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Opinion

The five Newcastle United players the club needs to stay fit throughout the 2023/24 season

10 months ago
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After the Premier League played out the very final round of matches last weekend, we are now into the Newcastle United close season.

An ideal time to get a snapshot of views from Newcastle United fans on how they think things are going.

So we sent out various sets of questions to a number of regular / irregular contributors to The Mag.

Next up we have Barry Paul Henry:

The five current Newcastle United players, in order, who you would love to stay injury free and available for the whole 2023/24 season?

Trippier

The captain of the team and he’s also like us having a second manager on the pitch, directing and driving his team throughout the matches.

He also creates chances on a regular basis and works well with Almiron and Murphy .

Bruno

He’s almost irreplaceable.

He leaves a big hole when he’s missing.

As outstanding as Joelinton, Sean and Joe were last season, not one of them I think is capable of running the game I’d say, from the base of midfield, like Bruno does.

Joelinton

Absolutely brilliant!

He’s exceptional, especially when he plays on the left with Joe Willock.

When he’s out wide he scores and creates more goals for the team, especially when he interchanges with Joe. He’s a quality CM also, but statistically speaking, we’ve won more of our games when Joelinton and Willock are on the left together.

Newcastle’s lethal weapon buddy duo .

Sean Longstaff

He’s come on leaps and bounds and has a brilliant work ethic and I’m happy he’s found his place in the team and at the club .

He will forever be in dept to Eddie and all the coaching staff, as many others are, for the size of the transformation he has experienced.

Joe Willock

Its difficult not to include one of Schar, Isak, Wilson, Botman or Pope etc in the five,  but I feel I can’t leave Willock out and include Joelinton or vice versa.

As I mentioned, they have got such a chemistry together and I feel they bring the best out of each other when paired.

Five stand out (for whatever reasons) NUFC goals in the 2022/23 season and put them in order please?

There’s been many great goals and the season flew by last year, off the top of my head…

Number One

Burn against Leicester in the League Cup quarters.

A huge goal and something most of us wouldn’t have expected him to do, to be able to cut in and skin a full back and score with his wrong foot in the corner.

Numbers Two and Three

Longstaff (both) against Southampton in the league Cup semis.

Sent us to Wembley!

I recall at that time Sean had his share of stick from a minority, claiming he simply had to be replaced and wasn’t good enough, on the back of a few missed opportunities, rather than focusing on his all round contribution for NUFC.

Number Four

Almiron away at Southampton.

An outstanding quality goal that was well worked as a team.

Number Five

Murphy away at Everton.

The finish itself was simply a tap in that nobody could really miss, but the stuff we saw Isak do on the left was simply magical, almost criminal it wasn’t his goal for the part he played.

How would you describe your life now, including the black and white part, compared to summer 2021 (back then it was pre-takeover, Ashley and Bruce, just coming out of lockdown restrictions, stadiums yet to open fully to fans, so many different life circumstances for everybody)?

Away from football, like most people, life is what we make of it, as personal circumstances go.

Having your team actually looking to compete again and be the best it can be though, does give you that buzz and certainly helps brings positivity and that feel good factor to the weekends.

Newcastle United having an ever increasing global fanbase, how do you feel about it? Positives? Negatives? Observations?

I’m not a born and bred native of Newcastle, so I can’t answer questions on how I’d feel if more “plastics” came into town and took tickets away from the regular lads and lasses that have been going over a number of years.

Growth though can only be good for the club and it can only bring more money into Newcastle as a city, an area I understand like South Wales in its parts that’s been deprived of proper funding by the British government.

I could understand though if locals got a bit annoyed with a sudden bigger influx of crowds of people from elsewhere.

If you look at the 2023/24 season for Newcastle United, what would you see as:

Disappointing / Satisfactory / Good / Outstanding

Disappointing:

No domestic cup runs, fourth and bottom of Champions League group and out of Europe altogether, no place in Europe in any capacity the following season.

Satisfactory:

Third in the Champions League group (so at least a shot at Europa League to follow), Cup runs domestically, qualifying at the very least for the Euro Conference competition.

Good:

A repeat of the season we just had domestically, irrespective of however we get on in Europe.

Outstanding:

A long awaited trophy of any kind, top four in the Premier League and a good respectable run in the Champions League.

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