On July 13th 2014, Newcastle confirmed the signing of Remy Cabella for a reported fee of £10million plus £2million in add-ons. The Frenchman came with a reputation of being a clever and skillful no.10. Newcastle fans scattered across the globe launched themselves onto YouTube to watch the highly rated player in action and many became excited at the prospect of watching him set the Premier League alight in a black and white jersey.
Fast forward a year, Cabella is on the verge of an abrupt exit and most certainly hasn’t lived up to his hefty price tag. With the news emerging that Cabella is on his way out of Newcastle as part of a cash plus player swap deal for Marseille’s Florian Thauvin, I’m going to take a look at where it all went wrong during his tenure on Tyneside:
Being played out of position
As previously stated, upon signing for the club Cabella had come with a reputation for being a clever and skillful no.10 as he had predominantly played there for Montpellier. Though a lot of fans were excited at the signing, some worried that Cabella could follow in the footsteps of Mapou Yanga Mbiwa, Hatem Ben Arfa and Sylvain Marveaux and be Pardewed. We wanted to see him play in his best role, through the middle, but Alan Pardew had other ideas. Pardew had deployed Cabella on the flanks, a position he rarely played for his previous clubs. The Frenchman showed glimpses of creativity and flair, but it was wasted out wide and he struggled to get involved in the majority of our games. It certainly didn’t help the 25-year old’s development as a Premier League player and it was one of the main reasons he failed to shine on Tyneside.
Physicality
Everybody knows that the Premier League is a very physically demanding league and most players need to have some sort of strength and desire about them – something Remy Cabella lacked. With him playing on the wing, Cabella was often easily shrugged off the ball and opposition teams were quickly able to counter attack. He lacked the pace to really give opposition full-backs a torrid time and, whenever he got the ball, you couldn’t really see him beating players down the line. This led to him constantly cutting inside and becoming highly predictable for defenders. If there’s one thing defenders hate, it’s speed and Remy Cabella didn’t incorporate that into his game. Just look back to last weekend when Jefferson Montero caused Daryl Janmaat problem after problem with his pace and drive. He would often go down relatively easily and hopelessly look for a free-kick. You have to feel for the man, it was easy to see that he lacked the physicality to cut inside and beat defenders.
Tactics
Another reason why it didn’t work out for Cabella at Newcastle is the tactics that were incorporated by Pardew and Carver didn’t suit his playing style. He likes to be on the ball, run at players and be constantly involved in every attack, but with Pardew and Carver making the team play long ball tactics, Cabella rarely had the ball at his feet. When he did, he lacked the support of our full-backs, who were instructed to stay back and rarely overlapped. You could see that he was becoming increasingly frustrated as the same tactics were deployed week in, week out. He spent a lot of his time on the pitch watching hopeless balls being lofted up the pitch by Mike Williamson and Fabricio Coloccini and that most definitely did not aid Cabella’s progress as a Newcastle player.
It’s no surprise that some fans want to see Cabella stay at the club. He showed signs of promise last season and he would fit well into McClaren’s new attacking philosophy that he has brought to the club. Perhaps he would be played in his normal position, rather than out wide, but with the signing of Georginio Wijnaldum and Florian Thauvin, it was clear to see he wasn’t part of the clubs overall plans for the future.
