Strange fans choice of Newcastle team v Crystal Palace
We asked fans the question, which 11 players would you pick in your Newcastle team v Crystal Palace?
We put together a list of the 21 players who looked as though they could potentially be selected for this game.
A win today would guarantee a place in the top half of the Premier League at Christmas.
On Friday morning, Steve Bruce said that as well as Lascelles and Ritchie and Saint-Maximin missing.
Also definitely ruled out of this Palace game are Ciaran Clark and Ki Sung-yeung.
As for Shelvey and Almiron, Steve Bruce indicated that if they came through training on Friday, they would be available today.
Dubravka yet again getting what is regularly becoming 100% support and leading the way.
Then four other players having the support of 92% or more of fans.
Schar (97%), Almiron (93%), Shelvey (93%) and Willems (92%).
Then making it up to eight players we have Fernandez (86%), Carroll (85%) and Hayden (84%).
Then nine and ten are Manquillo (65%) earning his place ahead of Yedlin (32%) and Dummett (64%).
Then making up the final piece of this strange team selection, Lejeune (48%) is just ahead of Sean Longstaff (42%) and Joelinton (42%).
Now I know that Newcastle’s strength lies in defence but this is taking it a bit far…
I make it that we have Dubravka and six defenders (Fernandez, Lejeune, Schar, Dummett, Manquillo and Willems.
Then two central midfielders (Shelvey and Hayden) and two attacking players (Carroll and Almiron).
If putting these into some kind of formation, I suppose you would have to move Willems forward as a midfielder (or Schar possibly), with Almiron behind Carroll.
Not exactly a massive vote of support for our striking options, Gayle only getting 33% support as well, Muto a minuscule 5%.
This is how the Newcastle team v Crystal Palace looks with a suggested formation based on the fan votes, with then the percentage votes rounded up/down to nearest whole number for each of the 21 players.
100% Dubravka
97% Schar
93% Almiron
93% Shelvey
92% Willems
86% Fernandez
85% Carroll
84% Hayden
65% Manquillo
64% Dummett
48% Lejeune
42% Sean Longstaff
42% Joelinton
33% Gayle
32% Yedlin
28% Atsu
15% Matty Longstaff
5% Muto
2% Krafth
0% Elliot
0% Darlow
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