Mike Williamson: Missing Piece Or Another Liability?

Guest post by Phil Lavanco

He stands 6-foot-3, 185 pounds, with hair side-parted to the right. His right triceps is freshly inked with characters that presumably mean “HOOF.” His name is Mike Williamson, and he might just be the missing link in the Newcastle back four.

Alan Pardew boldly selected the fourth center back on the depth chart to face the Bluebirds (Dragons?) after Williamson came on in the second half against Everton to plug the gaping hole left by Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa. With his impressive performance against the BlueDragonBirds, the Englishman emerged from the Toon wilderness. Williamson repaid the manager’s faith with an impressive performance against the promoted side, which had already defeated Man City at the Millennium Stadium.

The statistics from Cardiff lend further proof of a commanding performance from the center back. The Englishman won nine of 10 headed duels, was a perfect 18-for-18 in clearances and completed 83 percent of his passes.

OK, maybe some of Williamson’s passes were of the “hoof” variety, but we can all admit that after the first half, the narrative of Williamson’s place on the team was edging near “Coloccini’s best defensive partner.” Williamson was one poorly attempted kung fu kick away from a lockdown performance. In addition, our curly-haired captain seemed more comfortable next to Williamson.

It makes sense, too, when you think about it. Williamson’s role was to clear away everything launched in the air, while the captain took it upon himself to clean up the rest. A clear and defined role for each player. It’s simplistic, but it works. Now the captain is out after suffering a groin injury while away on international duty with Argentina.

We can safely assume Pardew will restore Yanga-Mbiwa to the starting lineup for tomorrow’s game against Liverpool. But who to partner with MYM? Should Pardew stick with Williamson or recall Steven “Jazz hands” Taylor? Not to do the work of Mr. Feltz, but let’s do a quick scan of the situation.

On paper, Taylor appears to be the logical choice. He is more equipped to deal with the movement of Liverpool’s dynamic strike partners Daniel Sturridge and Luis Suarez. However, Taylor and Yanga-Mbiwa were on the field for the horrific beat down at St. James’ Park last campaign.

In addition, Tom’s colorful article on the defensive pairings showed in spreadsheet form that the combo of MYM and Taylor has conceded an awful 18 goals in nine matches as a partnership. In those closing months of last year’s horror, the pair failed the dreaded “eyeball test.” They did not appear to be a functioning partnership with the ability to stop quality opponents.

If Pardew keeps Williamson in the lineup with Yanga-Mbiwa, he would keep the “defined roles” parallel, but risk exposing the big man to the creativity and movement of Sturridge and Suarez. This partnership leads to another world of problems.

Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers is a lot of things, but he isn’t silly. He would lick his chops at the prospect of unleashing his two strikers on Williamson.

All in all, this is a selection nightmare for Pardew. One that we, as a fan base, are pretty sure he will not get right. My only prediction for the match is that I will be watching through a tiny slit between my middle and ring fingers.

Phil Lavanco (@Lavanglish) is a contributor to the “I Wish I Was A Geordie” podcast and a member of Toon Army NYC.

Comments

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curtis good anyone?

no i dont think its likely but he played well in the chances he got.

what about a stevie taylor/magic mike partnership... they seemed to do a little better together. either way i think the pace of sturridge and suarez will give us problems the entire match.

my starting xi :
-----------krul-------
debuchy---saylor---willo----santon
--cabaye-----tiote---sissoko---
gouffran----cisse----remy----

Posted by: Jaeger | 10/18/2013 at 10:02 AM