"There has been a great debate about whether Newcastle ought to play two up top to boost their poor goals ratio.
It was eventually tried and, because of the personnel currently available, it failed. Now I would like to start another discussion. United’s best two passers are Jonjo Shelvey and Mikel Merino, but how do you get both of them in the same starting line up?
"Rafa Benitez obviously doesn’t fancy them in tandem in the centre of midfield because it leaves the team vulnerable when they haven’t got the ball. I can understand that. Isaac Hayden is a better option. Rafa even dropped Shelvey, who had previously been his skipper, because he wanted to start with Merino at West Brom in midweek. However United haven’t enough quality on the ball that they can afford to kick off a match with either Shelvey or Merino on the bench.
"So how can we get both in the team? I believe the way to do it is to play one at No 10 just behind the centre-forward. It could be Merino who scores goals for Spain’s Under-21s when operating further upfield or it could be Shelvey who has good enough skills to have been capped by England at full level. I would tend to go for Shelvey at No 10 but I could accept either. Merino can play, there is no question about that. But he needs games after his injury lay off.