Newcastle v Leeds - Match Preview

Newcastle host Leeds United in a Friday night showdown at St James’ Park. The Magpies will be looking to bounce back after a poor showing against Sheffield Wednesday, and given the prospect of another Huddersfield slip-up, could almost guarantee their place in the Premier League next season with a win.

The Toon will be without Dwight Gayle, who succumbed to yet another injury last Saturday. The offensive task will thus be given to either Daryl Murphy or Aleksandr Mitrovic. Mitro has seemingly been cast aside in recent weeks, but there is a growing sense that given his form for Serbia which has seen him notch four goals in five games, he is worth taking a chance on. The forward’s talent is undeniable, and his chest and shot which set up Shelvey’s consolation goal last week is perhaps a testament to that. He’s a player lacking in confidence, but there is surely a reason Newcastle snapped him whilst we were a premier league side. He could well be the difference.

There remains the general concern that Newcastle are not playing well; and this has seemingly been true for much of this season – especially since Christmas. We have undoubtedly been crawling to promotion, which is disheartening for fans who perhaps were hoping for a repeat of the 09/10 season; which more often than not saw us glide past teams with ease. As has been discussed quite frequently, however, the Championship is a tougher league than it used to be, and to hope that we could run away with the title were clearly naïve at best.

However, I don’t think it’s unfair to call to attention the manner of performance over the last few months. I can’t, for one, remember a game in which we have been clearly dominant. For a team seeking promotion, this doesn’t seem right. It is clearly the case, however, that the cause of the team’s lapse in performances is largely down to the refusal to invest in the squad during the January transfer window. Rafa Benitez was pretty clear that we needed to strengthen, recognizing as he did that the squad that had got us to a decent position at Christmas were not necessarily equipped to take us to that extra level.

I bring this up because there seems to be a small but growing contingent of Newcastle fans starting to place blame at the foot of the manager for Newcastle’s increasingly abject performances. I would flip this around, however, and argue that it is remarkable that Benitez has kept us in the automatic promotion places despite the lack of investment in January. Benitez clearly knows that we are deficient in multiple areas, and has, as a result been trying to compensate for that by playing a brand of admittedly defensive and cautious football with a view to ‘getting over the line’. Though this might be frustrating to watch – it is perhaps the case that this is the only way we’ll get out of this league – given the players at our disposal.

Should Huddersfield falter tomorrow, wins against Leeds and Ipswich will seal promotion. It won’t be pretty – but in the grand scheme of things – returning to the big time at the first time of asking is all that we will remember, regardless of how we got there.