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Newcastle United vs Aston Villa - 05/02/12 @ 1:30pm (Sky) - Pre-match thread


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I'm going to be in Las Vegas when this is on. Does anyone know where I might be able to watch it? Kick off at 5:30 am :-\

 

 

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

 

It's on Fox Soccer Channel and since Las Vegas has 24 hour drinking and bars, any sports bar that is open will happily show this for you (as there will be no competing events on TV). Also the hotel you are in might have this channel. One other possibility: foxsoccer.tv online will be showing it legally and sometimes the internet service offered by hotels has this as free.

 

Other than that I have heard rumours that you can watch games online on "other" sites.

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I see people wanting 4-4-2, with HBA on the wing and possibly Perch at CM next to Guthrie - I find this baffling.

 

IMO 4-4-2 works well with Tiote and Cabaye because as a partnership they are arguably one of the best in the PL. Tiote has the experience and sheer strength and stamina while Cabaye has the required intelligence and is crafty in possession. They both have the "know-how" to play CM in a 4-4-2 and are able to work well with our wingers while also providing the necessary defensive cover when needed.

 

Perch as CM in a 4-4-2 is a step too far for him and will place extra strain on Guthrie who really is a back-up to Cabaye and not in the same class. So having a Perch + Guthrie combo in a 4-4-2 with HBA on the wing is asking for the same kind of trouble experienced yesterday. The kind where HBA is isolated as our two CMs struggle to gain control in the middle of the park. This has a further knock on effect on the full back behind HBA because tracking back to help the fullback is not his strength. Before we know it, either Willo or Colo are being pulled out of the centre to help the fullback or Perch falls back to help,  further isolating Guthrie.

 

When this happens our two strikers are only ever going to get balls hoofed at them from defence and it they fail to hold it up long enough to get support, we lose possession and the process repeat itself.

 

We should be looking at our personel and then select a formation that plays to their strengths. The top four teams are able to select a formation and then add the personel. We cannot, we dont have a large enough squad and our back up players are not nearly as good as our first XI.

 

 

 

I agree we should adapt the formation to the resources we have seeing as we're lacking players but we should also play a formation that puts us on the front foot and puts bodies in the penalty area. We're at home to a beatable Villa side and have to attack them. We've also not had much success with 4-3-3 and I'm not sure it suits the players we have. Sure it gives us an extra body in midfield, but if Villa decide to do the same it's gonna be a scrappy game with 6 bodies running around the middle of the park and only 1 pressuring each penalty area - IMO this suits Villa being the away team, they'll see us as a tough fixture despite our injuries.

 

I think the home advantage and the addition of Ba and Cisse alone will see an improved performance on Blackburn. But lessons have to be learned from that game. Raylor in the middle doesn't work, and while Perch shored it up a little, we were still overrun. I'd gamble on Abeid who seems to be highly rated and is a natural DM. If he can't get a chance to start a league game now then you wonder when he will.

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                  Krul

 

Simmo  Willo  Colo  Santo

 

          Perch  Abeid

 

      HBA    Vuckic    Jonas

 

                    Ba

 

Cisse on for Vuckic towards end, Ba drops deep and Cisse taking his place upfront (i imagine he'll only get a debut, maybe he'll get a start, in which place Ba in the hole behind and Cisse upfront

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Thanks. The hotel has fox sports, but would be good to see it in a proper sports bar. Like you say, not much competition at that time in the morning.

Cheers

 

 

 

there's a shopping centre sort of in between planet hollywood and planet hollywood westgate hotels with a few bars in it. i'd suggest having a look there

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I see people wanting 4-4-2, with HBA on the wing and possibly Perch at CM next to Guthrie - I find this baffling.

 

IMO 4-4-2 works well with Tiote and Cabaye because as a partnership they are arguably one of the best in the PL. Tiote has the experience and sheer strength and stamina while Cabaye has the required intelligence and is crafty in possession. They both have the "know-how" to play CM in a 4-4-2 and are able to work well with our wingers while also providing the necessary defensive cover when needed.

 

Perch as CM in a 4-4-2 is a step too far for him and will place extra strain on Guthrie who really is a back-up to Cabaye and not in the same class. So having a Perch + Guthrie combo in a 4-4-2 with HBA on the wing is asking for the same kind of trouble experienced yesterday. The kind where HBA is isolated as our two CMs struggle to gain control in the middle of the park. This has a further knock on effect on the full back behind HBA because tracking back to help the fullback is not his strength. Before we know it, either Willo or Colo are being pulled out of the centre to help the fullback or Perch falls back to help,  further isolating Guthrie.

 

When this happens our two strikers are only ever going to get balls hoofed at them from defence and it they fail to hold it up long enough to get support, we lose possession and the process repeat itself.

 

We should be looking at our personel and then select a formation that plays to their strengths. The top four teams are able to select a formation and then add the personel. We cannot, we dont have a large enough squad and our back up players are not nearly as good as our first XI.

 

 

 

I agree we should adapt the formation to the resources we have seeing as we're lacking players but we should also play a formation that puts us on the front foot and puts bodies in the penalty area. We're at home to a beatable Villa side and have to attack them. We've also not had much success with 4-3-3 and I'm not sure it suits the players we have. Sure it gives us an extra body in midfield, but if Villa decide to do the same it's gonna be a scrappy game with 6 bodies running around the middle of the park and only 1 pressuring each penalty area - IMO this suits Villa being the away team, they'll see us as a tough fixture despite our injuries.

 

I think the home advantage and the addition of Ba and Cisse alone will see an improved performance on Blackburn. But lessons have to be learned from that game. Raylor in the middle doesn't work, and while Perch shored it up a little, we were still overrun. I'd gamble on Abeid who seems to be highly rated and is a natural DM. If he can't get a chance to start a league game now then you wonder when he will.

 

Good points and I agree about us getting at Villa and not getting over-run in midfield considering that like u say, they will probably play 3 in the middle and definitely play on the counter using the pace of their Gabby and Bent.  So how do we find the balance of attacking them without exposing our fairly slow CB pairing? :)

 

I posted this formation for the Blackburn game and think it will work better with some of our returning players as well as those who have shown to be in form (Perch and possibly Obertan)

 

                      Krul

 

Simpson    Will          Colo    Santon

 

          Abeid/Perch      Guthrie     

 

Raylor/Obertan  Ben Arfa      Jonas

 

                              Ba

 

Probably start with Raylor and bring on Obertan a lot earlier for another cameo depending on how the game pans out.

I havent seen Abeid play but considering what people have been saying about him he might get a run out ahead of Perch and the bring Perch on if the Abeid experiment does not give us the desired results.

 

With Cisse probably being on the bench we can revert to other formations to push him and Ba upfront.

 

I just think we need to start well, get the crowd going, get an early goal; all of which will dent the fragile Villa confidence.

 

With Keane, Bent and their own Gabby they can cause us problems, or they can be sh*t on the day. You just never know with those three. 

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My view on Villa is that they have some talented players but a poor team. One of our best strengths is our teamwork and effort, it should give an edge in this game. The problem is whether we can create chances. With Ba back we should offer their defence a few problems.

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Guest pintofscottsellers

Anyone know a good bar to catch this game in Barcelona?..

 

Temple Bar, it's an Irish bar that shows all the English games. if you're on the Ramblas, it's about 20 metres down the street with KFC on the corner.

 

http://english.templebarbcn.com/

 

Pretty sure a ended up in there when a went to Barcelona, good bar from what I remember.

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