Liverpool could lack bite if Suarez is banned

Suarez out against NUFC? I'm sure most of you will know what I'm talking about just by the title of this article, and if you don't, where have you been for the last day or so?

To be honest I'm not overly bothered about the whole Suarez bite thing or all the controversy that surrounds it, but I am interested purely because it could have an influence when Liverpool visit St James' Park on Saturday evening.

Suarez has now been charged retrospectively by the FA and has until 6pm tomorrow (Tuesday) to respond. If he agrees to the charge, which seems likely given that he's been reprimanded by his club, fined, and also offered a public apology to Branislav Ivanovic, he will be banned for match on Saturday and given his importance to Liverpool that will undoubtedly be a bonus as far as we're concerned. If he does request a personal hearing to appeal any ban he is likely to face a longer punishment given the sheer amount of video evidence going against him.

Of course Suarez isn't the only player who will pose a threat to us and Steven Gerrard always tends to save his best performances for when he faces off against us, but you can't fail to wonder just how different Liverpool will be without Suarez. He's scored 30 goals for the Reds this term. Their next highest goalscorer is Gerrard with a tally of 10 goals. You see what I mean?

The thing with Suarez is, despite the amount of trouble and controversy he brings to Liverpool (and you can read his rap-sheet here) he is still a quality player and Liverpool will miss him. Not only his goals as mentioned above, but also his work-ethic and creativity in attack.

What he did was a cowardly thing to do, and it's not the first time it's happened, but I do hope the FA screw their heads on. They have had a lot of criticism aimed at them this season for hiding behind rules that they say they can't change, and as fans of Newcastle United we should know how consistently inconsistent they are just by going back a couple of weeks and recalling how they dealt, or failed to deal with I should say, the whole Callum McManaman/Massadio Haidara horror tackle.

I don't like Liverpool. Most of you know that by now, but its nothing to do with the club itself. It's just the glory fans who have been to Anfield less times than I have and give it the 'biggun' that puts me off them. They seem to have a large percentage of that type of fan living around me. Having said that, I hope the FA don't make an example of Suarez on the grounds of their deficiency throughout the course of the season.

Yes he deserves banned, but it's been charged as violent conduct and should be dealt with within those penalties. We'll wait and see on that front, but their statement already says that they think a three-match ban is insufficient.

So yeah it seems as though I've waffled on, but in short I'm glad he's unlikely to face us but also hope the FA don't use a this incident to demonstrate that they do still carry some clout because most football fans know that they don't. In fact in terms of clout, you could say that they carry sweet FA!

To end the article on a lighter note, I bet Hatem Ben After Eight, Poppets Cisse, Fabricio Coco-Cola (a drink I know, but still...) and Shola Hameobi are off the menu this weekend!

Howay the lads!