Week One: Changes Needed

So, away from the pitch we need to really consider what is going on...

... we need to prepare for not being sold, what this means is making some strong decisions

1, Appoint Shearer on a one year contract
2, Get Coloccini and Barton out this week what ever way you can
3, Sign a right-back who can also cover at centre-half

Then on the pitch Nolan needs to be dropped and Ranger given his chance. These were the obvious problems yesterday (beyond central defence).

If Shearer had been given the role we would have expected to have seen Danny Fox and Bradley Orr come in at full back, Edgar would have stayed and they would have been joined by Steven Taylor as a back four.
The midfield would also have changed. Duff, Smith and Guthrie would have been possibly joined by Fabian Delph, or if we'd missed him another young winger. Barton and Nolan would have been shipped out.
Up front Beckford would be alongside Carroll.

Its not true that you need a deep squad in Championship football. Newcastle still need to strip the side back and then build up the squad. Despite being the only flare player we have Jonas must also be moved on to allow us to build for the winter months.

Our squad can be stripped more:
GK - Harper, Krul, Soderberg (+ Forster out on loan)
This is our strongest element and really we are blessed with some talent in goal

Def - Taylor, Collo, Taylor R, Enrique, Kadar, Tozer, Geremi
We need to bring in two full backs (we've said that before, or Keegan did anyway!). Edgar should have stayed, so we need a replacement for him and ship out Geremi who is pointless in the squad as well as Collo.

Mid - Duff, Smith, Guthrie, Butt, Nolan, Barton, Jonas, Lua Lua
We lack real width if Jonas leaves, and lack creativity in the centre. Barton is a liability, Butt is in his final season, and Nolan adds little. We won't see much change here, but would have seen those three leave and replacements come in had we had a manager in the past 9 weeks.

For - Carroll, Ameobi, Ranger, Xisco
This should be strong enough for the Championship. Beckford would have been a great addition and Xisco is unlikely to add much and could have been released. Again the ideal would be for this to still happen.

Thats a 22 man squad we're playing with, and there is still a lot of fat in there. We need 4 new players in and can ship out 6 comfortably. While reducing staff it would give us a much more solid squad, allowing youngsters the chance to experience the first team as well.

We only have three weeks, and the likelihood is that little will happen, but all we can do is cross our fingers and pray for some changes

Lets see!

A New Dawn? A point at least

On a positive NUFC have started the new season much better than expected, with a point at Sir Bobby's former club at The Hawthorns.
After a minute of celebration for the great man, we got back to second flight football with vigour and certainly entertained the crowd. Both teams showed why the will do well in the Championship, but also were pretty clear as to why they ended there in the first place.
Smith led as a captain should, and Tim Krul came on in the second half for the injured Harper to put in a sterling performance. Ranger got his debut, Carroll was strong up front and Taylor and Duff were solid.
That said the frailties were clear for all to see. Nolan was frankly shocking in midfield, and if Barton has disrupted so much to be back out of the side then Lua Lua must start in the next game. Coloccini struggled, and having been an Argentine international 12 months ago, to see him struggling against a 17 year old kiwi was worrying. Again bring in youth and allow Kadar to partner Taylor next week.
Overall though there was still a lack of coherency and leadership. Newcastle gained a good point, but Hughton does not lead. He missed the obvious substitutions and generally added nothing during the 90 mins.
A better start than expected, but lets remain realistic. We won 3-1 there a few months ago and weren't good enough to stay up, so dropping two points in a league where anyone can beat anyone is a word of warning.