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Newcastle Utd vs Tottenham Hotspur - 16/10/11 @ 4pm - live on SKY


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I'm a bit ignorant of Spurs' habits, does Modric often play "in the hole" or is that just what you want to see?

 

That team is the one most of us want, and today only reinforced that. We started like that against Wigan, and barely gave them a kick until we lost concentration at the beginning of the second half.

 

In theory, Bale, VDV and Modric interchange throughout. Sandro and Parker break up oppo attacks and cover for the full backs. We've only really tried it properly against Wigan though - 'arry can't seem to bring himself to drop Defoe. The 442 with Defoe worked against Liverpool, but they got their team completely wrong and then got Adam sent off. Worked at Wolves, but it took us an age to break them down. We just seem way more fragile when playing 442 with VDV on the right.

 

Look at today. Modric and Parker were overrun in midfield as Arsenal had an extra man. We still made more clear-cut opportunities, but I think we now have the players to keep the ball far better than we did today, better even than Arsenal. 451 allows us to do that.

 

If we line up with KD's formation against youse, I would be confident of getting a result. If we line up with the Arsenal game's formation, it makes me feel far less confident.

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Ben Arfa and Santon have to come in. They've got a full international break to prepare for the game which hopefully gives them a chance to hit the ground running. To have those two in the starting lineup would give the team and the fans a boost.

 

The big question is who to drop for Ben Arfa. Pardew sees him as a second striker but he seems versatile and Best and Ba are causing teams problems. I think eventually he will come in for Best but you want to stick with your form players. On that note I think Ben Arfa should come in on the right in place of Obertan who is very hit and miss. Perhaps Ben Arfa won't offer Simpson the most protection but neither does Obertan.

 

There is also the possibility that Ben Arfa will threaten them down the right hand side and that will force Bale or whoever plays there to drop back and help out his own full back. We can't show too much fear and the best way to pin them back is to give them something to worry about if they bomb on too much. They will look to play a fast counter attacking game and we have to be cautious with our own full backs. I'd be happy to see us play a patient game, an end to end encounter doesn't suit us with the players they have. We shouldn't drop too deep but we should keep the full backs back at all times and try and open them up in midfield. That way when they counter there is always a back four there. It might not make for an exciting game but we would rather keep it tight and try and get the likes of Ben Arfa on the ball.

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Not sure how we will get on but it's great to be able to go into these kind of games. With points on the board and no pressure, would like to see santon and Ben arfa included after what was a sensible "rest" v a hard tackling wolves team

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Would anyone drop Obertan, whack Jonas on the right to help with additional covering for Simpson against The Worlds Bestest Mostest Fantasticist Ever Player Ever™?

 

Whack Santon in for Raylor and plonk Marv in for Jonas on the left.

 

Imagine seeing Lennon vs Marv it'd be like the umpa loompas having a barny at SJP.

 

As for attacking options...obviously stick with Ba.  The Ben Arfa question is a good one mind...stick with Best and then if it's not working hoy him on?

 

Anyhow, irrespective I honestly didn't think Spuds were 'all that' yesterday...still can't see us getting a result mind. 2-1 to them.

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I know it's a cliche but the match will be decided in the midfield battle. Spuds will have Sandro, Parker, Bale, VDV and Modric vs our Tiote, Cabaye, Jonas and Obertan. If it is 5 vs 4, we will get over run unless one of Ba and Best drops down to help the midfield or both of them cause problems to their defence that Sandro and Parker have to drop deep which then allows Tiote and Cabaye to dictate midfield. On paper their midfield has more quality (especially with Obertan being a bit of hit and miss). I would be tempted to go with one striker just so that we can add numbers to the midfield but I don't think HBA is ready to start and not sure who to drop between Best and Ba. For us to win, Tiote and Cabaye must have a 9/10 sort of game.

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If we actually did manage to win this, say, 2-1, we could very feasibly end up with a table looking something like this if the other results go as expected...

 

1. Man Utd / +21 / 22pts

2. Man City / +20 / 22pts

3. Chelsea / +12 / 19pts

4. Newcastle / +6 / 18pts

5. Liverpool / 0 / 13pts

6. Tottenham / 0 /  12pts (with a game in hand)

...

17. Sunderland / -2 / 6pts

 

:megusta: :megusta: :megusta:

 

 

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Ridiculous someone writing that King is poor :lol: He's absolutely colossal when he plays and he makes those playing around him better, namely Kaboul. That said with the players we have we can expose Kaboul.

 

Spurs are a side full of confidence coming off the back of a derby win but no reason we should be fearing them especially at home. If we get beaten on the day then fair doos but lets just pile into them and see what we get out of it. One thing the pundits seem to be missing is that we are still improving as a side and have more dangerous players to come into the team. In that respect we haven't even got close to what we might be able to do offensively and for that reason we are a dangerous outfit.

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Reckon we'll get done here. Got a feeling we're due a bad refereeing decision. Would take a point for sure. As long as we get a win against Wigan a defeat here wouldn't be too bad. Hopefully Marveaux, Santon and Barfa will all start.

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We have got a real tough set of fixtures on the way, so if we can get something out of this it would be huge going into Wigan.

 

The 5 games after that are going to really test us, so fingers crossed 3 or 4 points out of the next two would be very handy.

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