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Predicted Newcastle team v Blackburn – Steve Bruce has named 8 players who definitely start

4 years ago
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The Newcastle team v Blackburn will be revealed at 6.30pm tonight.

A 7.30pm behind closed doors match at St James Park, as Newcastle United look to reach the third round of the League Cup.

A win tonight would then see Newcastle away to Morecambe or Oldham next week (week commencing Monday 21 September).

Then with four rounds of the League Cup to be completed by the end of September, the week commencing Monday 28 September would see the Magpies in round four action if they reach that far.

First things first though and the Newcastle team v Blackburn for this round two contest.

A bit of a strange one this time, as Steve Bruce has pretty much almost named the full team.

The NUFC Head Coach admitting he will make numerous changes but no doubt happier to declare that this time, with the replacements looking probably a lot stronger than has often been the case, plus this time United face Championship opposition, as opposed to Leicester at the same stage last season. Newcastle making seven changes for that defeat despite claiming he was going to play his strongest side, whilst Brendan Rodgers made only two, the Foxes going on to reach the semi-finals.

Steve Bruce had this to say on Monday at his press conference, when talking about his approach to the cups and who is set to play against Balckburn:

“Joelinton will play, Almiron will play, Fraser will play, Ritchie will play, Sean Longstaff will play.

“Ciaran Clark will come back into the team, Emil Krafth will play.

“I will be making changes but I’m not changing my philosophy.

“It would be great to have another cup run. Why not?

“When I looked behind me on Saturday [at West Ham], there’s seven of them sitting there and probably five or six of them might have started [as first teamers in the Premier League] last year.

“So I have got a much stronger squad.”

In a separate interview with BBC Newcastle, Steve Bruce also confirmed that Mark Gillespie would play in goal.

So in conclusion, we know via the Head Coach that all seven subs from Saturday will start against Blackburn, plus Ciaran Clark coming back from injury.

So we have:

Gillespie, Krafth, Clark, Ritchie, Sean Longstaff, Almiron, Fraser, Joelinton

The question then is which three others will join them.

Looking through the outfield options, Lejeune is now back in La Liga for the season with Alaves (and Joselu), with Muto set to also conclude a deal out there with Eibar today.

Gayle, Dummett, Schar and Matty Longstaff are all out injured.

Saivet and Atsu have been told to find new clubs, along with Lazaar and Aarons who didn’t even get squad numbers.

Which then leaves us with Yedlin, Barlaser and Murphy as players who weren’t named in the matchday squad at West Ham and who could possibly play tonight.

I fancy that two of them, Murphy and Barlaser will be named in the Newcastle team v Blackburn. They have both played decent in pre-season and playing some football tonight could help when it comes to their options of clubs they could move on to, permanently or on loan in the next few weeks.

If they both play that would be 10 changes and I think we will see one of the centre-backs staying in from the West Ham game, probably Fernandez rather than Lascelles.

That gives us a predicted Newcastle team v Blackburn of:

Gillespie, Krafth, Fernandez, Clark, Ritchie, Murphy, Barlaser, Sean Longstaff, Almiron, Fraser, Joelinton

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