Newcastle United have failed in their bid to get legal clearance for Joey Barton to play against Liverpool on Saturday.
Joey Barton - not available for Saturday
It turns out that under the restrictions of his bail, the Liverpool born midfielder is not able to visit Liverpool, the city where his altercation occurred just after Christmas.
In fact Barton is due to be in front of magistrates in Liverpool next week on an assault charge. This follows his latest incident outside a McDonald’s restaurant in Liverpool city center on December 27th.
Apparently Barton was in court on Monday in an attempt to get a judge to lift the restriction. The plea apparently was flatly turned down, which is hardly surprising.
There’s nothing like having your own troubles in a time when Newcastle are starting to look at a big relegation fight on their hands.
So Kevin Keegan will need to look at other midfield options for Saturday. It still looks like Emre may not be fit yet again and Kevin could do worse than play young Charles N’Zogbia in central midfield. Charles likes playing there, and certainly could provide some drive in midfield for us.
Turkish international Emre has not played since the 4-1 defeat by Aston Villa on February 9th. He has a niggling injury similar to Viduka and Emre is out with a calf injury while Mark still has a slight hamstring problem.
Emre’s absence in particular has been a a big problem for Keegan as Kevin sees Emre creating the chances for his front two. This is not a good time to have these players unavailable to the team.
Comments very welcome.
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29 responses so far ↓
1 staffsmag // Mar 5, 2008 at 11:00
no real loss !!!
2 Ian // Mar 5, 2008 at 11:00
good
3 Kash2 // Mar 5, 2008 at 11:06
Thank GOD because he’s proper shit!!!!!
Hopefully Kazenga might get the nod and maybe Carrol to come on for half an hour up top with Owen/Martins.
My line up
Harper
Beye Taylor Faye Enrique
Kazenga Butt N’Zogbia Duff
Owen Martins
Let Butt sit deep and play short passes. Keep Kazenga and Duff wide on the flanks and let N’Zogbia run through the middle. Loads of pace!!!
4 Ausgeordie // Mar 5, 2008 at 11:11
No if only Smith was injured saving a cat from a tree so we could farewell him with happiness.
5 Eric // Mar 5, 2008 at 11:13
It still worries me about KK’s selection policy.
It worries me that an attempt was even made to enable the ‘Tricky Dickie’ Barton to play. Great that he can’t - that still leaves us with the prospect of Butt and Smith dropping us deeper in the shite. Alright they are not KK’s players, but he has got to get it into his head they are not ours either! KK, you have had enough games now to see that Butt, Smith, Barton, Carr etc are NOT ON OUR SIDE.
6 cooldj // Mar 5, 2008 at 11:13
sweet
7 Leo // Mar 5, 2008 at 11:43
cant complain. i didnt realise that the fight (altication) happened infront of macdonalds, he was obviously just fighting over who gets in the que first
8 andyc290 // Mar 5, 2008 at 12:16
I must admit that the effort Barton has been putting in since xmas has been piss poor and his all round game has been pretty crap BUT he is the only central midfielder we have got who can play a good ball through the middle to our strikers (see Blackburn Owen chances) and i think this one part of his game is something we have been lacking all season and that is why Keegan wants him in there. Its a case of best of a very bad bunch, who we gunna play in there if not him, emre injured, duff and zog no good in middle, geremi is a joke, butt has next to no attacking ability. You can see Keegans predicament.
9 Leo // Mar 5, 2008 at 12:23
yeah his thru balls were impressive but his effort has been piss poor, i cant understand why our central two always get the ball and are instantly under the cosh from the other team, does our team not communicate to eachother…
10 Graham // Mar 5, 2008 at 12:26
Good - now bring in this Diatte and push Faye into midfield for Saturday against Gerrard
11 CRAIGG // Mar 5, 2008 at 12:41
Graham- hopefully Gerrard will be rested ahead of their Inter match the following tuesday.
12 Rich // Mar 5, 2008 at 12:58
Team i would play for Liverpool:
Harper
Beye Cacapa Faye Enrique
Milner Butt Emre NZogbia
Owen Martins
Subs: Forster, Taylor, LuaLua, Smith, Duff
If emre is not fit id play N Zogbia in central midfield and move Duff into the left wing.
13 Punk Skunk // Mar 5, 2008 at 13:28
It’s just a pity it’s not Smith or Butt who can’t play…As someone rightly said, at least Barton has a thru-ball, more than can be said of Smith…
…Also, why not play Diatta at the back & push Faye up to def-mid, drop Butt, AXE Smith…
…I also feel Zog can play CML rather than wide left, as he links up well with Duff!..
14 Dunc // Mar 5, 2008 at 14:42
He should be dropped full time as this offers no continuity to the 1st team.
It also gives a bad impression to other players when he goes out fighting on the beer and then still walks back into the 1st team.
And worst of all it affects his football. I have no doubt that he has some talent but, is this the Joey Barton we used to see when he was playing well for Shhh-itty City?
My first player out in the summer!!!!
GET RID KEV!!!!! He’s proved time and again that there is no point standing by him.
He will just make a Joker out of you (AGAIN)
15 geordie_jordan // Mar 5, 2008 at 15:15
smith will still play
young lua lua wont sniff the 1st team this year
16 ObaFan2 // Mar 5, 2008 at 15:49
Atm he won’t be able to play in the Everton game either, what a shame ! lol
17 Hadji // Mar 5, 2008 at 15:51
As much as i don’t like him as a person i will miss him agains Liverpool.Give him a chance guys,he still hasn’t showed his real qualities.
How many more players are we gonna lose before we realize that we are unpatient.
Andy Cole,Distin,Jon Dal Tomason,Saha,
Not every player is RVN,Torres to leave immediate impact in his first season in his new club.
18 Hadji // Mar 5, 2008 at 15:54
Its not just him,the whole team is playing bad.
With the chemistry we have at the moment even Kaka and Ronaldinho would look average.
19 Punk Skunk // Mar 5, 2008 at 15:56
Kaka did look kaka last night tho’, didn’t he?..
20 Hadji // Mar 5, 2008 at 16:11
No he didn’t cause he came back from a minor injury.
Just look at Tim Cahill,average player playing great cause the whole team of Everton is playing excellent.
Once we rediscover our winning formula.trust me everybody will start scoring…even Carr
21 scott9 // Mar 5, 2008 at 16:16
dont see while your all so happy barton is a fantastic footballer and has great vision and a footballing brain he played to great balls in to owen against balckburn in which owen would have scored any other day everyone compalines at barton for spending to long on the ball and loosing it but if he aint got the options he cant pass it
22 Punk Skunk // Mar 5, 2008 at 16:20
I wouldn’t call Cahill average, he’s defo better than average mate…Everton are doin’ well ‘cos they’re settled with moyes bein’ there for years!..
…Don’t know about kakas’ injury problems, but anyway, he couldn’t break down the gooners defense!..
23 Hadji // Mar 5, 2008 at 16:26
”Bein there for years” now you’re talkin mate.
That’s my whole point,we need to show that attitude aswell instead booing our players which is killing their selfconfidence.
24 Punk Skunk // Mar 5, 2008 at 16:34
Y’damn right Hadji, we gotta support the lads now like never before!..
25 briss // Mar 5, 2008 at 17:11
i dont know how most of you think that barton is shite. how many chances did he give owen last weekend? i know that his personality is prob the worst you can ask for but i mean he’s miles better of cm than Butt and thats a fact! if he would have stayed out of trouble this season he would be getting alot of praise right now. we have some real problems at the cm possition for this weekend tho. is butt injured too?
26 stumpofthetoon // Mar 5, 2008 at 17:12
barton us utter shite he prob is thinking about going to jail or something his head is in a bad place . wich is worying why is he getting picked against blackburn he was supper shit eny other team would have draged him of at half time
27 Obafan // Mar 5, 2008 at 17:18
Well thius is good news; Barton might have played a couple of good games for City, not for us, he just is not playing good so he won’t be missed.
The question now is how will KK solve this problem. We all know Smith is not a midfielder, even not a striker IMO, but I would bet that KK will play Smith in the midfield. This turns the good news into very bad news, cause I’d prefer Barton above Smith, even tho’ he is a fool.
Does anybody know how good that new Senegalese defender is???
My team would be:
Harper
Beye - Faye - Cacapa - Enrique
Duff - Butt - Emre (if fit) - N’Zogbia
Owen - Martins
KK his team will be:
Harper
Beye - Taylor - Faye - Enrique
Milner - Butt - Smith - Duff
Owen - Martins
This will turn us very weak in center of the midfield. Hope Liverpool will take it easy because of the Inter game, but I doubt it
.
28 ObaFan2 // Mar 5, 2008 at 21:30
Faye could play mf even Geremi.
29 hanzemre // Mar 6, 2008 at 11:49
Barton did just fine last game a bit better than his usual crap so did Butt. Pity he won’t show up for the next, so for Liverpool how about we put Geremi & Butt (if needed N’Zogbia’d coming in 2n half) to strengthen the middle. Counterattack from both flanks could do us better chance of scoring.
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