Premier League football 2012/13: Team guide – Newcastle United

STADIUM: St James’s Park

MANAGER: Alan Pardew

LAST SEASON STATS

Premier League: 5th

FA Cup: 4th Round

League Cup: 4th Round

Europe: Did not qualify

Top scorer (all comps): Demba Ba, 16

SQUAD

STAR MAN: PAPISS CISSE

Explosive striker who hit 13 goals in 13 starts for the Toon last season

MIDFIELD GENERAL: YOHAN CABAYE

The French international is the heartbeat of the Magpies

SUMMER TRANSFERS

IN: Gael Bigirimana (Coventry, £1m), Romain Amalfitano (Reims, free)

OUT: Leon Best (Blackburn, £3m), Fraser Forster (Celtic, £2m), Danny Guthrie (Reading, free), Peter Lovenkrands (Birmingham, free), Alan Smith (MK Dons, free) Ryan Donaldson (released), Tamas Kadar (released)

STRONGEST LINE-UP

[GK] Krul

[RB] Simpson

[CB] Coloccini

[CB] S Taylor

[LB] Santon

[RM] Ben Arfa

[CM] Tiote

[CM] Cabaye

[LM] Gutierrez

[SS] Ba

[CF] Cisse

4-4-1-1     Playing style: direct

TOP 3 TWITTER STARS

1 DANNY SIMPSON – 174,733 followers

Follow @dannysimpson

2 DEMBA BA – 127,623 followers

Follow @dembabafoot

3 YOHAN CABAYE – 71,331 followers

Follow @YCabayeofficiel

RATINGS

DEFENCE 6

MIDFIELD 7.5

ATTACK 8.5

OVERALL 7.33

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