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Newcastle United Blog: Life after Pardew, A Rather Sour Affair Indeed

Many of us have studied about heredity and the laws that govern it. ‘Natural Selection’ is an integral part of heredity. Considering the fact that all the people who are reading this may not be entirely familiar with it, let me explain what Natural Selection is.

Natural Selection, in simple terms, translates to ‘Survival of the Fittest’. You would ponder as to why I would include something that has its links to Charles Darwin and Gregor Johann Mendel with Football, the English Premier League to be more precise.

I’ll tell you why. Unlike other leagues, the English Premier League does not give its Managers time to settle nor does it give any ‘easy opposition’. The bottom placed team in the league, Burnley, defeated reigning champions Manchester City just over a month ago. And the English tabloids certainly don’t help. In such a case wherein every passing day might just be your last as a Premier League manager, survival of the fittest is an important factor.

Pardew
Pardew

Five Premier League Managers have been sacked this season with Alan Pardew being the latest casualty.

Fans were very vocal in expressing their displeasure over the state of affairs with Pardew at the helm and in the new year of 2014, Newcastle had one of the worst runs ever with 15 defeats in just 21 games- A record no manager would ever like to boast of. Despite having been trusted by the owners, it was imminent that Pardew would be out of Newcastle.

A sort of resurgence in the early part of this season did little help as Pardew left, on his own will. Citing an opening at Crystal Palace, who were having a poor run of their own, Pardew left Newcastle after winning a Manager of the Month Award. And that included the famous win against Chelsea which dashed their extraordinarily far-sighted hopes of an Invincible season.

Whilst the results at Newcastle were nothing to be proud of over the past two years, his behavioural concerns were equally appealing. He had headbutted David Meyler of Hull City for which he received a seven-match and various fines, just weeks after he was in the limelight for taking it out verbally on Manuel Pellegrini. Speak of players pulling their act together, this man couldn’t just make it as a good guy.

The man who replaced him- John Carver, has had a disastrous run so far after winning just two out of the sixteen games he has the Magpies continue to slide down the table. They have a win percentage that is just higher than 12. That means that on an average of 100 games that Newcastle play under Carver, they would win a rather poor 12. To say that they have been poor would be an understatement.

Life after the departure of Alan Pardew has been extremely tough for Newcastle. A number of injuries and suspensions surely haven’t helped the cause. Fabriccio Coloccini, their most experienced defender, and Moussa Sissoko, the engine which makes the Newcastle outfit function, have both been suspended due to their respective red cards. Add to that the inconsistent performances of forwards Ayoeze Perez and Remy Cabella, you get the results the Magpies have been receiving. Vernun Anita-midfielder by trade and defender by choice has now become their first choice left back. A couple of weeks back, Jack Colback was the first choice left back. He played on the right side of the midfield against Swansea and his preferred position is a Central Midfielder. Ryan and Steven Taylor too occupied that position at some point during this season while Paul Dummett, the first choice left back, has been in and out of the team with injuries playing their part.

Partnering Ryan Taylor and Jack Colback against Swansea was Jonas Gutierrez. What a journey it has proved out to be for this Argentinian! After recovering from testicular cancer with the help of chemotherapy, the midfielder is back into action for the club on the North East of England. Don’t get me wrong but Gutierrez isn’t the guy you should have on the field when you’re on the verge of relegation. He has lost his physical prowess and to be a midfielder, physical strength is optimum.

Newcastle have had the worst form in the League after losing all six of their recent matches. They have scored a miserly 36 goals in the 34 matches that they have played this season. They have the fourth worst Goal Difference alongside Queens Park Rangers win only Aston Villa, Burnley and Leicester City having a worse showing,

To be more specific, Newcastle scored 21 goals this season during the tenure of Alan Pardew. That is, they scored 21 goals in 19 games with an average of 1.1 goals a game. John Carver then took over on New Year’s Day with a thrilling 3-3 draw against Burnley. Since that encounter at St. James’ Park, Carver and his men netted in a paltry 12 in the 14 games that followed. That’s an average of .84 goals a game and that’s ridiculous for a club which once used to be a powerhouse in the English League. Even if we do include the 3 goals scored against Burnley, Newcastle have scored just one goal a game on average under their new boss.

Their next four fixtures shall pretty much decide their fate in the Premier League and it’s a must that Newcastle do not get relegated. In the 4 games that remain, fortunately for Newcastle, none of them are against the top 8 clubs. They have two relatively easy fixtures against Leicester City and QPR, which if they win, they would secure their position in the Premier League next season while two others against West Brom and West Ham present a tougher challenge. Their recent loss to Swansea showed signs of promise, but then once again, they failed to deliver the final product.

They are heading towards a poor record of seven defeats in the past ten games and John Carver has been at the receiving end of a lot of criticisms. Despite earlier warnings of the clearly visible tactic of Swansea’s attacking through set-pieces, Newcastle let them score twice from the dead balls. The entire dressing room has been somewhat morally down but then, if they are going to script the great escape, they will have to pull up their socks and fight it out to avoid a repeat of their debacle from a few years back.

The author also blogs on www.whatsthereinthename.blogspot.in

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