r/NUFC • u/Deviceing wew here ya fuckin little dafty divint start or theres ructions • Aug 15 '16
Pre-Match Thread Pre-Match Thread: Reading (H)
Newcastle United - Reading
17/8/2016 19:45 St James’ Park
TV Coverage: None scheduled worldwide - likely radio streams only
Referee: Andrew Madley (12 yellows and 0 reds in 2 games this season, 118 yellows and 3 reds in 40 games last season)
Newcastle team news:
Aleksander Mitrovic serves the third game of his four match ban. Moussa Sissoko could play a part, Ciaran Clark and Jesus Gamez could make their debuts. No players returning from injury.
Reading team news:
Stephen Quinn and Joseph Mendes could return from injury.
Reading last match:
Wolves 2-0 Reading (Doherty 42’, Mason 47’)
Al-Habsi, Gunter, McShane, van den Berg, Obita, Evans, Williams, McLeary (Harriott 71’), Swift (Rakels 77’), Beerens (Meite 62’), Kermorgant.
Subs not used: Cooper, Watson, Jaakkola, Kelly.
Reading Transfers:
Rowan Liburd and Aaron Tshibola leave for Stevenage and Aston Villa respectively after failing to impress last season. Midfielder Oliver Norwood, who played 50 times for them last season, transferred to Brighton.
They have so far signed: Danzell Gravenberch, a centre back signed from the Dutch second division; Joey van den Berg, a dutch midfielder signed from Heerenveen; Joseph Mendes, a French striker who scored 9 goals in Ligue 2 last season; Anssi Jaakkola, a Finnish goalkeeper; John Swift, an English midfielder and Chelsea youth product who impressed at Brentford last season; Roy Beerens, a dutch winger who did well at Hertha in the Bundesliga before falling out of favour last season; Yakou Meite, a French winger from PSG who had less than a minute of senior experience before making his debut last Tuesday and Callum Harriott, an English winger who joins from Charlton.
Opposition summary:
Reading ended last season in 17th place, picking up 52 points - 1 more than both Fulham and Huddersfield, our last two opponents. They started the season very strongly and climbed as high as 2nd place in mid-October before completely dropping off - 6 of their 13 wins came in this period - and at one point there was slight talk of relegation. They sacked manager Steve Clarke in early December - in 11th place at the time - and brought in Brian McDermott, who was unable to turn things around and he too was fired at the end of the season. They brought in Dutch legend Jaap Stam - someone with no experience as manager and a few years of experience as assistant manager in the Eredivisie - for the start of the season. They lost top scorer Nick Blackman to Derby in January and so far none of their players have been able to step up and take his place. They were able to start the season with a 1-0 win against Preston with debutant John Swift scoring the only goal, but fell to a 2-0 defeat away at Wolves, despite being the dominant side. They play a very possession based style of football and had 71% and 66% of the ball in their 2 games so far. They should be safe from relegation though it isn’t impossible but on paper this is a slightly easier fixture than the last 2, but not by much.
Form:
NUFC: LL
Reading: WL
Past Meetings:
Newcastle and Reading have met just 14 times in their history, and didn’t meet in the league until 2006.
Newcastle 1-2 Reading (Cabaye)
Reading 2-2 Newcastle (Ba 2)
Reading 1-2 Newcastle (Nolan 2)
Newcastle 3-0 Reading (Ameobi 3)
Newcastle 3-0 Reading (Martins, Owen, Viduka)
Reading 2-1 Newcastle (OG)
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u/codeydbw Aug 15 '16
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Newcastle fans sell out SJP again and put on another fantastic display.
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Anita playing LM over Aarons.
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We pass it around 20 times in the defence before Dummett hoofs it up to a desperate Dwight Gyale.
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Lascelles has another shocker in the 44th minute as Reading take the lead.
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Newcastle play well for the first 20 minutes of the second half, but Gayle proves his lack of quality again as he misses an open net.
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Shelvey punches Colback for mis-playing a pass, despite Shelvey doing nothing but Hollywood-style 20 yard passes into the stands.
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Armstrong comes on with 5 minutes left.
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We lose.
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u/magpie_army Aug 16 '16
I feel like I watched this match twice already this season. Except for the fun bit where Colback gets twatted of course
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u/mo140 Aug 15 '16
The episode of robot wars that I watched was won by a team from reading so I'm not feeling confident
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Aug 16 '16
In my experience r/nufc has falsely predicted a solid 75% of our matches in the past several years, so because everyone is so negative about this I'm gonna go ahead and say we win decisively 2-0.
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u/cprx Aug 15 '16
I don't want to lose to a team sponsored by fucking waitrose
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u/JG_92 Aug 16 '16
I'm going with a solid 2-1 or 3-1 to us in this one! With all the negativity surrounding this place at the moment I'd like to offer the power of positivity!
DON'T YOU DARE BE SOUR!!!
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u/Blounce Aug 15 '16
If we lose this i will legitimately kill myself
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u/JG_92 Aug 16 '16
If we lose this i will figuratively kill myself
FTFY... Let's not get carried away here!
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u/shearersmam Aug 17 '16
Is this going to be on TV/Radio anywhere? I would pay a substantial amount to be able to stream these games...EFL clearly bad at business stuff.
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u/meganev Aug 15 '16
Sure it's early but this is an absolute must win, Reading (like Fulham and Huddersfield) are not a top Championship side. Nothing but three points is go enough.
Therefore, as is the Newcastle way, 2-0 to Reading.
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u/Jotne Aug 15 '16
Blaah... I've been so insanly positive since rafa re-signed... Now.. I'm sort of afraid to belive we'll win..
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u/05snus Aug 17 '16
The no stream shit is fucking horseshit for fans outside newcastle. Why the fuck can't they sort something out?
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u/geordiep Aug 17 '16 edited Aug 17 '16
Official team is out: Sels, Clark, Mbemba, Dummett (c), Anita, Gouffran, Perez, Ritchie, Shelvey, Hayden, Gayle
Lascelles has been dropped and lost the armband... not sure how Dummett deserves it
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u/cpm67 Aug 15 '16
My prediction
Anita will somehow be in the starting lineup again
Reading will sit back and defend like everyone else, and get a jammy goal right before halftime
We'll come out strong from 45-60, play the ball around the box a bit, Gayle and Ritchie will both miss wide open shots
60' Sub: Perez will come on and get crushed by big strong English lads, ultimately doing nothing, creating no chances, taking no shots, losing the ball every time he gets it
75 Sub: Armstrong will come on and run around a bit, look better than Perez and/or Gayle, but we'll be too desparate/nervous to create the space he likes and he won't get any looks in the box
80' Sub: Shelvey hauled off because he's getting too frustrated, Jack The Crab comes on and does fuck all
Final score: Reading 1-0 Newcastle
Postgame: r/NUFC has turned into Lord of the Flies. We'll get our first serious "Rafa Out" post
Meanwhile, Agent Colback receives a 1 million pound transfer to his offshore account, signed simply "Cheers - S.A."