It has been a brutal last six weeks or more as injuries to Newcastle United players have devastated the squad.
And although I do not need to remind you…
Off the top of my head here is the current list of Newcastle United players with injuries / niggles.
Plus MY prognosis (not NUFC’s as their information is even more vague than mine):
Nick Pope – Out for season
Trippier – Knackered physically and mentally
Krafth – Gashed shin with stitches inserted
Schar – Niggle or short term injury
Botman – Getting back to match fitness
Burn – Close to full match fitness
Targett – Out for unspecified length of time (February?)
Anderson – Out for unspecified length of time (February)
Joelinton – Niggle or short term injury
Longstaff – Getting back to match fitness
Barnes – Out until February
Gordon – Close to knackered, niggles, perhaps a short-term injury
Murphy – Out until February / March
Isak – Niggle or short-term injury
Wilson – Close to knackered
Almiron – Close to knackered
Any way you slice it, our first team Newcastle United players and even some of our back-up players are injured, nursing niggles, and/or are exhausted. Like most of you, I’ve never seen it quite this dire.
The lads are working hard and the gaffer / coaches are fielding the most competitive squad possible. They deserve our support.
There’s been some revelations – Lewis Miley as a budding star, Tino Livramento – a star made before our eyes. Less positive is Lewis Hall who, even on a team of walking wounded, can’t seem to get on the pitch.
The results have been relatively predictable, albeit disappointing. In spite of hard work and graft, many Newcastle United players can’t give enough for 90 minutes to get a result.
Eddie’s had to modify the way we’ve played to remain in contention – including uncharacteristically “parking the bus” when needed. We all know that by necessity and not choice as Eddie likes a pressing, front-foot style of play with “intensity being our identity”. It is a mentally and physically taxing brand of football but, when our players are healthy, has proven to be eye-pleasing and point producing football.
Expectedly, tired players can’t do it consistently and they make mental and physical mistakes. To say it’s been frustrating is stating the obvious but, as I said before, it’s predictable.
We’ve been tossed from the Champions League (cheated out of it by VAR at PSG) and we’ve “errored” our way out of the Carabao Cup. We were embarrassed at Everton and lambasted by Spurs. We are 6th in the table though and have had some decent results.
We have two winnable matches coming up at Luton and home v. Forest – that could end the month somewhat positively – although nothing can be taken for granted.
I said in November (and got stick from some) that if we stay within touching distance of the European spots after the Liverpool match, we’d be ok going into the window. As the December schedule was just too much for a thin, injury-ravaged side. We are thus far, and because of that, I am positive we could end the Premier League season in a European position. To do that, we have to be smart about utilising the window.
I have some recommendations for Newcastle United signings that are realistic (we cannot forget about FFP restrictions hamstringing our options).
