Plenty of kind words have been sent in the direction of Newcastle’s Yohan Cabaye since he signed for the club in the summer. The focus seems to be on how the club can get the most out of him and his midfield partner Cheick Tiote. It’s fair to say that Cabaye wasn’t permitted to play his expansive, creative football against QPR, as his side favoured a more defensive set-up. The balance was altered, however, for Newcastle’s game against Aston Villa where he proved to be the dynamic force that drove the Magpies forward and led them towards a 1-1 draw away from home.
With the physically more imposing Tiote enforcing the midfield, Cabaye was able to appeal to all the best aspects of his game. His excellent vision and ability to pick out a pass in combination with his ceaseless desire to get forward and take a shot whenever the opportunity arises is starting to make him look essential to this Newcastle United midfield.
This shoot on sight approach has given Newcastle more threat from midfield and will give their goal-hungry forwards a chance to pounce on any resulting rebounds.
Best of all, he seems to have boundless energy. I’ve seen some describe his partnership in the centre of midfield with Cheick as the best outside of the top four and I’d find it difficult to disagree. The two work so well together and only look to be improving.
If he can add goals to his game, he truly would give opponents cause for worry.
Newcastle United may well have lost Kevin Nolan and Joey Barton over the summer, but it looks like Alan Pardew made the right moves to right these wrongs. Let’s face it, at $4.5m Cabaye was an absolute steal and is up there with any other footballing bargain you could care to mention from this summer.
Some have claimed that he is struggling to adapt to the physicality of the Premier League, but with Tiote in tow, bossing the midfield, that appears to be something of a moot issue. This is something that Pardew himself has noted, whilst singing Cabaye’s praises:
“He is the sort of player you pay good money to watch. He was beautiful today in some of the things he did,” said Pardew. “He needs to get a grip on the hurly-burly of the Premier League and he has struggled a couple of times, but if we can get him on the ball he is an outstanding player and that is why he is in the French national team — it is not a mystery.”
If Cabaye continues to perform on a weekly basis, then there’s no doubt the French national team will come knocking. One thing’s for certain however, when Newcastle United persuaded this 25-year-old to leave Lille, they picked up an absolute bargain.
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Quality player. Journo needs to do a bit of research though. He currently starts for France in CM and if you watch him play he holds himself well with regards to phyisicality of the PL, he even seems to embrace it. Him and Tiote are some force, and with creativity of Ben Arfa, Marveaux, Obertan & Gutierrez outside of them we have the makings of a quality midfield. Not to mention our outstanding defensive record this season. If Leon Best & Demba Ba get to their peak, we could be a force this season. With that, i mean top 10 not top 4 or anything as extreme as that.
Brilliant signing. I can’t wait to see Cabaye, Tiote and Ben Arfa on the pitch together, it’s going to be explosive. Don’t forget we also have amazing talent coming through in Abeid, Vuckic, Fergurson and Sammy Ameobi. I am really excited about our chances this season. We just have to keep playing Best and/or Ba upfront instead of the useless Shola Ameobi and we’ll be fine. I would like to see more of Marveaux and Gosling.
What a team we now have, we just have to wait and see how they gel more with every game and we’ll get stronger and stronger. If we sign a striker in January and possibly a defender the jigsaw puzzle would finally be complete.
HTL
Really impressed with yohan so far! Quality player, Mike must be rubbing his hands in glee wondering how much he can get for cabaye and tiote on the last day of the january transfer window! Its really hard to stay positive for nufc!
why are people allways putting out strike force down , what more do people want out of best , he,s banging in more than 1 every 2 games ffs give him a break, as for cabaye pure class and tiote finding his fitness is just making his life easier , hwtl
Pound for pound you would have to say Cabaye is THE best signing of the summer!!!
Aguero for man city and phil jones for man utd have also had fantastic starts for their new clubs but look at what they cost.
I’ll be honest and say I had never heard of Cabaye never mind see him play before, but yet again our scouting team have pull it out the bag because I had never heard of Tiote either.
Let’s hope the scouting team are working hard to bring in an equally impressive centre forward for an equally low transfer fee because let’s be fair, this philosophy of why spend a fortune on players holds merit with players like Cabaye, Tiote, HBA and to a degree Best with his current goals to game ratio.
Keep up the great work scouting team