Newcastle United travel to Birmingham City today, in the third round of the FA Cup and Rafa Benitez’s side are no doubt confident that they have every chance of returning to the North-East, with their names in the draw for the next round.
However, things will not be easy for United, who have lost Ayoze Perez to injury and Mo Diame, Chancel Mbemba and Christian Atsu to international duty, as they are away for the African Cup of Nations.
With this in mind, here are three things that Newcastle fans could expect to see against Birmingham:
1. Two Up Front
With Diame and Perez both unavailable, Rafa may have no choice but to change his formation and play two up top. He has already confirmed that Aleksandar Mitrovic will start and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him partnered by one of Dwight Gayle or Daryl Murphy.
2. A Change in Goal
It is not unusual for Benitez to change his Goalkeeper for cup games and with Matz Sels needing confidence and Rob Elliot in need of minutes, either could feature today.
3. A Return To Form
Newcastle have been out of sorts lately but they will feel that they have every chance of returning to form today.
icedog(Quote)
Thank you Ice, that’s sweet of you.
I have always said looks fade from the mind but good deeds don’t.
kimtoon(Quote)
Cheicky has been fantastic for us in the past, just a bit long in the tooth now. I don’t think Colback is all that bad, albeit he had a nightmare yesterday. He is neat and tidy, just quite negative in his thinking, in my opinion
Jake Swinburn(Quote)
Busy day house hunting for me today so only just on but there is a new thread up tomorrow!
Jake Swinburn(Quote)
Don’t bother house hunting mate, I’m in the middle of the worst house moving experience ever, been going on since sept 16 and we still don’t have an exchange date let alone the move date 👿 Wish I had never bothered, the stress is terrible. My vendor is on my case and my buyer has swanned off to Burma for 2 weeks after changing his solicitor 🙄
kimtoon(Quote)
I think we are likely to get one in and one on loan. It would be nice if we could just fund it through a couple of sales. I can name a few candidates if anyone would have them – Ameobi, Colback, maybe Sels as Darlow has now proved himself and Elliot did well last year. The pundits always say that nobody likes to buy in January but we have a few they can have on the cheap and between their transfer fees and wages saved we might be able to buy one player.
I wouldn’t mind McCarthy from Everton and that would allow Colback to leave. Loftus Cheek on loan could provide some creativity. I think getting a goalscorer is what would be difficult in January as nobody wants to give them up, ever.
There must be others at NUFC that might be deemed surplus, or not what was expected – Hanley, Murphy, Haidara, Lazaar, Gamez??? There are a few who have played little or no part that we might get a bit of cash for and other teams might be interested in.
I don’t see why we couldn’t do a bit of wheeling and dealing, especially since Rafa now seems to have decided who his better players are.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Jake: I thought you are a student and recently engaged? Are you independently wealthy and have one of these “stunnas” on your arm that Kimtoon talks about 🙂
Eric Sykes(Quote)
new thread up guys……………………………
kimtoon(Quote)
Yes quite true, not all are money grabbers, but there are many many here in Dubai!
Dubai Toon(Quote)