International Break Stunts Training Progress

The international break might look like an ideal opportunity for Matthias Jaissle to spend two weeks working on Newcastle United’s problems. But it isn't.

Newcastle don’t play again until Saturday 21 November, when Arsenal visit St James’ Park.

That’s a fortnight between matches, which sounds like a welcome chance to work on the training pitch.

The difficulty is that 17 Newcastle players have been called up for international duty.

We aren't losing 17 first team squad members but there are still 10 among this list;

Newcastle’s senior international call-ups are:

• Dan Burn and Lewis Hall — England

• Lukas Horníček — Czechia

• Amar Dedić — Bosnia and Herzegovina

• Malick Thiaw — Germany

• Anthony Elanga — Sweden

• Bazoumana Touré — Ivory Coast

• Yoane Wissa — DR Congo

• Will Osula — Denmark

• 
  

Then there are the younger internationals:

• Sean Steur — Netherlands Under-21s

• Aladji Bamba — France Under-21s

• Alex Murphy and Rory Finneran — Republic of Ireland Under-21s

• Sean Neave — England Under-20s

• Matheos Ferreira — Brazil Under-20s

• Roman Dowell and Kyran Thompson — England Under-18s

  
  

Murphy, Finneran and Neave are already on loan, so they wouldn’t have been part of Jaissle’s Newcastle training group during the break.

That doesn’t mean the break is wasted.

Players staying on Tyneside include Nick Pope, Tino Livramento, Fabian Schär, Sven Botman, Joelinton, Joe Willock, Nico González, Lewis Miley, Jacob Ramsey, Harvey Barnes, Matias Fernández-Pardo and Jacob Murphy.

That is still enough to drill some preparation into those players ahead of the Arsenal game.

Surprising Arsenal Stats

Arsenal will have internationals away too, but Arteta hardly needs the same time as Jaissle on the training pitch with a full squad - he doesn't have a bootload of problems to solve.

He'll come to SJP sitting five points clear at the top of the PL with nine wins, just one defeat and just five goals conceded.

Surprsingly, Arsenal have only scored 15, just two more goals than Newcastle's 13, which proves yet again that not conceding is they key to getting consistent results.

That's why I believe that Jaissle's absolute priority during the break is to look at how he can either shore up 4231 or change the system to make us defensively stronger.

With most fans saying our ST's are weak, and Newcastle conceding on average 1,6 goals per game, the stats say we need two goals or more to win a match.

One thing about the Arsenal game can already be written down before a ball is kicked...

They will have a lot more of that match day ball than we do.

If we are as open and defensively weak as we have been in so many games this season Arsenal's goals for tally may well get a big boost.

A heavy defeat at home on top of the negatives flying around SJP is the last thing Jaissle or us fans need.

And, if Bruno gets on the scoresheet, that will just be rubbing it in hard.

We recently discussed what our biggest issue is, scoring or conceding, in this post:

Newcastle United: Scoring or Defending – What's the Biggest Problem?

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