The 11 Newcastle players that fans want on the pitch when everybody’s fit – Gives room for optimism?
Earlier this month we asked fans who their 11 Newcastle players would be in the team, when/if everybody is fit and available, if that ever happens to be the case.
The resultsĀ of the voting showed one thing very clearly.
Newcastle United have got a very unbalanced squad in terms of quality and strength in depth.
All of the percentage voting in The Mag poll is below but these were the 11 to get the biggest support:
99% Martin Dubravka, 98% Fabian Schar, 94% Joelinton, 90% Sean Longstaff, 88% Miguel Almiron, 84% Isaac Hayden, 80% Allan Saint-Maximin, 73% Jamaal Lascelles, 72% Florian Lejeune, 71% Matt Ritchie, 62% Paul Dummett
As you can see, four players (Lascelles, Lejeune, Schar, Dummett) who can only really play in the three centre-back positions in a three/five at the back system. Ciaran Clark and Federico Fernandez squeezed in the voting because of the other candidates but they are also very capable and I don’t hear concerns expressed by fans when they are selected.
However, no obvious choices for wing-backs apart from Matt Ritchie who is really a winger, whilst up front Joelinton, ASM and Almiron are seen as automatic choices.
Of the top 11 Newcastle players that the supporters chose, four of them are currently not available to start.
So the big question is: If Sean Longstaff, Florian Lejeune, Allan Saint-Maximin and Matt Ritchie are added to the team that struggled so badly against Brighton, would that produce a team more than capable of avoiding relegation and maybe better than that, despite having Steve Bruce in charge?
A bit like when Alan Pardew was here, when Newcastle finished fifth that season they did have Krul, Coloccini, Tiote, Jonas, Cabaye, Ba, Cisse and Ben Arfa in the team, who when they were all on top of their game that season were a match for pretty much anyone, regardless of the manager’s instructions.
The Mag – 4 September 2019:
This is the fans choice of Newcastle United team with everybody available, each player rounded up/down to nearest full percentage point:
99% Martin Dubravka
98% Fabian Schar
94% Joelinton
90%Sean Longstaff
88% Miguel Almiron
84% Isaac Hayden
80% Allan Saint-Maximin
73% Jamaal Lascelles
72% Florian Lejeune
71% Matt Ritchie
62% Paul Dummett
37% DeAndre Yedlin
30% Emil Krafth
28% Jetro Willems
26% Jonjo Shelvey
26% Andy Carroll
16% Javier Manquillo
15% Christian Atsu
8% Dwight Gayle
8%Federico Fernandez
3% Yoshinori Muto
3% Ki Sung-yeung
2% Ciaran Clark
1% Rob Elliot
1% Karl Darlow
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