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Guest post by Phil Lavanco
This is the first edition of a regular column — most likely bi-weekly — by IWIWAG podcast contributor Phil Lavanco. Unlike Phil's Twitter account, the rules of grammar do apply here.
The man pictured on the right has taken a lot of crap from the Toon Army, and most of it has been deserved. Between last season’s near-relegation, the consecutive losses to Sunderland, and his now predictable excuse bingo, Alan Pardew is lucky to still be employed. So when the fixture list presented a gauntlet that started with a home affair against Liverpool, most fans thought this could finally be the end of Teflon Al.
After a shameful display against our rivals, Pardew stared in the face of criticism and rallied the troops with two consecutive victories against opponents that will probably play matches on Tuesdays and Wednesdays next season. Whether we want to admit it or not, he deserves praise for emerging from this testing run with more points than any of us expected. That doesn’t mean all is forgiven by any stretch, but as we stand here in this international break, we have to say the manager has done a fine job when we all thought he could not lead this team.
In these two victories, AP made a few bold decisions that have paid off immensely. First, when our curly-haired captain went down with a groin injury, Pardew turned to an unlikely alternate for the armband. Can anyone say that Cheick Tiote has not been an inspired choice as captain? The Ivory Coast international is back to his physical, commanding presence in the center of the field. Next, Pardew benched the most offensively-gifted player on the black-and-white payroll. In doing so, he changed the dialogue around Hatem Ben Arfa from “indispensable to the team” to “Hatem must learn to play in a system.” Finally, the last change, and the biggest for me: Pardew went back to the system he knows best, the 4-4-2. It’s not modern, it’s not continental, but it’s working.
Scouting striker success
When Loic Remy rounded the ancient Brad “Fake English Accent” Friedel to score his seventh Newcastle goal in eight starts, the one thought that ran through my mind was, “We are really good at scouting strikers.”
Think about it for a second: The last three strikers Newcastle signed have started their Tyneside careers with bangs. You might recall Demba Ba began with 15 goals (second to only Robin Van Persie in the Premier League at that point) before heading off to the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations. Papiss Cisse started off with a historic run of 13 goals in 14 appearances. Now Remy joins the list of streaking strikers.
So you might be asking yourself, what does this all mean? I interpret this success as proof that Newcastle’s scouting system knows how to identify talented front men. However, from then on, it’s up to the player to determine how his Newcastle career evolves.
Ba finished his Newcastle career with 29 goals in 58 appearances — an impressive haul, despite the turns his career took in a black and white shirt. Whether he played down the middle or on the left of a front three, Ba hit the back of the net with lethal proficiency. On the other hand, Cisse’s career at Newcastle is in crisis mode. The Senegalese striker has not scored a Premier League goal since this photo was snapped by a fan. Cisse has lost his confidence, his shooting boots, and his place in the starting XI. If he doesn’t find the magic that made him a Newcastle star, he might find his way on the next flight out.
What is the fate of our newest striking sensation? We’ll have to sit back and find out.
Newcastle stat that may only interest me (shamelessly plagiarized from Sports Illustrated's Peter King)
This statistic spawned a 16-email thread from the “I Wish I Was a Geordie” crew. The fallout? Tom has been unable to type anything out of CAPS LOCK, and Matt cowering in the corner crying into his “I heart Yoan Gouffran” T-shirt.
Newcastle tweet of the ... time between columns
Iron Mike Williamson's back pockets are getting heavy due to the 76 million pounds worth of players he's kept in there all week. #NUFC
— Craig (@LostSoulsForEva) November 10, 2013
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