The problem, when lacking Ba, isn’t a lack of chances created – in fact that went up without Ba, probably due to a dependency of goals now absent, by 60% – it is a lack of potency: Demba Ba possesses the best shot conversion rate in the Premier League 31% – and when he’s wearing the #19 shirt, he drags United’s potency up with him.
Yet, Demba Ba’s international duty was pointless in more way than one: as well as failing to accumulate a single point in Equatorial Guinea, something which even Sudan managed to do after a 36-year wait since their last, Senegal failed to see either of Newcastle United’s strikers score. Senegal scored a goal a game – unfortunately they conceded two per game, too – yet, N’Doye and Fenerbahce’s new signing Moussa Sow, were the scorers of the three, with the former getting two. Demba Papiss Cisse failed to score. Demba Ba failed to score.
If The Africa Cup of Nations was going to benefit Newcastle in any way, by seeing the partnership hit form together, it didn’t.
Although between the two of them they failed to hit the back of the net, they were limited by playing time, inevitable considering the team was top heavy: out of a possible 270 minutes they duet could’ve played together, they completed just 81 minutes on the pitch together. Ba was a starter in each and every game, Papiss started just one and came on as a substitute in the other two games and their third high profile striker, Moussa Sow, made just one start too; however, he was able to capitalise in his share of game time and scored off the bench in their penultimate game. Their time together was further impeded when, in the last game, Ba was replaced by his Toon teammate.
Sow has completed a four-and-a-half-year move to Fenerbahce for £8.4m and last season’s top scorer of Ligue 1, in a Lille side boasting Eden Hazard and Joe Cole in support of the Senegalese, alluded to the possibility that Arsenal and Liverpool, stating that, “there were many clubs interested,” but the Turkish side was “the club [he] really wanted.” One thing that is clear is that he left on bad terms, “I could have stayed [but] when I read that the president said “he was greedy” it hurts.”
But my immediate concern, however, will be for Papiss as he will be a direct influence of the betterment of the English game and Demba Ba’s highest praise of Cisse has inspired great belief into his countryman. Describing his new strike partner as a “proper goal-scorer” in what I can only imagine is an audacious attack at Javier Hernandez who finds it difficult to score from more than 6-yards, or perhaps even a cheeky dig at Nwankwo Kanu who ran onto and scored from a throw-in back to the ‘keeper shortly into his stint at Arsenal, Ba insisted that “[he and Cisse] are going to do everything for [Newcastle] and forget about what has happened [at the AFCON].”
The question is, will Cisse feature in Wednesday’s clash against Blackburn in which Alan Pardew will be hoping to regain the momentum lost after two straight defeats. In their absence, Newcastle oversaw Blackburn 2-1 in the F.A Cup; however, since then, the clinical edge has been lost and The Toon will be hoping the Demba synergy will burst into life that was void in Equatorial Guinea.
Written by Jordan Florit for www.maycauseoffence.com/ For more articles visit my website or my Twitter @JordanFlorit
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