by Bashmachkin Sat Feb 07, 2009 3:06 pm
Newcastle team to face West Brom:
Harper
S.Taylor Coloccini Bassong Enrique
R.Taylor Butt Nolan Duff
Ameobi Lovenkrands
Subs: Forster, Cacapa, Edgar, Geremi, Smith, Xisco, Viduka
What a smelly bench! And the starting eleven is not much better. Our back four are all fine enough - with Beye out, they're probably our back four for the rest of the season - though Coloccini has been struggling this week with an injury. But our midfield looks really poor without Gutierrez - Duff is past it; he just lacks the pace required to beat men, and his final ball and his finishing, perhaps partly because he isn't beating men and getting into the positions regularly, has been weak since he came to us; but he's probably our best bet creatively today. At least Lovenkrands should add a bit of pace to the attack. I'll be upset if we have to bring anyone off the bench - the bench is full of absolute rubbish - it must comprise the slowest group of players ever to have played Premier League football. I don't see why the likes of LuaLua and Ranger aren't there. Who can we bring on from that bench if we need livening up?