Newcastle United’s right dilemma

Posted on September 10th, 2024 | No Comments |

Murphy and Almiron
Jacob Murphy and Miguel Almiron.
Whilst Miguel Almiron and Jacob Murphy have been great servants for the club, Almiron with his energy, and Murphy with his big contribution last season in terms of assists (he was joint top with Trippier on 7), there is little doubt that in the front three, the Magpies are stronger on the left with Anthony Gordon and Harvey Barnes than they are on the right, a situation which was not rectified in the last transfer window, nor the one before that.

Whilst Gordon can also play on the right, he is now undoubtedly a very important player for the side and not playing him in his optimum position would be a bad compromise. On the other hand, Barnes is also a fine left winger who is too good to waste away on the side lines. That’s a slightly different discussion though. The question for this article is why, not for the first time, have the club failed to strengthen the right wing, whilst bringing in some players in positions that seem to be more well served?

There has been much talk of Financial Fair Play restrictions and Newcastle United but it isn’t just that as arguably stronger areas have been strengthened further.

Could it be Newcastle’s failure to ensure European football this season? On the other side of that argument, the squad could do with a better right winger to ensure a European place for next season.

A much wilder suggestion could be that Eddie Howe and his team are still holding on to that short period in 2022 when Almiron, like some others in the squad, looked like a player who had completely transformed his game? Instead of the usual nervousness in his finishing, there was for a while a casual confidence as he smashed his shots past the goalkeeper and into the top corner. At one stage he scored 7 goals in 8 games, but that seems like a long time ago now.

Things are not so bad, some new signings have been made and Newcastle United have had a strong start to the season so far, but we really do need to improve the right hand side next time though.

NUFCBlog Author: workyticket workyticket has written 1095 articles on this blog.

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