How will Newcastle United follow up their excellent fifth placed finish they achieved last season?
Where will your side finish in 2012-13? With the season just one week away, our pundits have put our heads together to give you a comprehensive set of predictions.
Opinions and analysis on all 20 Premier League clubs are given here by 12 of our writers and pundits here at HITC Sport. On the basis of the predictions from our ‘daring dozen’ we have calculated how the table will look come next May.
How does it work? All the predictions are totalled together, the team with the lowest score will finish 1st, and the highest will finish 20th. Here are the predictions for your club.
Verdict- Newcastle United will finish in: 7th
Highest prediction: 4th , Lowest prediction: 9th.
Dan Coombs: 7th; Battling on two fronts may be a tough ask for last season’s overachievers, who will have to defy expectation that they will fall away this season. Importantly Newcastle have kept hold of their key players like Tiote, Cabaye, Coloccini, Krul and Ba, and with Papiss Cisse up front too they will be one of the most dangerous teams in the league. Seventh wouldn’t be a bad result, more a season of consolidation, but they will have to sort out the away form which saw them concede 10 in two games against Fulham and Spurs.
Vic Daniels: 4th; Confounding the critics again, Pardew will continue to get the best out of an exciting squad which has learned to get the best out of each other.
Mathew Nash: 7th; Star Player – Hatem Ben Arfa. Top Scorer – Papiss Cisse. It’s easy to predict a turnaround in performances from last season but with players like Cabaye, Cisse, Ba and Tiote all staying Newcastle should once again do well this season. I feel 5th to 7th could go in any order but Newcastle may just slip up and finish a still commendable, 7th. Star players will be the ones already mentioned but this season Hatem Ben Arfa should really shine for the Magpies.
Tomo Taka: 9th; Newcastle were the surprise packagae of the Premier League last season finishing 5th with much down to the ‘French Revolution’ of players. Frenchmen Yohan Cabaye, Sylvain Marveaux and Obertan were brought in along with Davide Santon and Demba Ba. Papis Cissé was bought in January and scored 13 in 14 including two stunners against Chelsea as Newcastle challenged for Champions league spot. They will find it difficult to replicate the same form as last season but the talent available till secure another top-half finish. Papiss Cissé will be best player. He will score more goals in first full-season at the club and as his two goals against Chelsea last season proved, he is a man capable of scoring from anywhere on the pitch. Biggest challenge will be replicating their form of last year and they have only acquired Romain Amalfitano from Stade Reim who could contribute to the first-team. Gael Birigimana from Coventry and Curtis Good from Melbourne at only 18 and 19 will not feature much this season but were acquired as future prospects. Newcastle have done little to improve the squad and they will struggle to meet expectations at Newcastle that will be to challenge for at least Europa League spot.
Jake Lane: 7th; Last season’s surprise package will do well again this season but not as well as fifth. It’s looking more and more likely as the days tick by to the new season that Ba will be staying put and his partnership with countryman, Cisse will be paramount to the Magpies’ success this year. Seventh may seem an underachievement for the fans but they have to realise that last season was a massive overachievement.
Nigel Owen: 6th; The Toon Army exceeded all expectations last season, and in the process uncovered two goal scoring gems in Demba Ba and then the best signing of the January window, Papiss Demba Cisse. Much like Manchester United though, the next line of fire power was too lightweight. Ba scored 16 in 32 games, Cisse 13 in 13, and then Ben Arfa with 5. With more experience and chance to watch the two Senegalese, Newcastle can expect less goals from the two hitmen, and that assumes Ba will continue to be happy playing out wide, which rumours towards the end of last season suggest he wasn’t. With a need for goals from midfield not going to be obviously satisfied, Newcastle will need to tighten up the leakiest defence in the top 8 last season, and that will start with the excellent Tim Krul. He will need to keep up his high standard of goalkeeping to allow the Magpies the base to pick points up from. If the goals against column increases on last season, Alan Pardew’s team will be headed for the bottom half of the table again.
Surya Solanki: 8th; It’s going to be difficult to match up to the great campaign they had last season. The team might be looking fairly strong but they clearly lack depth and will regret missing out on Luuk De Jong. However, Debuchy could be arriving soon and his transfer should ensure another decent campaign for the Magpies.
Paul Moore: 6th; Alan Pardew surprised a lot of people last season and he’ll do the same again. An early exit from Europe but they will win a cup. Cisse should get twenty plus.
John Aggrey: 5th; Will end up fifth because; such a good side with such a brilliant manager but at times seems to just lose focus in big matches. Their inability to win big matches should be their main undoing even though should put up a brilliant run but just fail short of another top four finish. Their star man should be Hatem Ben Arfa. Can you remember that Ferdinand face after the young man went down to win a penalty against Man U? That’s the talent im talking about, running and following his run to the final end is one thing Pardew can boast of in this player. Biggest Challenge; January Africa Cup of Nations; Ba and Cisse, the biggest goal machines for this side should be on duty in South Africa and this leaves Pardew with a selection headache in the absence of these two. Pardew’s signings of late have scared me and not knowing who he’s going to sign, let’s hope his new men can make an impact when the two Senegalese are in South Africa on national duty.
Naveenan Thanendra: 7th; Having wowed the league with their astute transfer dealings and impressive play, Newcastle faces the challenge of living up to last season’s achievements. Unfortunately for them, the other teams now have a year’s worth of performances to analyse to be better placed on what to expect from Newcastle. That won’t change the fact that Pardew’s side will still be relying upon Papiss Cisse to replicate the form he showed since signing for the club, as it was his goals that helped Newcastle kick on from the launching pad that Demba Ba gave them at the start of last season. However, it is the back 4 that remains their weakness. While they put in some inspired performance during the course of the season, the rest of the league has returned stronger, so pushing through the Debuchy deal is imperative if Newcastle have aspirations of moving up the table.
Keval Shah: 7th; After a magnificent campaign last year, the toon will be looking to finish in the top six or seven once more. Pardew has done well in keeping all of his star names together, and I anticipate Ben Arfa to have another quality season, providing the service to the deadly duo of Cisse and Ba, as well as pushing on from midfield to score a few himself. Despite their Europa League commitments, I still envisage a strong showing from Newcastle in the Premier League this season.
Khiam Barry: 6th; Newcastle have managed to keep hold of all their main players such as Ba, Cisse and Tiote and are a solid team, with a great spine to the team that are hard to beat. I’m confident that they’ll be in the mix for the Europa League spots come the end of the season as long as they bring in a few more players to bolster the squad.
Connor Jipps: 6th; Alan Pardew was rightly named Manager of the Year after pushing Newcastle to a superb fifth place finish that guaranteed Europa League qualification. Not bad for a side that were playing in the Championship just three years back. The rise of Newcastle under Pardew’s reign has been exceptional with the club not just achieving on the pitch but off it by attaining the services of such talents as Yohan Cabaye, Hatem Ben Arfa and Papiss Demba Cisse who have all excelled at the club. At this moment in time Newcastle have successfully held on to all of their best players this summer and news that Demba Ba’s release clause in his contract had expired will have given Newcastle fans great satisfaction and allowed them a sigh of relief. Links to Mathieu Debuchy, show just how far the club has come with Newcastle said to be ahead of Inter Milan in the race for the French international full back who shone at Euro 2012. Though the deal has not been completed it is widely expected to go through before the closure of the transfer window. Creatively Newcastle are excellent but their key man in my opinion is Cheik Tiote. The Ivorian has been excellent in his time at the club protecting the defence whilst popping up with the odd wonder goal. Pardew recently said that Tiote looks “Ten times better than he did last year”. It’s a scary thought if true and will be a large contributor to another successful season for the Toon Army.
Full predicted table: (1) Manchester City, (2) Manchester United, (3) Chelsea, (4) Arsenal, (5) Tottenham, (6) Liverpool, (7) Newcastle, (8) Everton, (9) Fulham, (10) Sunderland, (11) Aston Villa, (12) Stoke, (13) QPR, (14) Swansea, (15) West Ham, (16) West Brom, (17) Norwich, (18) Reading, (19) Wigan, (20) Southampton.
Where do you believe Newcastle United will finish next season?
image: © mickyb59
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