Aston Villa-Newcastle United Preview
There will be two English managers on the sidelines when Newcastle United host Aston Villa at St James' Park on Saturday.
John Carver's Newcastle United (8-8-10) lost 5-0 to Manchester City last weekend, which won't have helped the poisonous mood amongst a fan base who have never really taken to their caretaker boss. It has been hit-and-miss for the Magpies under Carver - while the City defeat ended a three-game unbeaten run in league play, it also ensured the Tyneside club have just one win since the departure of Alan Pardew at the end of December.
Aston Villa would take that sort of recent record in a heartbeat. Tim Sherwood's Villa (5-7-14) have lost six on the bounce in the Premier League and are winless in 11 matches. Last weekend's 2-1 defeat to Stoke City was Sherwood's league debut with Villa, and it offered a handy indication of the task of his job.
"It wasn't great against Stoke," he said. "I'm not trying to insult anyone's intelligence, but we should have got a point and that would have taken us out of the relegation zone and given us a boost."
Villa are in the relegation zone with 12 games remaining, and the new boss has already rolled out the manager-speak classic that every remaining game will be a cup final for his players.
"We have won five games of football all season, we need to win six (more) to stay in the division," Sherwood said. "The reality has to kick in that we are in a dogfight here and we need points as soon as possible. Every game is a cup final now. We need to make sure we pick up enough points, simple as that. A win at any stage is good. The sooner the better because it will be a shot in the arm for everyone."
The quality of Villa's squad makes it likely they will still have enough to survive this five-way relegation scrap, but a big task for Sherwood will be to find a way to inspire a goal-shy attack who have managed just 13 goals in 26 games. He will have to do so without the services of Libor Kozak, whose return has been put back as he struggles to find full fitness following a broken leg.
Nathan Baker, Chris Herd and Kieran Richardson will also be missing for Villa, while Aly Cissokho and Alan Hutton face late fitness tests.
Newcastle are without Siem de Jong, Cheick Tiote, Steven Taylor, Rolando Aarons and Paul Dummett, while key forward Remy Cabella is a doubt.
However, a boost for Newcastle came with Carver's announcement that Jonas Gutierrez is in the squad for Saturday's game. He has overcome testicular cancer and regained full match fitness upon his return to Tyneside.
"Some good news for the club is that I'm going to bring Jonas back into the squad and he may be on the bench," Carver explained. "That's a huge lift for him and for the club, and especially for the fans, as I know how much he is liked.
"My situation with Jonas is that if I need to use him, I will definitely use him. I know there have been rumours out there about the board picking him, but I make the football decisions and I will pick him when I think the time is right. That's why I've included him in the squad for this weekend, with a good chance of him being on the bench, I'm sure the fans would give him a great reception."
The teams played to a goalless draw at Villa Park in August, with the hosts failing to register a shot on target. Newcastle are unbeaten in their last seven against the Birmingham-based club.