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Kevin Nolan - untouchable?

Big Geordie

by Big Geordie
in Football

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Guest palnese

Guest palnese

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Posted

Love the fact there's a picture of Lampard in a kevin Nolan thread. :lol:

 

I've never quite understood the "Fat-Frank" thing. Has he ever been out of shape?

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Guest neesy111

Guest neesy111

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I wasn't referring to the 'Fat Frank' thing tbh. And no, Lampard has always seemed to be in good shape to me.

 

i think he was talking more bout, having a quality CM, as frank lampard is as good as everything nolan is bad at

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TRon

TRon

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Posted

the fact that hughton hasn't made him go on a fitness regime etc, shows me hughton is bottling it with him

 

most other managers, would probably transfer list a player so out of shape

he looks out of shape yet is our most mobile central midfielder...go fugure ?

 

More mobile than who? Smith and Butt are usually playing the anchor role so they are hardly going to cover as much ground - although i doubt they are far off - so that leaves Guthrie who has played a couple of games there. Tbf, if Guthrie was starting regularly and turning in similar performances he'd be getting slated as well.

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TRon

TRon

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Posted

Nolan runs about a fair bit but it's just useless movement and most of it is playing catch up.

 

That was the other point which needed to be picked up on: it's no use running X amount of yards in a game if you are so slow you aren't getting near the opposition.

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David28

David28

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Posted

Will be interesting to see whether Nolan will be playing tonight and if he's playing then how he's playing. Really hope that he somehow can rediscover his form he once had in the early parts of the season.

 

http://www.journallive.co.uk/nufc/newcastle-united-news/2010/02/17/courage-of-kevin-nolan-is-undiminished-61634-25849260/

 

 

Courage of Kevin Nolan is undiminished

 

Feb 17 2010 by Stuart Rayner, The Journal

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If you want to know how Newcastle went from flakey underachievers to tough cookies, spend a couple of minutes listening to Kevin Nolan. Stuart Rayner talks to the Magpies' top scorer.

Kevin Nolan

 

WITHOUT a goal in 2010, and playing for a title-chasing side which has not won away since early December, there would be plenty for Kevin Nolan to worry about if the midfielder was the worrying kind. Fortunately for Newcastle United, he is not.

 

The Merseysider’s confidence is well founded. He remains his club’s leading scorer and the Magpies are still in pole position to win this season’s Championship. More than statistics, he can point to the mental strength and unity shown by his side as reason enough to keep his hand away from the panic button.

 

As one of the leading voices in a dressing room brought visibly closer by the adversity of relegation, Nolan’s calmness not only reflects the mood of his team-mates, but also influences it. And while some in the stands might be fretting about the gradual erosion of Newcastle’s imposing lead at the top of the table this year, Nolan is much more relaxed thanks largely to the attitude of those around him.

 

“It’s obviously a different kettle of fish because this is the Championship and that was the Premier League but we’ve probably got better characters, better team spirit, better togetherness than this club has had for a few years now. I think that’s what you see,” reflects Nolan, who despite a recent dip in his own form, seems certain to face Coventry City at St James’ Park this evening.

 

“When we’re not playing well, when the chips are down, we stick together and grind out results. We’ve managed to do that and we’re where we want to be. We were absolutely delighted to go top of the league again on Saturday and it meant we could have a nice flight home afterwards to think about the game, the wrongs we did, and hopefully put them right against Coventry.

 

“We’re not worried about our away form, I’m certainly not. There’s a lot of people outside the club making issues about it but if we can continue to do what we’re doing at home we know we can grind results out, like we did against a very good Swansea side. If we can get results like that from now until the end of the season, we know it will change for us.

 

“We’re absolutely delighted to be where we are. We know it’s not finished, we know we’ve got 16 games still to play, but we’re going to fight for every point and hopefully come the last day of the season, we’ll be sitting pretty at the top.

 

“We’re not worried about anyone else around us, we’re just concerned with what we do. At the end of the day we’re here to do a job and hopefully we’re doing it the right way.”

 

As an advert for flowing football, Newcastle’s 1-1 draw in South Wales – earned courtesy of an 87th-minute equaliser from striker Andy Carroll – was not a good one. But as an exhibition of the kind of backbone so sadly lacking in the club’s sad slide out of the Premier League, it could scarcely have been better.

 

“We absolutely robbed the point at Swansea to be fair,” admits Nolan. “We proved we’ve got a bit of grit and a bit of determination. When it’s not going our way we’ve got to stick at it. The only thing Swansea didn’t do is finish it off and they were punished for it.

 

“People say if you want to win promotion you’ve got to grind out results and that’s what we’ve done.”

 

Nolan last found the net on Boxing Day, his 11th strike of a prolific first-half of the season.

 

His goals played a massive part in setting the ball rolling for a Newcastle side who could have been feeling sorry for themselves after relegation. As his goals have dried up, Carroll and Peter Løvenkrands have helped maintain that momentum with purple patches of their own.

 

If Nolan’s goals were important, they pale into insignificance compared to his leading contribution to the no-holds barred pre-season conversations where the players set their own high standards for the coming campaign. Rigorous self-analysis comes easily to a 29-year-old who will not allow his calmness or Chris Hughton’s kind words about him today to cloud the issues.

 

“I’m not really worried about not scoring because we’re playing really well at home,” he says. “I was very disappointed with my game at Swansea, I thought I was poor by my standards but hopefully I can put that right in the next few weeks. If I start putting the ball in the back of the net and helping the lads out then fair enough but I’ll always take three points before me scoring.”

 

It is the kind of attitude which explains eloquently how Newcastle have broken the cycle of under-achievement to emerge as genuine title contenders.

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Ronaldo

Ronaldo

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Posted

"If Nolan’s goals were important, they pale into insignificance compared to his leading contribution to the no-holds barred pre-season conversations where the players set their own high standards for the coming campaign. Rigorous self-analysis comes easily to a 29-year-old who will not allow his calmness or Chris Hughton’s kind words about him today to cloud the issues."

 

They even got his age wrong, wankers.

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Fatwax

Fatwax

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Posted

on the plus side at least he admits he had a bad game on saturday, lets look for positives and despite the fact hes overweight and disappears from games hes actually one of my favourite players

 

He never turns up at the moment, that's the problem. The infuriating thing is that I've seen him slot some really clever through balls to the strikers before and make some tidy passes. If he applied himself, lost the blubber and made a showing for the ball he could be a fairly valuable asset, considering he's got a good strike on him and can head the ball well.

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Guest icemanblue

Guest icemanblue

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Posted

Big improvement from Saturday, tonight. Certainly our most talkative player, constantly encouraging everyone. Seems to be well liked and respected by the rest of the team. Let Guthrie continue to do his running for him and he'll make a difference.

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