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Preview: Newcastle Utd vs Hull City – 20/09/14

Click here to go to the discussion thread by TJR

Newcastle head into this game on the back of a 4-0 defeat to Southampton last Saturday, while Hull come into it having drew 2-2 with West Ham on Monday night. The scoreline flattered a shambolic Newcastle United side on the south coast, it quite easily could have and perhaps should have been a 6 or 7 nil defeat.

Still though, a 4-0 defeat was enough to firmly place Newcastle United at the bottom of the Premier League table with just 2 points from 4 games. Our visitors this weekend sit in 10th place with 5 points from 4 games.

While it is wrong to take the league table seriously until at least 10 games have been played, but there is no doubt that our poor start to the season is cause for concern especially when you consider how we ended last season. Winning only 5 games since the turn of the year is far from acceptable and this has rightly resulted in a lot of discontent from the fanbase. At most other clubs such a horrifically bad record will have seen the manager depart.

Hull have been boosted by a positive deadline day in the transfer window. Record signing Abel Hernández made a scoring start to his Hull career on Monday, as did fellow new recruit Mohamed Diamé. Gastón Ramírez could be in line for his first Hull start on Saturday.

On this same weekend last year Hull made their last visit to St James’ Park. They won 3-2 that day, Rémy scored both Newcastle goals, but Sagbo scored a great goal for what proved to be Hull’s winner.

Newcastle United’s only away win since the departure of Yohan Cabaye came against Hull City at the KC stadium back in march. The result that day was overshadowed by the appalling conduct of Alan Pardew who committed what appeared to be an unprovoked attack on Hull City midfielder David Meyler.

This game will probably be remembered for what is going to happen off the pitch more so than what is going to happen on it with a large scale campaign for Pardew to be removed as manager expected to take centre stage, while a section of Hull fans will also be up in arms against their chairman.

This is a fixture that has had a history of being overshadowed by protests. If you jog your memory back to the 13th September 2008 Hull City game to St James’ Park as Newcastle fans were protesting against Kevin Keegan’s departure from the club. Keegan left following the board lying to him as James Milner was sold behind his back, while Xisco was brought in because he looked good on a YouTube video. Keegan later took Ashley and the board to court over it and won the case. Newcastle lost 2-1 on that occasion and Anti-Ashley protests led to to Ashley putting the club up for sale.

Team news:

Newcastle United: Davide Santon (knee), Papiss Cissé (knee), Ryan Taylor (knee), Adam Campbell (hernia), Curtis Good (groin), Siem de Jong (thigh), Rolando Aarons (hamstring) and Jonás Gutiérrez (cancer) will all miss out through injury.

Hull City: Robert Snodgrass (knee) and Hatem Ben Arfa (ineligible) will definitely miss out. However it has been confirmed the french international will be present at St James’ Park which will add to Alan Pardews discomfort. Andrew Robertson (calf) and Stephen Quinn (ankle) will face late fitness tests.

A word from the gaffers:

Alan Pardew: “This situation at the moment is almost like mass hysteria. I’m hoping we can turn that around, but the environment for the players on Saturday will probably be as tough as it’s ever been. It’s gone to a level which makes it really difficult for players to perform in.

I had a long conversation with Mike Ashley. I never asked for reassurance – I signed a long deal for good or bad. The one thing that we both agreed on was that we really need to focus on this Saturday and try and get a win for the football club.”

Steve Bruce: “We all understand it’s a results based business but some of the nonsense that goes with it, I have to say is ridiculous. Unfortunately with the way social media is and the way the media is there is a huge appetite for what we call nonsense. It comes with the territory but you have to say in the North East it seems to quadruple: when there’s a crisis, there’s a crisis, and I suppose that comes from the huge support they have got.

It’s a difficult, difficult place to manage. But we have to try and take advantage of that, of course we do. We have to be mercenary enough to try and do that. The other stuff is not enjoyable to watch from afar. Over the years he’s done a decent job has Alan but I think that’s the nature of the beast, especially in the North East, and I can say that because I’m from there.”

Expert opinion:

Lawro: “Newcastle are bottom of the table and it looks like there will be a massive protest by their fans outside – and maybe even inside – St James’ Park on Saturday, calling for manager Alan Pardew to be sacked. Now, if you are a Magpies supporter and you go and pay your money to watch them every week, then you can go and vent your spleen. I have no problem with that, because having a voice is one of the great things about being a football fan.

Part of their argument is that Pardew has been in charge since December 2010 and has had time to build a team, and I cannot disagree with that. But I think some of them are missing the point here, which is that Newcastle owner Mike Ashley will only listen to them when it hits him in the pocket. Ashley is concerned about making a profit out of the club which, again, is not a problem.

But what that means in this situation is that unless, all of a sudden, Newcastle get 40,000 people coming to watch them instead of 52,000, Ashley is not going to listen or give a serious thought to sacking the manager. If the gates are down and less money is coming in then, for Ashley, that would be serious. That is probably more important to him than Newcastle not making a particularly good start to the season.

What is ironic about Saturday is that Hull boss Steve Bruce is the man who people are saying could come in and replace Pardew. I know Bruce is a Geordie but I am not sure he would want to leave Hull, where he has been allowed to shape the future of the club, for Newcastle. He certainly would not get the same freedom in the transfer market at St James’ Park. There could be a very strange atmosphere at the game, but I have a feeling Newcastle will win. Three points will not make any difference to the way their fans feel about Pardew, however. I predict the result to be Newcastle United 2-0 Hull City.”

Line-up and prediction:

Possible Hull City line up :

McGregor
Elmohamady – Dawson – Davies – Robertson
Huddlestone
Livermore – Diame
Ramirez
Hernandez – Jelavic

My Newcastle Utd line up :

<krul>
<janmaat> <satka> <mbabu> <haidara>
<tiote>
<anita> <colback>
<armstrong>
<perez> <ferreyra>

I’d line up in a diamond formation, structurally the same as the one that England used against Switzerland the other week. I would drop both Williamson and Coloccini after their disgraceful displays against Southampton, but I wouldn’t put Steven Taylor and Dummett in at CB either as they are just as bad, if not worse.

Sure Satka and Mbabu are young and inexperienced, plus the atmosphere will perhaps be difficult, but they’d be under little pressure as they know if they perform well they only enhance their reputations whereas if they have shockers they can be no worse than Williamson and Coloccini were at Southampton and Pardew will get the blame for playing such inexperienced CBs.

I’d drop Sissoko and Gouffran as well because they have been abysmal this season, putting in an appalling lack of effort. I’d bring Tioté back in as he offers protection to the defence and we look more solid with him. I’d drop Cabella and Rivière as they have done nothing so far this season therefore it is only fair to give other players such as Armstrong, Pérez and Ferreyra a chance.

I don’t expect Pardew to make bold changes though. I predict his only changes will be to drop Anita for Tiote and Williamson for Saylor.

In terms of match prediction I’d go for a 3-1 win to Hull. We’ve conceded 7 goals in the last 2 games and I don’t really see us shoring up defensively. Hopefully this will be Alan Pardews last game in charge of Newcastle United.

Jonás Gutiérrez:

This week Jonas has confirmed that he is suffering from testicular cancer and is currently undergoing chemotherapy. Obviously it goes without saying our thoughts are with him and we hope he makes a speedy recovery. Plans have been going round on social media of how we will show our support to Jonas. The most popular one seems to be one where we will applaud on the 17th minute as always for John and Liam and then on the 18th minute (his shirt number was 18) we will also applaud for Spiderman while singing the Gutiérrez song.

Referee:

Neil Swarbrick will take charge of the game. His last visit to St James’ Park was our 4-0 defeat to Spurs last season. He’s not the worst referee in the world, his pickiness is often inconsistent and annoying but overall he’s probably one of the better Premier League officials.

Anti-Pardew protest:

There is a large scale Pardew out protest planned. All the details of the protest can be found at the URL in the picture. The main part of the protest will be a display on 5 minutes (we have won only 5 games in 2014 under Pardew) where fans will sing “we want Pardew out” and hold up the A4 cards shown in the photo below.

30,000 of those have been printed and will be handed out in various pubs and on streets in Newcastle before the game. Details of where you can pick one up can be found at sackpardew.com. There will also be 100 of the banners shown below displayed at the match.

Where to Watch/Listen

Tickets are still available from the matchday box office. The match isn’t televised in the UK, but radio commentary is on BBC Newcastle.

Overseas Coverage: (via nufc.com)
beIN Sports 2 +HD (Indonesia)
Cytavision Sports 5
Fox Sports Plus Ch 505 Red Button (Aus)
GO Sports 6 (Malta)
GOL Stadium (Spain)
NBC Sports Live Extra (USA)
PremierLeaguePass (NZ)
SportKlub 5 (Croatia)
SportsNet World (Canada)
Viaplay(Sweden)
Yomvi +HD (Spain)

How do you think we’ll get on in this game? Have your say in our discussion thread.