Have You Ever Heard?
By NUFC 06 On Sun 6 May 2007 |
Have you ever heard of the football manager who used 33 different back four schemes in one season?
Have you ever heard of the football manager who used 6 different right-backs in one season?
Have you ever heard of the football manager who used 7 different left-backs in one season?
Have you ever heard of the football manager who used 10 different centre-back partnerships in one season?
Well I must admit I haven’t; I don’t know about you. Of course we are talking about Newcastle United and our genius manager Glenn Roeder.
This season we have had the worst injury crisis in our club’s history and it was difficult to handle. But some of the decisions that Roeder made when it came to team selections were simply shocking.
Like already mentioned, we have used 33 different back four schemes this season. In the Premiership we used 25 different back four schemes in 35 games!
In my opinion, that is just absolutely ridiculous. How can you expect your defenders to play solid when every week they play in different positions with different partners? That just can’t happen in modern football.
Right Back Stats
| Played | Win | Draw | Loss | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Solano | 22 | 10 | 6 | 6 |
| Carr | 23 | 9 | 5 | 9 |
| Taylor | 7 | 5 | 1 | 1 |
| Huntington | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Edgar | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Ramage | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| . |
Left Back Stats
| Played | Win | Draw | Loss | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Babayaro | 20 | 12 | 3 | 5 | |
| Ramage | 13 | 6 | 3 | 4 | |
| Huntington | 7 | 1 | 0 | 6 | |
| Taylor | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | |
| Duff | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| Edgar | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | |
| Pattison | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| . |
Full Back Conclusions
• From our 15 losses in the Premiership, Carr played as RB in 9 of them.
• Solano played 13 times at RB in the Premiership and we lost only 3 games.
• Huntington played 7 times at LB this season and we lost 6 of them!
That includes the games against Chelsea in the League Cup 0-1, Birmingham 1:5, AZ Alkmaar 0:2, 0:1, Everton 0:3, Bolton 1:2.
Is this just coincidence? I don’t think so. Huntington can’t play at LB and the results confirm this fact. It’s a pity that Roeder played him at LB in the most important game of our season against AZ.
Centre Back Stats
| Played | Win | Draw | Loss | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taylor | 33 | 16 | 8 | 9 | |
| Bramble | 27 | 14 | 8 | 7 | |
| Moore | 20 | 7 | 3 | 10 | |
| Gooch | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Ramage | 14 | 5 | 2 | 7 | |
| Huntington | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | |
| . |
Different Centre Back Partnerships
• Gooch - Taylor = played 1 game together (1 draw) = 0 goals conceded
• Bramble - Moore = played 8 games together (in the Premiership 1 win, 3 draws, 4 losses; in the UEFA Cup 4 wins) = 10 goals in 8 games conceded
• Taylor - Bramble = played 13 games together (in the Premiership 2 wins, 1 draw; in the UEFA Cup 6 wins, 3 draws, 1 lost) = 9 goals in 13 games conceded
• Ramage -Taylor = played 10 games together (in the Premiership 3 wins, 3 losses; in the UEFA Cup 2 wins, 2 losses) = 18 goals in 10 games conceded
• Gooch - Moore = played 1 game together (1 lost) = 2 goals in 1 game conceded
• Bramble - Gooch = played 4 games together (1 wins, 1 draw, 2 losses) = 4 goals in 4 games
• Ramage - Moore = played 3 games together (1 win, 2 losses) = 4 goals in 3 games
• Moore - Taylor = played 5 games together (1 win, 1 draw, 3 losses) = 5 goals in 5 games
• Taylor - Huntington= played 4games together (2 wins, 2draws) = 7 goals in 4 games
• Ramage - Huntington = played 1 game together (1 draw) = 2 goals in 1 game
Different Back Four Combinations
• Carr - Moore - Bramble - Babayaro = 5 times played together
(Charlton 0:0, Sheffield United 0:1, Wigan 2:1, Aston Villa 0:2, Venstplis 1:0)
• Carr - Moore - Bramble - Ramage = 4 times played together
(Bolton(h)1:2, Everton 1:1, Fulham(h)1:2, Levadia Tallinn 1:0)
• Solano - Taylor - Bramble - Ramage = 3 times played together
(Celta 2:1, Frankfurt 0:0, Portsmouth 1:0)
• Solano - Ramage - Taylor - Huntington = 3 times played together
(Birmingham 1:5, Chelsea 0:1, Everton 0:3)
• Solano - Taylor - Huntington - Edgar = 2 times played together
()
• Solano - Taylor - Bramble - Carr = 2 times played together
(AZ 4:2 and Chelsea 0:0)
• Huntington - Ramage - Taylor - Babayaro = 2 times played together
()
• Carr - Moore - Taylor - Ramage = 2 times played together
()
• Solano - Taylor - Moore - Carr = 2 times played together
()
Centre Back Conclusions
• In our 15 defeats in the Premiership Moore played in 10 of them!
Also, with every partner he had, they conceded a negative balance of goals.
• Taylor-Bramble partnership played 13 games this season and lost only 1!(against AZ)
In the Premiership they didn’t lose a game - maybe they are not so bad a partnership after all.
• The Taylor - Ramage partnership on the other hand just doesn’t work. In 10 games they have conceded 18 goals (some of the games were Birmingham 1:5, Everton 0:3, Reading 3:2, Bolton(a)1:2, Chelsea 0:1(league cup), Watford 2:2 (league cup), Chelsea (a)0:1).
• We can see that there might be some successful partnership in the future between Taylor-Huntington. They played 4 times together and we achieved 2 wins and 2 draws (Tottenham 3:1, Tottenham 3:2, Man Utd 2:2, Birmingham 2:2)
When it comes to clean sheets, our team is one of the last. From all of the 20 teams in the Premiership, Newcastle are in 18th place for clean sheets with only 6 games without conceding a goal.
Behind them are only Fulham again with 6 and Tottenham with 5. Chelsea are on top with 21, Liverpool are with 20, Man City with 14, Man Utd with 14, Everton 13 and Reading 13. It’s funny how teams like Reading, Man City and Charlton have almost double the amount of clean sheets as us.
When it comes to home and away clean sheets, United are between 13 and 18th place with only 4 clean home sheets with Boro, Sheffield United ,Tottenham, Watford and Fulham also with 4. Liverpool are 1st with 13, Chelsea have 10, Man City 9 and Man Utd 8.
In terms of away clean sheets, Newcastle are between 17-19th place alongside Fulham and West Ham with only 2 clean sheets. In last place are Tottenham with only 1 clean sheet. Teams like Man City (9), Reading (6) and Portsmouth (6) have more which is rather depressing and when you see those stats you wonder how much work the Magpie’s defence needs until it’s capable of achieving 10 -15 clean sheets per season.
Conclusion
It is very clear to see from these statistics that next season, the team needs stability at the back. They can’t afford another season of 30 different defensive line-ups. We need some consistent players who can play week in week out, and can create some synchrony between themselves. We need to create some partnerships that can play almost the whole season together.
Newcastle can’t afford to be changing their back four every week. That way you can never create a solid, workable defence. In the summer, Roeder should be looking for a new LB and at least 2 CBs. If we don’t sign some players of class in that area next season the club will continue to suffer and concede more goals.
We need to solve our defensive problems once and for all. I hope this madness with using 33 different back four schemes is not seen again next season. Fingers crossed.
(Please note that all stats and figures are as of 27/04/07)
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Roeder disliked Edgar, I dont know why? He marked Ronaldo out of the game in the first 45 mins, so much so Ferguson switched him wings. This was only his second game, home debut, 19 years old, got to know he was playing 2 hours before kick off and had to play out of position. What thanks did he get for marking the best player in the world in the manner he did, thrown back in the reserves. Ha ha Roeder he’s had the last laugh and has signed a 2 year contract while you’re signing the dole, creep !!
Sent in on: May 8th, 2007 at 3:18 pm
milner played right back in one game for about 10 minutes, luckily he had nowt to do
Sent in on: May 7th, 2007 at 12:30 pm
If dev’s team comes true i will strip round the Quay naked!
Your bang on that those r the sort of players we should be lookin at, yet we need 2 stop kidding ourselves and realise that in fact we are a mid table club atm .
Sent in on: May 6th, 2007 at 11:41 pm
Great read NUFC 06. I would have been interested to see a column for how many goals were conceded for each player too, but what you’ve written is a real credit to this web site. If Roeder is still in charge (sounds like he might have gone as I write this), he could do with some of your stats analysis!
One thing that did surprise me was Babayaro’s stats. I’ve never been a fan of his since he arrived, but his record on those stats is basically the same as Nobby’s & I think we’re all agreed that Nobby has been just fine. This will be the 1st time I’ve said this, but maybe Baba could stay to ‘fight’ for a place with someone we bring in.
Carr needs to go, I’ll never change my opinion on him despite his stats not being as bad as I expected.
I’ve always liked Taylor at centre or equally right back. He offers something going forward as well as being pretty solid at the back & I’m sure he would benefit from playing alongside someone like Sol Campbell (but we missed the boat on that one).
Moore has to go.
The jury is still out on Gooch for me which probably means he’s not of the level we need to be bringing in.
I feel a little sorry for Ramage, he might not be our best player but when played in the center he puts in a decent shift & cares if the team does well. He should be a backup squad player for one more year.
Huntington is a bit like Taylor in that he’s just fine in the centre or on the right & will improve with time. Just please don’t put him on the left side of the pitch!
Bramble, I’ve always thought he gets a rough ride from the press & if you throw enough mud, some will always stick. I did slate him once on here but I was so hacked of at the time! He does have a dodgy moment is some matches but his stats are right up there with Taylor’s & I can certainly remember some mammoth performances from him this season like previous ones. Again I would like to see him benefit from the influence of someone like Sol Campbell & put him behind Taylor in the pecking order as well. I think he’s worth a one year contract until Huntington/Edgar are man enough to push through properly.
In summary:
OUT = Carr / Moore / Gooch / (Roeder+Shepherd)
IN = 1. Top Left back to compete with Babba
2. Top Right back to compete with Nobby
3. A 1st choice centre back who naturally takes charge of the back line.
4. A new chairman & manager. Sorry Glen.
Sent in on: May 6th, 2007 at 7:33 pm
martins - ameobi - owen
zog(duff) - emre - milner
Bridge - Taylor - Edgar - Nobby(c)
Given
Easy. Sell parker, carr, baba, dyer, maybe keep luque to challenge emres place or as back up, release bramble nd dont sign gooch. And then if he wants to, roeder cn bring in the ‘’role models'’ he wants
Sent in on: May 6th, 2007 at 5:25 pm
Why get shot of Huntington and not Ramage? No way should we sell Hunty yet - stats or no stats, HE IS NOT A LEFT BACK and is not even left footed. He’s a centre half and has done a better job than most when playing there - he’s only 18/19 (Ramage is 23) and has plenty of time to improve.
And Heinze, Nolan, Lahm?? Heinze is playing for the champions (almost), Lahm has the Champions League, and Nolan … well, is not a huge improvement on Parker, and we need to sort out defence before anything else. The only way they’d come to the circus at the moment is if we have a manager with the ability to REALLY sell the club to them. Given we’ll finish 13th/14th, that’ll take a lot.
Sent in on: May 6th, 2007 at 12:35 pm
I like your plan,
there is no dept and I would rather sell Emre insted of Parker , don’t buy Dunne rather than Curtis Davie, and what is Zamora doing there and why havnt you “sold” N’Zogbia
Sent in on: May 6th, 2007 at 12:22 pm
What we need is to have a manager who is bold enough to sell Dyer, Ameobi, Luque, Huntington,Pattison, Parker, Duff, Babayaro and Carr. With Moore, Onyewu and Bramble released.
Owen, Martins, Milner, N’Zogbia, Carroll, Taylor, Ramage, Edgar, Emre, Butt, Sib, Solano, Given, Harper, Krul is what we would be left with.
Dyer, Parker, Duff, Ameobi and Carr should give us a return of at the very very least 20 million quid.
Put that with the supposed 60 million pound Sky TV money coming next season and start to rebuild around the likes of Taylor, Given and Co.
Sidwell is free so we might as well have him, since he makes more attacking runs from midfield than Parker ever does, and lets face it…we need goals from midfield. Dazzling circular turns in the middle of the park may be pleasing to the eye, but productive they are not.
I think Gabriel Hienze, Wayne Bridge, Phillip Lahm are the kind of player we need to try and get to play left back. Lahm would be the most expensive but if we are prepared to throw away 9m quid on the likes of Luque, we should have no worries about spending money on security at the back.
Nobby is fine at RB but I think Luke Young is worth bringing in to compete against him and shouldn’t be very expensive…maybe less than 5m.
In the middle I think Richard Dunne, Curtis Davies and Sol Campbell would be affordable and with Taylor and Ramage I think we would be very strong in defence.
Sidwell, Barnes and Kevin Nolan would fit the bill in midfield with Keiron Richardson competing against N’Zogbia on the left and Nobby or Milner on the right. With Butt, Emre, Nolan, Sib, Milner, Zog, Richardson, Sidwell and Barnes I think we would have a good group of hungry players with a good age blend.
Up front?
Martins, Owen, Ashton, Zamora, Carroll
Given, Solano, Campbell, Taylor, Heinze, Milner, Nolan, Butt, N’Zogbia, Owen, Martins.
Subs: Ashton, Emre, Sidwell, Dunne, Harper.
Sent in on: May 6th, 2007 at 12:09 pm