LIVE THREAD: Newcastle United v. Olympiacos

The preseason preparation hots up a bit today with Newcastle United matching up against Olympiacos in Algarve, Portugal. The lineup for Newcastle has been announced, and a number of first teamers are making their returns... and Shola will get a chance to score in Europe yet again (even though it won't really count for his goalscoring record.) Lineup looks a little something like this:

Newcastle United: Krul | Perch Williamson S Taylor Santon | Obertan Bigirimana Gosling Amalfitano | Vuckic Shola

Besides Tim Krul coming back between the sticks, I think that the most interesting part of the first half (doubtlessly there will be changes for the second) will be watching Haris Vuckic. Long considered perhaps the top young midfielder, it seems like he is now in a battle with Mehdi Abeid, Romain Amalfitano and even Gael Bigirimana for first rights behind Yohan Cabaye and Cheik Tiote. He'll be wanting to log a performance slightly better than what we saw from him last week if he intends to reclaim what many thought to be his by default. Live Thread: GO!