Midfield
It was clearly evident how ineffective Newcastle’s midfield becomes when they miss the right recipes.
The first team players, Gouffran, Ritchie, Shelvey, and Colback have often brought many positive results for the Magpies and when Gouffran and Colback did not feature alongside Shelvey and Ritchie against Rovers, very little chances were seen converted into threats.
Isaac Hayden and Christian Atsu have been flamboyant on occasions but they are yet to be regular starters.
Matt Ritchie and Jack Colback, on the other hand, have been regular goal scorers in Newcastle’s League Cup campaign and we expect Benitez to start with the same four in the midfield.
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Attack
Mohamed Diame has been an instrumental player for Newcastle this season and the former Hull City player is expected to start in the number 10 position behind the striker.
Benitez has often been seen rotating his front two so far and since Aleksandar Mitrovic and Ayoze Perez started against Blackburn, we expect Dwight Gayle to start with Diame as forwards.
