A Blessing In Disguise?

With highly rated midfield players commanding fees of £100M-£125M the fee for Nico Gonzalez would suggest he is not in the same bracket as the likes of Tonali and Elliot Anderson.

We'll soon find out.

Midfield Engine Rebuilt

With Tonali and Bruno gone and Jo injured, the three man midfield that was called the best in the PL at one time has been dismantled.

Not only that, but Jaissle has switched to 4-2-3-1 so the engine has not just been dismanted it's been rebuilt and tuned in a completely different way.

Will it add more oomph and drive to a midfield that seemed to be running out of gas last season, especially in the PL where our engine failed to fire in too many games.

Big Midfield Changes Were Needed

The old mantra that games are won and lost in midfield still has legs.

Eddie's high press of the early season's hit the sweet spot as even teams in the bottom half of the table tried to copy the City way of playing out from the back with the keeper spraying the ball around like Beckenbauer.

But, time and again, they were caught out.

There were some farcical errors leading to calamitous goals as leaden footed keepers and defenders tied themselves in knots, fluffed passes and gifted goals.

Newcastle were the team that exploited that to the full, until most managers realised that passing out from the back should be left to City, Arsenal, Real Madrid and Barca.

Tactics changed to long balls down the flanks and low blocks in defence - and whilst Eddie's high press 4-3-3 was still effective in the cups and CL, especially against top teams who continued to play out from the back - in the PL it was increasingly ineffective.

Changes were needed. And we fans knew it.

A Blessing In Disguise?

There are three separate parts to the players we lost this summer.

Trippier: Our club captain and fist shaking general inside and outside of the dressing room.

Gordon: A winger who whilst still effective didn't repeat the form and PL goals of his first full season.

Tonali & Bruno: Two thirds of a midfield that had lost it's 'best in the PL' tag.

Let's focus on Tonali and Bruno, now of course both gone.

Bruno was the big shock and probably the straw the broke the back of Eddie Howe's motivation to rebuild a Newcastle team that he thought was already mostly built.

It shocked fans and left us bewildered and in despair that the dream under PIF had turned into a nightmare.

And then...

Along came dynamic young Jaissle, a manager who relished the challenge of working with our new young signings, a manager who has thrown out 4-3-3, and also played a big part in convincing Nico Gonzalez to join his Toon revolution.

Not only that, but places have now been created for Lewis Miley to strut his stuff in midfield instead of at RB, youngsters Steur and Bamba to stake their claims, and Joe Willock has been rejuvenated when playing in his best position instead of wide left.

Wissa and Elanga are also looking re-born and Harvey Barnes is one player who just keeps doing what he has always done, scoring goals.

We wanted change.

Well, we've got it in spades.

My stance, often repeated on the blog, is that sometimes evolution ie., tinkering around the edges with small changes, needs to be abandoned to solve big problems.

Revolution is often the right way to make big improvements, even if that means casting out systems or personnel that have previously performed well.

A combination of planning - selling Tonali; and disruption - Bruno wanting to leave; has forced revolution in personnel and a new manager has ditched the system of old.

We now have a new General, the 'mini Rodri' Nico Gonzalez, who is likely to have a new batman alongside him in Lewis Miley.

In front we'll have a three including a 10 we never had under Eddie, but what we will keep from Eddie's time is a commitment to a high energy, fast transition, way of playing that we saw lead to two goals against Liverpool.

One Or Two More Signings & Who Knows?

If Gonzalez clicks, and Ross Wilson conjures another couple of quality signings, earlier talk of relegation worries might well be considered ridiculous in hindsight.

City, Chelsea, Man U and Liverpool all have new managers.

Villa have been ransacked of their best players.

Bournemouth, Brighton and that lot down the road are all in Europe with the extra games, fatigue and injuries that can bring.

The average position of from entries in Martoon's Prediction game is 9th.

It's early days to get too carried away...

But all of a sudden qualifying for one of the European spots doesn't seem as impossible as it did three or four short weeks ago.

Instead of worry and doom...

We are now feeling excited and motivated for the season ahead.

And with good reason IMO.

What do you think?

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