Three Things To Look Out For Against Birmingham

Jake Swinburn

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.

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159 thoughts on “Three Things To Look Out For Against Birmingham”

  2. How can we expect a return to form with 3 players off to ANC and misfiring and out of form strikers ? Perhaps more realism needed in the article ?
    Rafa will not gamble in the fa cup.

    Expect another turgid and labouring defensive toon display, and a 2-1 toon defeat.

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  4. I expect a lot of changes today in the line up, probably not in formation though. I expect the fringe players that are given a chance to put a real shift in and produce some class – otherwise their days at the club are surely numbered.

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  7. Well Roberts not in the squad to meet Birmingham. Playing for reserves today against Brighton and apparently scored an excellent goal.

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  9. lots of full backs & two target men…

    ——————–Sels—————————
    –Yedlin–Hanley—Lascelles–Haidara—
    —Anita—Tiote—-Colback—-Lazaar—–
    ———–Mitrovic—Murphy——————

    ^^^ Maybe something like that although the mackems used to use Murphy as a winger so it could be 4-3-3 😕 ❓

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  11. I’d like to see 442 in a league match. Fingers crossed for a good performance today. Reckon we can win this.

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  13. So 2 up front but Murphy & Mitrovic as a partnership ?.
    Strange looking midfield and I forgot all about Haidara to be honest.
    Hoping to see a creative looking Lazaar – that could solve an issue on the left side.

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  15. The cynical part of me thinks Rafa want to play 4-4-2 and to fail to spite the people constantly asking for it. More probably it is just resting all of the players he possibly can and giving a game to fringe players.

    I actually think 4-4-2 will suit us better (and Rafa might be disappointed if that was his intention), despite the two target men (wait for a bus and then two arrive) and all the fullbacks.

    GOAL 0-1 !!

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  22. So it’s a 5-3-2 with Yedlin and Lazaar playing wing back, Heidara left sided CB.

    Mitro has done his knee.

    Lazaar assisted the goal with a good corner.

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  28. Mitro has done his knee – not sure if it’s ligament or fracture but looks like a lengthy absence – Cisse mark 2

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  30. Have to remember our fringe team is still a decent championship team, with players like Murphy, Hanley, Tiote etc. And we are playing against another championship team, even if they put their best side out. Would be nice to get through and a home draw despite the league obviously being a priority. We need to know that these players are ready to step in if there are injuries.

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  34. Wet hey, 35,000 feet up in the air on my emirates flight back to dubai and got wifi, pity it’s not good enough to get the live radio feed though… have to make do with sky sports commentary feed but that’s slow too… great to see Murphy score early but hope Mitro is not too bad…

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  35. ***** fans, ***** club. ***** fans, ***** club. 😮
    I never feel comfortable with Sels like, should have played Elliot and write that one off as a bad debt…

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  41. Shamrock:
    We are very adept at letting teams score from only 1 or 2 shots on target. Bravo.

    Sham, it’s very worrying mate, there is a real pattern developing here of late. Are the players switching off once ahead? Surely they aren’t that arrogant or complacent .

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  42. They have repeatedly shut off after scoring this season. I really don’t get it. We had a shot cleared off the line and Selz gave them a free shot at goal after flapping at a cross. Could easily be 2-2. Need to stay focused for 90 minutes, otherwise shots at goal and possession stats mean nothing.

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  46. We need all the help we can get with Mitro’s injury and the ACON.

    With Haidara, Murphy and Lazaar back at least that is something.

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  48. Hayden seems to pick up a lot of yellow cards, he’ll be the next suspension. He probably has the highest tackling stats at the club, so stands to reason he’ll pick up bookings. Still irritating though..

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  49. Well if we needed a striker before Mitro’s injury do we need two now? But where are they all? Who can we buy?

    As for this game – probably go to a replay which we don’t want of course…

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  51. Jawdee: there was the amnesty for 5 yellows so any player needs to get to 10 for a suspension.

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  52. Just showed Pardew in the crowd at Sutton against Wimbledon. Maybe he is in talks for a job? I always said he would find his level.

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  58. Kim – I wouldn’t be too bothered about today’s performance. We had a new formation, players playing in unfamiliar positions and a lot of changes.

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  59. Stuart, if you take this game in isolation, correct, but given recent form it does not inspire confidence

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  60. Kimtoon: the replay isn’t that bad as it is a week on Wed with the Brentford Championship game switched from Monday to Saturday. That’s 2 full weeks to sign someone before Rotheram at home with only Brentford in the league in between. With Shelvey back against Rotherham that will be like a new signing 🙂 I don’t care what Matt Ritchie says, we have obviously missed him and him and Gayle are our 2 irreplaceable players in this league.

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  62. Too much focus on possession and not enough urgency to get the ball forward for me.
    I find it very frustrating personally and not all that enjoyable to watch.
    Too many players stood wanting the ball to feet and not enough looking to get beyond defenders.
    Only 5 shots today & only 2 on target – makes it difficult to win games when lots of passes are made between your centre halves & central midfielder.

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  63. Prem – We have only played really well in a handful of games this season in reality. We’ve won plenty without playing well so I’m not too hung up on the recent performances either.

    Although I have to say if we don’t have a good window I will be concerned – especially now we only have two strikers at the club and if Gayle get some injured we really are up the old creek…

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  64. Our next 4 fixtures are Brentford (a) Brum (h) Rotherham (h) Brighton (a). Shelvey back for the last 2 and Brentford very winnable. We need another striker though with Perez out of form and not scoring.

    You can’t afford to carry a striker like Perez. When I was a kid I would watch NUFC and thought Alan Gowling was a plank. What he did though is score goals and I don’t care how pretty his football and technique is Perez is simply not doing his job. He also seems to be lacking a bit of confidence and is not shooting, or taking men on. I am not hammering Perez as such, just highlighting the need for another striker and perhaps giving Ayoze a few reserve run outs to score a few goals and get his eye in so to speak.

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  65. We looked to be finding our mojo at one part of the season but it all feels very flat now. Is this really the no shelvey effect? And I don’t like how we don’t shut teams out once ahead, oh and Sels is useless get rid.

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  66. Kim – for me this goes back to the Bburn game back in Nov when we made so many changes before the Hull game. That’s when the wheel seemed to come off for me, and we’ve never looked right since.

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  67. Mitro has a cut. I think a lot of people are overreacting because he is a Serbian nutter and well liked by fans, but when you think about it he hardly plays. He gets 10 minutes at the end of a game usually in what they call garbage time over here in the USA.

    I doubt he will be sold now though, as other teams do not buy injured players. That would be NUFC that does that. Remember Marveaux, he had a recurring groin injury when he came, and de Jong had just “recovered” from a collapsed lung which has a history of repeating. There are more examples, but you get the point… it was the failed Carr/Ashley masterplan to get players on the cheap.

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  68. Rafa on Mitro:

    “It was a cut,” said Benitez. “He went to hospital. It was obviously not very good, because we had to substitute him straight away. We will see how long (he is out).”

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  70. Eric Sykes:
    Rafa on Mitro:

    “It was a cut,” said Benitez. “He went to hospital. It was obviously not very good, because we had to substitute him straight away. We will see how long (he is out).”

    Eric – it must have been a bad un coz he was stretchered off and given oxygen.

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  71. We always knew there would be injuries, suspensions and the ACON. It is amazing we have had so few given our record over the last 10 years. An away draw and replay in the FA Cup is not the end of the world guys. Ashley has made a loan facility available so it seems we are serious about buying. Hopefully, this is just a blip and we are still in the automatic promotion spot anyway. We need to be in that spot at the least because the playoffs are a lottery where anything can happen. Usually, that team turns out to be **** in the PL.

    We are still 6 points above Reading in 3rd and on track for 96 points. The sky is not falling chicken little.

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  72. Probably Sharpy. I am not a Dr. but it is probably better than ligament damage or a break. Even with a deep cut he will still be able to do cardio and weights, so a month maybe?

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  73. Sharpy: isn’t the oxygen a bit of a precaution as he would be in pain and they want him to breathe deeply. Sham would know. I am pretty sure I have seen players given oxygen and be back the next week.

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  74. Eric Sykes:
    Probably Sharpy. I am not a Dr. but it is probably better than ligament damage or a break. Even with a deep cut he will still be able to do cardio and weights, so a month maybe?

    Eric – oh for certain mate. Skin & tissue will heal a lot quicker than bone & ligament – and will require a lot less rehab.

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  75. Sharpy – You say the wheels come off after Blackburn in November but after that we won 4 out of 7 of the following games including probably our best performance of the season when we battered Birmingham 4-0. Complete overreaction to the last few games if you ask me.

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