The defensive issues at the back have been a problem for Steve Bruce for on going 12 months now, there's consistently some of the squad missing due to injury and more recently a break out of covid-19 at the club.
Currently for the Chelsea game coming up on Monday night, Bruce has Cairan Clark back after his partner gave birth and Paul Dummett - whom can slot in centrally or at left-back. There's still doubts over the availability over captain Jamaal Lascelles and the experienced Federico Fernandez - Fabian Schar is out for the rest of the season, and has possibly played his last game in a black and white shirt.
DeAndre Yedlin has departed the club and Javier Manquillo looks like he has a serious injury after being replaced in the first half against Southampton - leaving Emil Krafth as the obvious option, unless Bruce wants to tinker with Jacob Murphy once again at wing-back or in a back four. Of course the real hero at the moment is Isaac Hayden, filling in at centre-back and occasionally being asked to be moved over to right-back if there's a tweak in formation, the 'defensive midfielder' doesn't look out of place wherever he slots in but the Magpies need a long term answer and Hayden, despite his magnificent displays - he's needed in a central midfield position which is underperforming as a whole this season.
A couple of other options is to use either Oisin McEntee or Ludwig Francilette as cover from the U23's as the pair wouldn't need to registered in the Premier League 25 man squad, or if Kelland Watts has a recall option on his loan spell at Plymouth - where he is exceeding down the South West, but that would halt his development playing regularly, if the local lad is just sitting on the bench as cover at St. James' Park.
Most logical solution this Monday evening (assuming no Lascelles or Fernandez) is to either play four at the back containing Krafth, Hayden/Dummett, Clark and Lewis or switch it to a back five but do Newcastle fans really want to go back to five at the back after seeing the Toon Army perform better in a four of late?
With the impact Graeme Jones has brought in at the Club, the Geordies won't want to see their team return to negative football, despite it being against Chelsea at a ground where Steve Bruce's men have an awful record at - at least they want to be seen as having a go.
Opmerkingen