Match Preview: NUFC Vs Liverpool
Not so long ago, there was a huge feeling of disappointment
and division both within and outside the club. All this seems
to have gone, (for now anyway!) the loaning out of Bellamy has
coincided with a run of 4 wins in a row, 2 of which were in
the cups and our season has suddenly taken a turn for the better.
Souness has reverted to the 4-4-2 formation and it has paid
dividends. A month ago after the Charlton game if anyone had
asked me if we could beat Liverpool at home I'd have laughed.
Yet new found optimism has seen me believing we can win this
game and go on to win a cup. Every year I feel its ‘our
year' in the cup but this year I've a sneaky feeling -
I'll leave that one for now though before I jinx us!
It will be very interesting as to the team Graeme Souness puts
out against the Reds. Against Bolton he played with Bowyer and
Faye in the middle leaving Butt and Jenas on the bench. I can
see him sticking with the same central pair for this game. Usually
I'd go for Butt and JJ in the centre but Jenas has been lethargic
of late and Faye has been quietly efficient for us since January.
Bowyer had his best game for a while at the weekend and topped
it off with a super goal so it would be very unfair to drop
him.
Dyer is going through some excellent form at the moment, reminiscent
of his early time at the club - and he's even scoring
goals! I'm not his biggest fan and if he'd gone in January I
wouldn't have shed a tear, but he's repaying Souness' faith
in him with some good displays which are finally starting to
get an end product. I'm not going to get too excited about him
though, time and again he's produced the odd excellent performance
and we've all felt he'd ‘turned the corner' only to return
to his usual self. Another energetic performance on Saturday
please Kieron!
Celestine Babayaro is out injured with a knee problem so I expect
Aaron Hughes to fill in at left back. He can do a job there
but we'll miss Baba's presence going forward. On the topic of
this, its great to see Stephen Carr showing good form at the
minute on the other flank, if he stays fit we've got a good
full back on the books. Kluivert is expected to return after
a 'Grade 1 tear' in his groin, that sounds worse than it is
i'm led to believe but it is worrying how he picks up so many
niggles.
We've got to forget about the cups this weekend and concentrate
fully on the league. We may have lost ground on the European
places but who knows, a good run between now and May could see
us jump some places and see us finish respectably.
Liverpool are still suffering badly from injuries but they've
got a good squad and will still be a very tough game. They tend
to play a 4-5-1 system away from home which means they'll be
hard to break down so we need our pacy players (Dyer and Robert)
to stretch their full backs to open up the play.
Likely
Lineup
Player
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NUFC
Squad News & Pre-Match Reaction
Liverpool
Squad News & Pre-Match Reaction
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Last
Season At St. James' Park
Previous
5 Meetings At St. James' Park
Head
To Head At St. James' Park
Form
Guide: Last 10 Games
Prediction
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Behind Enemy Lines: The View From A Liverpool
Fan
Newcastle-online.com caught up with
Liverpool supporter Paul Tomkins who writes for Liverpool fansite
Red & White Kop and is also writing a book about his club, to
get his thoughts on the up coming match, NUFC, Liverpool and
other things. This is what he had to say...
[Read
More +]Toon & Tottenham Hotspur - Jostling For Position
With Tottenham brushing aside Forest
in the replay we now have an all Premiership Quarter-Ffinal
to look forward to. The banter has already started on the message
board, and it's already shaping up to be rather feisty. We seem
to overlook the rivalry we seem to have with Spurs most of the
time, but come our meetings, it can be very tasty. They don't
like us, and we certainly don't like them.
[Read
More +] |
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