Newcastle United boss Rafa Benitez has singled out his attack as the one area in the squad that needs the most improvement.
After only scoring one goal in two games since he took over, the Spaniard is rightly concerned at our lack of cutting edge in the final third as we embark on yet another fierce relegation battle.
Speaking to the press after the 1-1 draw to rivals Sunderland yesterday he said:
“We are creating chances, we are attacking and we can be there, so we have to improve this part of the game and create more chances and Mitrovic or Papiss Cisse or the other strikers will score more goals and we will be fine.”
There’s no doubting Rafa has at his disposal, players who are capable of hitting the back of the net.
And with time really of the essence with only eight domestic games left to play, it is up to our new boss to get his attacking players firing again.
With our next match-up against a Norwich side with arguably a defence as bad as ours, could this be the perfect platform for the likes of Mitro and co to gain some much-needed confidence?
Thanks Andy,
I think we have to go with Cisse and Mitro up front now, it’s our best chance of goals. Norwich have been a shower all season but now seem to of hit some form, either that or they have come up against two teams already on their holidays in their last two games. 🙄
kimtoon(Quote)
Considering Man City and West Brom couldn’t find a way past them, then they have either really improved defensively or as I said City and the Baggies have given up . I expected it of the Baggies but not City who mathematically could still of fought for the title.
kimtoon(Quote)
Of all the teams I thought were dead certs to go down (besides Villa), I thought it had to be Norwich. Yet all of a sudden they’ve won again and as you say, have hit good form. A win at the Albion will give them a massive lift.
I’d still stick with Mitro up top and call Cisse off the bench as an impact player for the last 30.
Andy The Magpie(Quote)
Norwich have a poor squad but I really rate their manager and when it was between him, Allardyce and McClaren we were in serious trouble. If Rafa can magic up a win at theirs then we’ll be in control of our own destiny again, but another draw, or a loss – curtains.
Newkie(Quote)
Norwich will also want some revenge after we thrashed them last time, so that’s gonna play a part also.
kimtoon(Quote)
We need 4 wins.
Stuart79(Quote)
Andy, You could be right about Cisse, but I would still start him to try and get an early goal and put them under pressure. You can always take him off when he tires like.
kimtoon(Quote)
Stu, Aye, daunting isn’t it?
kimtoon(Quote)
It was Gini who had a field day against Norwich, wonder if it’ll be same again?
kimtoon(Quote)
I fancy us to beat Villa, Palace and Swansea, so we need to find 3 more points. Where from? Norwich? Man City?
Stuart79(Quote)
So Ashley has told Sky News he is committed to NUFC whether we stay up or not and “We are stuck with each other!”
Stuart79(Quote)
Just saw that interview, didn’t fill me with confidence.
“Should we have any chance of staying up, we have the right personnel to make it happen.”
Or something to that effect. Hardly inspiring words Mike.
Andy The Magpie(Quote)
Mitrovic and Perez are decent players, but they don’t make an effective partnership for me.
Perez likes to play behind Mitrovic and we need a forward who looks to get beyond him. A forward who runs across or in behind his defender.
The partner that makes most sense to me is Cisse. But I’m a big fan of De Jong. Who’s the fittest of the two of them though?!.
Cisse has PL goals and has scored some important ones for us. As we are I’d probably opt for him over De Jong.
But I would try either of those up front with Mitrovic and move Perez left and drop Sissoko.
I think we’d have more chance of scoring with either Townsend, De Jong, Perez behind Mitrovic – or Townsend and Perez wide of Mitrovic and Cisse.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Play Sissoko at left back, he’s better than Colback there anyway! 😆
Newkie(Quote)
De Jong must okay against Norwich. I’d play Perez on the left, De Jong de hind Mitro with Townsend on the right.
Stuart79(Quote)
4 wins sounds really bad and we have to hope Sunderland and Norwich don’t get the same.
Terry(Quote)
Stu – I agree in the main. My only concern would be that with Shelvey and Gini behind Perez, De Jong & Townsend – there would be a lot of play makers and not many goal scorers.
The one thing with Cisse is he may not be much of a grafter – but he can poach you a goal from very little.
Having Shelvey, Gini, Perez and Townsend creating chances for Mitrovic & Cisse I think would increase our scoring chances.
That said, if he went for either in favour of Sissoko, I’d be happy.
I don’t see it though, and I have a horrible feeling he will start with holding midfielder with us being away – similar to Leicesters game.
Hope I’m wrong though.
Sharpy17(Quote)
I think we are down now so enjoy what little time we have left in the premiership. Winning yesterday was a absolute must.
Terry(Quote)
I remember everyone saying we’d beat Bournemouth and Aston Villa and that didn’t happen did it. Now it’s Norwich, Swansea, Palace and Villa. I can’t see it happening. We took to long to replace McClaren.
Terry(Quote)
Rafa might have a great escape story in him. Hope so at least.
Terry(Quote)
The chances are you’re right, Terry but you just never know. The fact is that one of either Us, Sunderland or Norwich will put a run together that gets them to 36 points and stay up. Why can’t it be us?
Sharpy – If you want Cisse and Mitro to play then it needs to be a diamond formation. Shelvey at the base, De Jong at the top and Gini and who in midfield? Sissoko?
Stuart79(Quote)
Clutching at straws hoping De jong and or Cisse can rescue us. One has the first touch of a donkey and the other rarely gets a touch. I wouldn’t play either of them and go 433 with Gini, Shelvey and Sissoko in midfield then Townshend, Mitro and Perez up front. Doesn’t really matter anyway as we have far too many underperformers match after match.
Georgio(Quote)
Full marks to the chronicle for topping their ridiculous poll of whether Carver should get the job full time, With the “Do you want Ashley to sell” one… 🙄
CC(Quote)
Stuart if the player’s up there game and really play well together then yes theres a chance mate. I’ll support Newcastle in the championship anyway. Its going to be alright I keep telling myself. Ashley will add another 70 million to the loan and sell all of our best player’s.
Terry(Quote)
We could be playing Boro, Sunderland in the championship next season so we got derbys to look forward too.
Terry(Quote)
kimtoon(Quote)
I am so over Derby’s
kimtoon(Quote)
Georgio – I don’t think anybody is expecting Cisse and De Jong to ‘save us’ but they are players who could improve the team. Cisse’s first touch is poor but he knows where the goal is and were missing that at the moment. As for De Jong, he’s looked good in the last two games he’s been sub and he can be that creative spark in the the middle of the park we are lacking and his career record shows he scores goals too. It might be better than what we are doing currently.
Stuart79(Quote)
Kim good heaven no, blimey. I’m just saying theres a possibility we might have to play Sunderland and boro in the same league.
Terry(Quote)
If wed had a Pardew, Carver, McClaren standard manager yesterday we’d have ended up with Taylor or Mbemba at full back
Putting Sissoko/Anita there gave us more threat on the overlap IMO & allowed us to get Shelvey, Perez, Gini, De Jong, Cisse & Mitro on the pitch at the same time
CC(Quote)
Terry, I know don’t remind me.
kimtoon(Quote)
Does anyone else get the feeling that the questions put to Ashley were fed to Sky.
I think I’d be inclined to ask him “baring in mind you spoke on Sky Sports last season about aiming for trophies and top half of the league – will there be consequences for those who brought McClaren in and spent £80m whilst still not improving your defence or forwards?”.
That’s the question we fans want answered – not is the fat **** sticking round if we go down?!!!.
Sharpy17(Quote)
http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/newcastle-united-really-improved-under-11072544
kimtoon(Quote)
Patrick Kluivert has offered to help out as an attacking coach, I would hire him.
Terry(Quote)
Terry Big Al offered to help out Rafa in anyway he can, so I would be more inclined to go for him over PK.
Big Dave(Quote)
Big Dave I wanted to say Shearer first but I was unsure because of his history with Mike Ashley. Shearer is what we need and there’s no-one better to teach our strike force on how to score goals. Once the goal’s start flying in the back of the net that will bring confidence and more success.
Terry(Quote)
To bloody true,commen sence as per normal mate
Icedog(Quote)
Like the way STUART is sticking to his guns re staying up against doom and gloom on the blog,there’s 24 points to go at so imo STUART is right to hold on and believe
Icedog(Quote)
Ice 😉
And like I said a few times allready how can we expect our players ( who’s only real ties to our club is their employers ) to keep believing and keep fighting and giving their all to stay up.
If we the fans of our club have gave up hope allready .
Big Dave(Quote)
They have bought in a strikers coach last week I think. I will try and find link
kimtoon(Quote)
Icedog I don’t want the club to be relegated not at all. I want us to stay up, of course I do. Getting a win against Norwich will restore my confidence in the team. I didn’t predict the win’s against Liverpool or Spurs so theres still hope.
Terry(Quote)
here it is
http://www.themag.co.uk/2016/03/rafa-benitez-calls-specialist-superior-striker-coaching-help-aleksandar-mitrovic-newcastle-united/
kimtoon(Quote)
By the way guys, saw the comment by a couple of people having to scroll up to see the next article. Will see if I can add something to the bottom below the comments so people will know when there is fresh content.
This is a bit more of a tricky fix but will look into it.
Andy The Magpie(Quote)
well I reckon that headed goal yesterday will have given Mitro one hell of a boost already.
A few more of them over the coming weeks and we should be ok.
This 2 weeks has come just at the right time for Rafa, so Norwich had better watch out.
I can feel it.
The results are there just bubbling away under the surface waiting to be released.
Once Rafa cracks the code, and we start winning, there will be no stopping us.
woo hoo hoo
Howay the Lads
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
Andy even if who ever puts the new thread up writes a comment on the old article to let everyone know, but if it has been scheduled to post then that might be different
Big Dave(Quote)
cheers Andy,
still no numbers on the comments though ❓
Not overly keen on this quotey thing either – sorry 🙁
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
Kim thank’s for the read. I hope Allen Russell gets the best out of Mitovic. He done us proud yesterday. Hope that gives him the lift he needs to get us a win against Norwich.
Terry(Quote)
BB, I put up a link earlier about stats showing we are improving under Rafa
here it is again
kimtoon(Quote)
Terry, well the fact he scored such a good goal, and it was very good, might mean the coaching is working.
kimtoon(Quote)
Kim I dont think you need to read stats to see we’re improving under Rafa.
If Schteve the clown was still incharge over the last 2 games the heads would have dropped and we probably have conceded atleast 6 goals 😉
Big Dave(Quote)
Kim I hope so mate. It just goes to show that good coaches can make a big difference. It takes time off course but I must be more confident in the team. McClaren has done us no favor’s mind you and Rafa has got to clean up his mess that his left behind. I respect Rafa and wish him and the players all the best as always.
Terry(Quote)
It very interesting that Rafa has said today that we must support Mitro more, we must get more crosses into him and more men in the box with him.
I’ve been saying that for a while. How is any striker suppose to score goals if he’s in the box on his own with 6 defenders…?
Stuart79(Quote)
spot on Big Dave
so glad we have moved on from McClown and his dire negative ****.
At least Rafa has us going for a win, not trying for a draw at best.
Long way to go still, but I do like what he says and is trying to achieve.
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
You could see how much that goal meant to Mitro
hopefully this will be the start of something beautiful – if you know what I mean.
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
Yes we are lacking up front. Shame we didn’t try for a forward instead of making fake bids of 24mil and ending up with a striker not good enough for the bench.
Total shambles which makes it even cworse Rafa mayvonly be here for 8 games
Gashley(Quote)
Beardsley Boots the clown got on my nerves mate especially that grin and the board kept giving him chance after chance. I hope he never manages another team.
Terry(Quote)
Some are scheduled but I can definitely post a link in the previous thread when they’re not.
When posts are scheduled I’ll try my best to notify people on the comments when it goes out.
Andy The Magpie(Quote)
Basically the numbers on comments would turn into an expensive fix as the plugin we used beforehand isn’t compatible with modern wordpress sites. Therefore it would have to be done adhoc and we decided that quoting a comment when you want to reply to it does the same job (this is the mechanism by which all modern forums work)
Sorry to hear you’re finding it tricky, all I ask is you give it a chance to get used to it – I certainly find it easy enough, just click quote on the comment you want to reply to then write your reply above the
Andy The Magpie(Quote)
Does anyone know if Mitrovic is away with Serbia during this break?.
Would be great if he wasn’t and he had 2 weeks to work with whoever Rafa wanted him working with.
Same with Perez actually coz I’d imagine Cisse isn’t away on Int duties, so it would be a good fortnight for all of our forwards.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Also, if Rafa recognises that our problem is scoring, I wonder if he’ll use the break to go look at Armstrong.
If he’s an option to bring back then he should defo look at it.
Looking at Bashford at Man Utd. No reason why Armaz couldn’t come back full of beans and do a job – especially against some of the teams we have left to play.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Cheers Andy 😉
Big Dave(Quote)
Been saying for weeks we need a natural goal scorer. Some of the goals Arma has scored this season have been quality.
I’d rather have him on the bench than Riviere
Gashley(Quote)
STUART I agree,ive been saying for weeks we need more crosses into the box Mito needs help but it must be the right help,Townsend can help but we need more,imo I would drop Siko and try to fit young Aaron’s in somewhere the kid has pace and can cross a good ball,Siko is a waste of space I don’t think he’s bothered if we go down at least that’s the way he’s playing
Icedog(Quote)
We only have to do better than Norwich and Sunderland in our last 8 games.
Can’t be that hard surely?
Stuart79(Quote)
I’m not sure Rafa is totally taken by Aarons. He’s not been on the bench for his first two games has he?
Stuart79(Quote)
Rafa can only go by what he sees in training I suppose or maybe he’s trying to stick with a so called wiser head but Siko just isn’t doing it.
I won’t judge the rest of our games on the Derby result as normally it’s not a true picture of progress
Icedog(Quote)
Stuart: my guess is that Rafa is going with experience and sees Aarons as young and raw.
I have been waiting all year for Sissoko to have a breakout game but it never happens. He always seems like he is almost there and ready to dominate but it never happens. Since he is away with France it could be time to try a new formation without him. Have de Jong replace him and see what Rafa can come up with?
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I don’t want to put all of the blame on Sissoko because there is enough to go around this season. He is just so frustrating because it looks like there is a good player in there somewhere. Perhaps it is his decision making? He crosses when he should shoot and shoots when he should cross? He always seems to do the hard part and then let himself down at the last. He is NUFC’s Devon Lock.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eric, In some regards Sissoko isn’t much different to Obertan. Both have pace to burn but rarely an end product.
kimtoon(Quote)
KIM aye mate you could be right there,they are similar in some respects
Icedog(Quote)
Well, there were about 25 in the Chicago bar supporting the Toon yesterday. I was the only Geordie, but there were 2 women and 3 of Indian sub-continent descent. They went absolutely batshit, apseshit, bonkers crazy when we scored. I can’t believe it because none of them have a connection to Newcastle and only started following the team recently when we have been ****.
There were no Mackems.
The other side of the bar was Red bindippers. It was rocking first half and then like a morgue second.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eric if you never see a mackem in Milan it’s no surprise you won’t find one in Chicago mate 🙂
kimtoon(Quote)
Ice, he’s just a slight upgrade imo
kimtoon(Quote)
I think we need to start playing with two wingers and start whacking the crosses in left, right and centre. Feed Mitro and maybe another striker if playing two up front but also get Gini in the box more because he’s good in the air too.
Stuart79(Quote)
Kimtoon: I have lived in Chicago for 26 years and have never met a single Mackem. Not one. They must have been told to never leave the dark place. And I go to soccer/football bars and have done for years so you would think there would be a chance meeting?
I also lived in London for 3 years and only met 1 Mackem. He said he was from Newcastle but I knew better 🙂
Really, that is 30 years of my life and I have only met 1 Mackem. I have travelled all over the US, Europe and UK and only one sighting.
I am truly besssed 🙂
Eric Sykes(Quote)