The Villans go in to the game against an out of sorts Newcastle side looking to pull clear of the drop zone. Lambert’s men currently sit four points ahead of Sunderland and a win tomorrow against the Magpies could see them move into eleventh position, extending that gap to seven points.
Newcastle sit in ninth place at the moment and although they should be more than safe in terms of relegation they are without a win in their last four matches and have also failed to score in any of those games.
Paul Lambert’s men are without a win in their last three games and despite being the better team against Cardiff last time out a combination of spurned opportunities and a wonderful performance by Cardiff’s keeper Marshall ensured that the Villans would only return to Birmingham with a single point instead of all three.
Projected Team:
Guzan
Bacuna Vlaar Baker Bertrand
Albrighton Delph Westwood Weimann
Agbonlahor Benteke
For the first time this season, Paul Lambert has virtually a full strength side to choose from with Jores Okore being the only absentee but even he is making substantial progress in his bid to return to action for the last few games.
Matthew Lowton may miss out again with Marc Albrighton set to keep his place after starting the game against Cardiff eleven days ago. Leandro Bacuna is once again expected to deputise at right back.
Andreas Weimann impressed after coming off the bench against the Bluebirds and should slot back in to the starting line up in place of Joe Bennett who also returned from injury in Wales.
The Opposition:
Pardew and his players will be boosted by the return of captain Coloccini, top scorer Remy and Tiote.
Coloccini has been out since New Year’s Day with a knee injury, Remy returns after a three-match suspension picked up against Norwich, whilst Tiote has missed the last two games against Chelsea and Tottenham due to a hamstring injury.
A win for the Magpies could lift them up to eighth place and would all but secure a place in the Premier League next season.
Game Information:
Referee: Martin Atkinson
Venue: St. James Park
Kick off: 1:30pm
Tickets: Tickets are no longer available for this match.
Last meeting: Newcastle 1-1 Aston Villa
Predictions:
Newcastle 0-0 Aston Villa – @MrOMeara
Newcastle 1-1 Aston Villa – Mark Lawrenson
Newcastle 1-2 Aston Villa – Paul Merson
We’ll do well to get anything out of this.
Newcastle might be ‘out of sorts’, but sadly I still think that they’ll have way too much for us. I hope very much that I’m wrong, not least because it’ll be a long trek back to Brum if we’ve been beaten.
I wouldn’t start Albrighton, I just don’t think that he’s up to the job. He might be o.k. as a short term impact player coming off of the bench, but as a top flight starter I think he’s sadly lacking.
Will Weimann start ? Bennet was getting plenty of praise from PL & was only subbed for fitnes reason . And should Gabby start ? he’s hardly setting the world on fire recently , so perhaps we’ll see another change in formation 4-2-3-1 might be interesting perhaps with Albrighton,Bacuna, Bennet behind Benteke & Lowton @ RB
Of course Albrighton is no good after all he’s a ex Villa accademy & as most doom & gloom supporters know they are no good ! But then again he was a promicing England U21 untill MON & injury blighted his careeer
But let’s hope those making the trip have something to cheer about on the return as it’s a grim enough trip even without something to cheeer about.
To be fair Gabby had just came back from injury and maybe wasn’t quite back to full fitness. Until he got injured he was playing really well.
I think Gary might be right about Albrighton being better used as an impact player, i was thinking the same thing. Lambert will probably revert back to the old 433 formation for this one.
Unpredictability is a feature of the Lambert era and something that annoys fans and particularly those who constantly want to see their favourite players in the team . But unpredictability and by that I don’t mean performance but team line up can work in a teams favour as the opposition can not know what team they will play against untill they line up . And for that reason I don’t think Lambert will change & have a regular starting line up . However I do think that he is still trying to work out which players work best in different combinations & in that is not helped by the numbers of injuries or the fact that players such as Tonev are not yet up to speed in their performance . As for Albrighton I think we may well not have yet seen the best of him . As was stated earlier about the strikers not getting on the end of some of his crosses into the box , that’s not his fault but that of his team mates who should have made them count . But to play with wingers ideally we need to have 2 & Marc is only one of the required pair needed for a balanced team & @ present we need another player to step up to make a pair .
The other issue is that if we play with 2 wingers & 2 strikers is our midfield strong enough ?