I’ve seen a lot of comments on social media criticising Newcastle’s interest in Everton’s Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Wolves centre-back Max Kilman and Burnley stopper James Trafford following the free agent arrival of Lloyd Kelly.
It’s important to look at things objectively, rather than how we want to see them. In this piece, I will attempt to break down why these signings might make sense.
Firstly, Newcastle’s lack of squad depth was the reason we suffered badly during our injury crisis. We gave minutes to the likes of Dummett, Ritchie and White, as well as significant minutes to Krafth, Lascelles, Murphy and Dubravka. Although a couple of them did a competent job for us. the reality is that they’re well short of the quality of depth you need to be competing for the top four.
It was in those spells, without key players, where we dropped points, which then led to us missing out on Europe. And hence, the club are taking the required steps to improve our squad depth by targeting the likes of Kelly, Calvert-Lewin and Trafford (Kilman is excellent, he’d be a starter). It seems to me like the club are addressing a clear area of weakness in the squad.
In regards to the players themselves, of course there are higher upside, more exciting versions outside of the Premier League (which in some cases, I’d prefer), but perhaps the club are going risk averse with domestic signings. And given the value of Premier League experience, and the restrictive PSR rules, I don’t blame them.
As for our starting XI – it’s already very good. It was enough to beat pretty much all of the top teams in the league this past season. It’s not perfect though. There’s probably only one, maybe two areas of weakness. Right wing, and arguably right-sided CB too given Schär’s age.
And guess which two positions we’re most heavily linked with starting quality players? Right wing and RCB. We’ve been linked to a whole clutch of top RWs, including Michael Olise.
It’s…
Source link : https://www.nufcblog.co.uk/2024/06/24/the-triple-newcastle-signing-that-could-make-sense-despite-fan-concerns/
Author : Olly Hawkins
Publish date : 2024-06-24 18:35:09
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