Newcastle United face a long trip to the Carrow Road in their next outing in the Sky Bet Championship 2016-17 with their motto of holding on to their top spot. The Toons have accumulated 65 points from 30 outings ever since their downfall to the second tier, implying that they haven’t suffered from the detrimental effects of demotion. They have been hungrier, wanting and have eradicated their complacencies in order to ensure that they crawl back to the Premier League.
Rafael Benitez’s outfit had the last laugh, courtesy of considerable firepower in their ranks, in the earlier fixture against the Canaries at St. James’ Park. It was a seven-goal thriller, and despite being 1-3 down, a sensational comeback was recorded by Newcastle United to humiliate Alex Neil’s men. Nonetheless, the home side for the upcoming fixture have consolidated themselves and with a thumping 5-1 victory against Nottingham Forest, they are all set to challenge for the playoff berth.
The Magpies do have a massive task ahead of them as they go into the game as the firm favourites. Benitez is seemingly a man with a purpose to reclaim his employer’s stature of a respected side amongst the football fraternity and would try to take another step towards getting the direct ticket to the top tier and here are three key things they need to build the game upon to ensure that no upset happens this time around as well.
The Need Of Two Ps
When Newcastle United defeated a struggling Wolverhampton Wanderers side last weekend, there was a sense of instability in the proceedings. For a major chunk during the clash, the Magpies were overambitious and overoptimistic in their knack to bang spectacular goals and thus, gave away possession way too easily. Against a far better side in the shape of Norwich City, such loopholes can come back to haunt you and thus, they must keep the possession, steady their ship and bring the perfect blend of possession and passing to firm their grip while chalking out their offensive game plan.
Cage The Canaries
Neil’s troops have garnered a whooping goal tally of 55 goals (including 34 goals in 15 games at the Carrow Road) and no wonder why they would look to rattle the cages of Newcastle United. Nonetheless, Benitez should opt for proactive measures of making his players relentlessly press Norwich City very hard and establish loose ends between their attack and the rest of their setup and force them to commit errors which would allow Newcastle United to make use of the chances.
Aid The Attackers
The likes of Matt Ritchie, Yoan Gouffran and Isaac Hayden should be the intermediate players to carry the ball forward to Dwight Gayle or Aleksandar Mitrovic up front to do the damage. There wasn’t must to feed off in their last outing as they remained aloof of any substantial support from the orchestrators. In the same fixture last season, Mitrovic buried two chances and will look to add to his goals tally. It would be a stiff test for Newcastle United, but should they do the basics right, a win shouldn’t be elusive.
