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Vurnon Anita Wants to Fill Yohan Cabaye’s Boots

10 years ago
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Vurnon Anita has been talking about trying to fill the void since Yohan Cabaye left in January.

The Dutch midfielder saying that the team had to step up after Cabaye left and that they need to continue with that next season.

I think sadly this is where things fall apart a bit and get to the heart of the problem at Newcastle last season.

You can only have the odd player in your front six who isn’t capable of scoring and/or creating goals, or else you run into serious problems, as Newcastle did last season after Yohan Cabaye left.

Whatever Anita says, the team didn’t step it up to make up for Cabaye’s absence, not that I think it is through any lack of effort, simply the players aren’t good enough to compensate for a lack of real quality. The same when Loic Remy was missing up front.

This is what Vurnon Anita had to say to the Shields Gazette;

“We all needed to step up a little bit (once Yohan Cabaye left) and we need to continue that next season.

“Scoring goals is a big thing I want to improve next season and I am going to work hard for it in pre-season.

“I want to become even more important for the team next season and scoring goals is a big part of that.

“Maybe players will come in, but if not, we need to keep with this team and work hard to improve.”

The stats tell us that Yohan Cabaye scored 7 goals in 17 Premier League appearances, while in total, Sissoko (3), Anita (1), Tiote (0) and new signing Jack Colback scored 7 between the four of them.

In fact Colback had only ever scored one previous Premier League goal so it was a bit of a goals avalanche for him.

As stated above, Cabaye scored his 7 goals in 17 matches, for the four combined to score their 7 it took 127 games.

While you can get a little bit more out of every player and we should expect the odd goal from everybody in the team, including the likes of Cheick Tiote, you can’t get by without a number of natural goalscorers, both up front and in midfield.

Anita (who has only scored 6 league goals in 6 seasons of top flight football so is unlikely to suddenly change) talks about just getting on with it if more players don’t come in.

That isn’t the answer and Newcastle will be doomed if that is the case, two strikers and at least one midfielder who can score/create are the bare essentials, the clock continues to tick.

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