Newcastle v Bournemouth - Match Preview

Bournemouth travel the length of the country on Saturday to face a Newcastle side looking to respond after a disappointing 1-0 reverse at Burnley. The Magpies will once again be without midfielder Mikel Merino, while Paul Dummett still seems a month or so away from returning.

There are a couple of things to pick up on from this week. One regards Benitez’s commitment to certain players and his equal commitment to keep other players away from the team or even the squad. Friday’s press conference brought questions regarding the status of Jack Colback – who Benitez has seemingly permanently relegated to the under-23’s until he should land himself a new club. By making the rather amusing claim that ‘Mbemba can play there too’, Benitez made it clear that Colback has absolutely no future at Newcastle.

There will be few that are too disappointed with this. Who knows exactly what happened between the two of them – but Benitez has once again revealed himself to be tough, hard, and committed to his positions. No bad thing, if you ask me. But it’s still striking to think that Colback’s was one of Newcastle’s star performers in his debut season. But somewhere down the line, he transitioned from a tough, hard-working central midfielder to a ponderous ambler with a penchant for giving away needless fouls. I always find it sad to see someone’s career turn like that – knowing that they have (or perhaps used to) have the talent to cut it, and now find themselves deprived of it. On a human level – one can surely have some sympathy with JC.

Mitrovic is another one (perhaps unsurprisingly) who continues to be frozen out. One can understand the fans frustration given that Joselu has proven to be no better than average – but one can also understand Benitez’s position on this. Sure, Mitro has a goal in him. But one must also risk: a red card, failure to defend from the front; lack of discipline when defending corners; general lack of mobility; general lack of footballing nous outside of the box. To Benitez – it doesn’t seem worth the risk. It is, of course, frustrating to us fans – knowing there is someone in the squad who is clearly more proficient in front of goal than the guy on the pitch – but we have to remember that we only sit in 9th because Benitez has designed a team. Given our comparative lack of talent; we can’t afford to carry anyone.

And this brings me to my major point of frustration for the week: the reaction to the Burnley loss. I think it’s worth considering this simple fact: with this squad we would safely be in the bottom three without Rafa. I feel pretty confident saying that. Our squad is incredibly weak – and it is only be making us incredibly organised and incredibly difficult to beat that we have enjoyed any success this season.

What does that mean? Until January when hopefully we are in post-takeover euphoria and able to improve the squad – we are going to have to deal with the fact that we will always set up negatively – with a clean sheet first on the agenda. When you set up that way, it of course makes it difficult to get into third and fourth gear, play nice, attractive football, largely because you have spent most of the game grafting, tackling and doing ‘the dirty side’. As we all know, this is how Rafa wants us to be, and to my mind I’m not sure what other option we have when we clearly do not have the personnel to play anybody off the park.

This means, as fans, we really have to start exercising more patience. We are going to lose games against opponents previous assumed to be inferior. They are no longer inferior. We are a promoted side trying to cut it in the big league. Not only that, we are promoted side starved of significant investment trying to cut it in the big league. We need to start enjoying the fact that we are back in the PL, with a world class manager, who has somehow made us competitive. Until bluer and richer skies arrive (and they are coming) we should all take solace in the mediocrity.