5. Shola Still Offers A Threat
All of the talk about strikers these days at St. James' Park tends to be about whether Demba Ba's agents are happy with Alan Pardew's tactics, or when Papiss Cisse is going to take up his a goal a goal ratio he hit last season, and the situation has allowed Shola Ameobi to quietly get on with his work without the kind of focus that used to affect his confidence. Now part of the furniture at St. James' Park, Shola has amassed a serious amount of performances for the club without ever being heralded as a favourite, and now, thanks to his ability to score against sunderland, he has graduated to bona-fide Newcastle legend. But in the past two fixtures, Shola has proven that he still has something to offer to the club - his unbelievable chest pass to Demba Ba for the equaliser against Everton was one of the single greatest moments of skill I have seen from a player in black and white, and his all round performance against Maritimo was to be commended. He chased the ball, despite his now-ageing legs not really being up to pace, and on the ball he is still the strongest player at the club and appears almost untacklable. That he didn't cap his performance with a goal has more to do with the width of the woodwork than with his actual effort, and there was a lot to suggest that if Alan Pardew wants to bench either of his bigger star strikers to encourage the kind of response he got from Ba against Everton, Shola might just be worth giving an opportunity to yet.