Park was bound to increase upon an already sizeable valuation due to the nature of his nationality, with English talent still acquiring a baffling premium.

Secondly, the fact that Villa were reluctant to let go of both of Downing and Young in one summer. Ashley Young moved first to Man Utd for £17m and this indirectly inflated the Downing valuation. Villa were in a strong bargaining position, Liverpool, having just been beaten by Man Utd to Young, were not.

In 46 efforts on goal this season, Downing is yet to trouble the scorers. For a player that cost £20m, that is a quite frankly appalling return. The contrast down the left flank alone is enough to make the blood boil – the machine that is Jose Enrique is quicker with the ball than Downing is without it.

Pundits aplenty have decried Liverpool’s lack of cutting edge this term, Dalglish even admitted as much himself after the defeat to Man City this week after calling on his side to develop a more clinical edge in front of goal.

A decent barometer of the toothless nature of Downing et al comes courtesy of the fantastic Opta stats – Liverpool, Man City and Chelsea have all had 282 shots on goal in the Premier League this season, the top three for such a stat in the entire league. Man City have had 132 efforts on target and have 56 goals to show for it. Chelsea from the same number of efforts on goal have been on target with 126 shots and have scored 39 times. Liverpool, however, have been on target with only 114 shots on goal and have a quite miserable return of just 24 goals, less than both Bolton and Blackburn.

It’s also worth pointing out that this Liverpool side have scored the exact same number of goals as Roy Hogson’s team had by this point last season. The difference between performances of the two sides is clear for all to see, though. Whereas Hodgson’s Liverpool were devoid of anything even resembling creativity, it’s clear from the aforementioned stats that at least Dalglish’s side are creating chances. The problem lies in the personnel, though, and their inability to finish them off, with Downing a main culprit.

Jordan Henderson may go missing at times and may appear too eager to play the simple option rather than risk the wrath of the terraces for trying something different, but his purchase has to be seen as a long-term investment and he’ll come good eventually, with him showing signs in the past few games in a more familiar central midfield position.

Carroll has been a huge disappointment and the only thing currently stopping him going down as the Premier League’s biggest ever flop is the fact that Fernando Torres cost Chelsea the princely sum of £50m on the same day. However, while he may have a lot of facets to his game that need improving, Liverpool fans should reserve a smidgen of hope that he’ll come good also. He’s not a ready-made striker and will require a lot of patience, but there is at least potential.

Downing, though, at 27 years of age should surely be approaching the peak of his powers. If a manager investing £20m in you and challenging you to help spearhead the rebuilding of a great club like Liverpool isn’t enough to give you confidence, I don’t know what is.

FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. Subscribe FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.

---

Subscribe

By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.

It looked a risky purchase at the time but it’s of no coincidence that the fates of Liverpool’s two biggest transfer mishaps in recent times are intertwined and their underperformance interlinked. Carroll at least has the excuse that the service hasn’t been up to scratch, though, whereas for Downing, there is no hiding place.

You can follow me on Twitter @JamesMcManus1

[divider]

[divider]

Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini said having his squad well rested was the key to their 5-0 thrashing of Sunderland at home on Sunday.Adam Johnson opened the scoring after only nine minutes before Argentinean ace Carlos Tevez doubled their advantage from the penalty spot six minutes later.

Second-half strikes from David Silva, Patrick Vieira and Yaya Toure completed the rout and Mancini said his side had benefitted from a lighter schedule in recent weeks.

“In the last 45 days we’ve played every three days and we’ve had more player injuries. That was the problem,” Mancini said.

“Now all the players have recovered and we play Saturday to Saturday we don’t have a problem.”

“We hope we continue to play very well like today – but sometimes it depends on the opponents.”

“I think we played very well. We started well and pressed from the first minute.”

The win lifted City a point above Chelsea into third place in the English Premier League, and the Italian has his sights set on leapfrogging Arsenal into second.

“It was important for us to win this game after the results on Saturday,” he said.

“We are now third but we have to remember that Chelsea have a game in hand. Can we make second? Yes. But there is still a lot of work ahead.”

Sunderland boss Steve Bruce was bitterly disappointed by his team’s capitulation, their sixth loss from seven games, which sees them just eight points clear of the relegation zone with seven games to play.

“My reaction to that can only be total disappointment in the way we played and how we conducted ourselves,” Bruce said.

“We were nowhere near what we’ve been used to this season and we have to make sure we respond in the right manner.”

“We looked very, very disappointing today and as the manager I take responsibility for that.”

“Make no mistake, as from tomorrow we’ll be working very hard on the training ground to try and get us back to where we were.”

Newcastle United manager Chris Hughton as admitted his side can have no complaints after they crashed to a 3-0 defeat at Manchester United on their return to the Premier League.

After cruising to the Championship title last term, the Magpies were never going to have it all their own way at Old Trafford and goals from Dimitar Berbatov, Darren Fletcher and Ryan Giggs ensured the hosts started their campaign with a dominant victory.

Hughton wants to forget about their early loss and concentrate on next weekend's home clash against managerless Aston Villa.

"It is always a daunting task coming here and all you can do is restrict the opportunities they have and I think we did that for periods of the game," said Hughton.

"I think with them having so much of the ball and the quality they have got you just don't want to concede again.

FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. Subscribe FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.

---

Subscribe

By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.

"For us the important thing was to come out of today with some credit going into what is an important game next week."Subscribe to Football FanCast News Headlines by Email

On Saturday afternoon, I left my usual ritual of watching Soccer Saturday and tested the waters of Final Score on BBC. After a few minutes they went to Carrow Road to hear of Norwich City’s fourth goal and after hearing an account of Grant Holt’s header, they returned to the studio to discuss how worrying it was that Newcastle United had fallen to seventh in the league and picked up just one point from four games.

Having seen Match of the Day my opinion of BBC’s football coverage is poor but in a matter of moments my estimation of the channel plummeted to unknown depths. It seemed ridiculous to be concerned about the Magpies because they have made a mockery of pre-season expectations so far.

More importantly, while the facts are true and the team hasn’t collected many points in recent weeks, they have faced the top three sides in the country during this cruel pre-Christmas period and played a fourth game without a recognised centre-back. It would be fair comment to mention the need for a defensive signing because their squad is awfully small, but to predict a slide down the league because of these results is appalling punditry.

Let’s not forget, when they travelled to the Etihad Stadium they faced the only other unbeaten league side. Up until the first goal they had looked strong as well, limiting the new, expressive Manchester City to very few efforts and even creating a few of their own through the mighty Demba Ba and Ben Arfa fit a post in the second period. It was two penalties and a rare defensive mistake that cost them the game but they didn’t appear overrun by the league leaders and bagged themselves a late goal.

Then they faced second-placed United, who had won five and drawn one of the six games that followed their drubbing in the Manchester derby. Despite the fact they were demolished by City, Old Trafford should still be considered a fortress and it is intimidating for most visiting sides. Although the game will be best remembered for Newcastle grabbing their equaliser from a penalty that never was in front of the Stretford End at Old Trafford, they put in a fantastic battling performance, particularly when they had their backs to the wall during the final 15 minutes after Gutierrez’s sending off and Tim Krul put in an inspired display to keep out everything that was thrown at him. They were lucky to receive the penalty and have a linesman that correctly ruled out a last minute Hernandez goal, but they created chances of their own which brought good saves from David de Gea and ultimately deserved to take something from the match.

[divider]

[divider]

At the end of the terrible trilogy they had to face a Chelsea side with something to prove. Andre Villas-Boas has been under pressure and a defeat at St James’ Park would have been a catastrophe. Up until Didier Drogba’s goal, Newcastle had been all over them, creating magnificent chances and forcing errors from a nervy Blues backline, most significantly a moment of madness from Sideshow Bob lookalike David Luiz who should have been given a red card that would have swung the match in favour of the Toon Army. They had looked composed and confident throughout the half until going behind and for long periods in the second half they looked most likely to trouble the scoresheet. Losing Coloccini hit them hard as did finishing the game with ten men because of Steven Taylor’s injury. A fully-fit Taylor may have been able to prevent Torres’ burst forward to stop the second goal and would have filled the gaps in the defence for their third.

[divider]

Against any other teams these performances would have gained a much larger tally than one point. But with a depleted line-up they were unable to conjure up another big display against Norwich. Having James Perch and Danny Simpson as a makeshift central defensive partnership it was unlikely to breed confidence in a side whose success has been helped by a consistent starting eleven. Battling with Grant Holt and Steve Morison was always going to be difficult to two players who do not have an abundance of height or strength in comparison to the striker’s and it was no surprise that three of the four goals came from headers. A depleted midfield also didn’t help matters, especially when Dan Gosling, one of the players drafted in, made a mistake which led to the Canaries’ third goal and then proceeded to get himself sent off. Demba Ba’s performance however was a highlight, bagging two goals as his team-mates put in their only poor performance during the last month, something that brought a bizarre amount of criticism.

FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. Subscribe FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.

---

Subscribe

By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.

The fact that pundits expected Newcastle to get more from their games against the top three shows how much they have achieved this season. After losing Kevin Nolan, Joey Barton and Jose Enrique in the summer, people had them as relegation candidates this campaign but instead some great signings by Alan Pardew has got them fighting it out at the top while they watch their biggest rivals try to avoid the drop instead. Newcastle United need another defender to give them cover but if they are still in seventh place in May, which is quite possible, the Toon Army will be ecstatic. It is without doubt that they will be upset to lose to Norwich but they will take unfortunate defeats if they can still finish so high up the league. It’s a 38 game season and they have already had both away dates in Manchester so their fixture list looks a lot kinder. I’m sure Newcastle will score more than one point in their next four games BBC and hopefully stop the so-called “experts” from worrying.

Do you agree with the BBC pundits or should they leave Newcastle United alone? Comment below or tell me on Twitter @jrobbins1991.

[ad_pod id=’unruly-2′ align=’left’]