Kinnear faces tough days as injuries grow

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JOE Kinnear admitted the long-term injury prognosis is grim for his Newcastle United side, with Habib Beye and Mark Viduka both set for long spells on the sidelines.

 

United’s deficiencies were exposed in brutal fashion by Liverpool at St James’s Park yesterday, Kinnear’s patched up side no match for a Reds team hitting form.

 

They were hardly helped by a lengthy injury list that accounted for two of their back four. Now United’s boss is braced to take on the rest of the January fixtures without key players after revealing bad news on Beye and Viduka. Jose Enrique, forced into action by injuries to others, aggravated an old knock and could be missing for a few weeks. The only positive that Kinnear could salvage from the defeat was a breathtaking display from Shay Given that he felt confirmed the Ireland goalkeeper as the best in the Premier League.

 

Kinnear said: “If you look at our options today – we didn’t have any options other than the ones I took. I played Shola (Ameobi) but he wasn’t fit, we had no Oba Martins, Joey Barton is out. Habib Beye is our best right-back by miles and he’s out. Sébastien Bassong would have helped us aerially but he was suspended.

 

“Beye is on crutches so it’s serious and Viduka will be out for at least a month. We’ve just got to get on with it though.

 

“It was a disappointing result but without Shay it would have been worse. If it proved anything it proved he is the best goalkeeper in the league by a mile.” United’s boss admits the depressing news on injuries will shape his demands of Mike Ashley.

 

Kinnear is known to be keen on Matthew Upson but with West Ham quoting an asking price of around £15m Newcastle are unlikely to be able to afford him. “Of course the injury situation determines my conversations with Mike. These are long-term injuries that we’re talking about and they are crippling us at the moment,” he said.

 

“In the last eight or nine games our settled back four has been excellent but now we’ve lost three of them we’ve got to start again. Before I would have said we had a steady back four but with the injuries I don’t know. The defence is an area that we will have to look at in January. I wouldn’t have said that before the injuries that we’ve got.”

 

Kinnear, who feels Liverpool will win the Premier League this season, admitted that his team had been completely outplayed and that the scoreline was a fair reflection. Liverpool were ruthless in exploiting Newcastle’s weaknesses and, barring a five-minute spell after half-time, dominated.

 

“You have to take your hat off to Liverpool. Even with all the injuries we’ve got – and we’re missing three of them just after we’d sorted our defence into some sort of shape – they took full advantage of it. They were head and shoulders above us,” he admitted.

 

“We were always second best. It was one-sided because they are a world class side. Having said that I wasn’t too happy at the manner in which we conceded some goals, especially from set plays but overall they were better than us.

 

“We had deficiencies in lots of areas.’’

http://www.journallive.co.uk/nufc/newcastl...61634-22564573/

 

Again, I ask you Joe what about Xisco? Is he even still at the club? does he ever have a part to play?

[Guest alex]

Glad the recruitment policy of Wise et al has been vindicated anyway.

[East Stander 0]

Didn't the owner say pre season that "we are going to have some fun this season"

 

Well I'd hate to experience an unhappy season if that is the case