Some surprising news today that Chris Hughton may revert back to a 4-5-1 formation for the game this afternoon against Fulham.

Chris Hughton – could switch back to 4-5-1

We suppose one reason that Blackburn seemed so successful in their approach on Wednesday was that they flooded the midfield, and Chris may think that’s exactly what Fulham will do today, and he may want to combat that with more players in midfield.

4-5-1 is not as defensive as it looks, and lots of  top teams, like Man United and Arsenal,  regularly play in this formation.

Newcastle have done their best work this season in games against better sides, and usually away from home, so Fulham at home is not one of those games, and Chris seems desperate to start to pick up some points at St. James’ Park.

This is what Chris said today:

“Home form is something we need to address. We need to make sure we get the right formula because teams are coming here and making it very difficult for us with formations,”

“We spoke about that before the Sunderland game and managed to get a wonderful result but that was a different kind of game.”

“Usually the onus will be very much on us to break teams down – that’s been the trend of games at home. Now it’s for us to get the right formula to break that down.”

“Whether that means getting a scrappy 1-0 at home to get the points then if it has to be that way then it has to be that way.”

No matter what formation Chris plays today, he will need to replace Joey Barton out on the right wing, and it looks like Shola Ameobi could well be rested today,  to recover from his slight thigh injury.

Danny Guthrie or Wayne Routledge are the two obvious candidates to play out on the right wing, with Ryan Taylor being injured right now, although he may even bring Alan Smith in, although Smith never played well out on the wing when he was played there by Sam Allardyce back in late 2007.

We had thought with the Sunderland win, that the lads could go on and win both home games against Blackburn and Fulham, but that was not to be, but it’s now a challenge for the manager to get the players to play at their best at home, as well as on the road.

Chris continued:

“It’s a very demanding division and what we’ve found is that there’s no massive security of playing at home.”

“Going back to last season we were strong enough to win a lot of games there were a lot of teams who came here and played very well.”

“For what’s been a negative in some home games we’ve had some really good positives away form home and we just need to get that right formula.”

It could even be a good idea to start out with a 4-5-1 formation today, and see how it goes, and assume we will not be one down after just 3 minutes.

With some strikers on the bench,  Chris could always change things around as the game progresses,  to get the win we really need today.

What do you think?

Comments always welcome.