Newcastle United have never been a team to go at it alone or rather focus solely on one individual player so the idea that they could, for so long, play a lone striker up front us purely baffling to say in the least.
This club was once the envy of every other team with the winning ways and entertaining niche but it’s all starting to slowly fade a way as their performances over the years continue to make a plummet into the abyss of boring football.
Strikers come and go but most are known for their all-round qualities on the ball. When you have the odd target-man who is only good for heading and shooting; it’s never a good idea to jump him straight into the lone position.
It is absolutely clear that Aleksandar Mitovic, Ayoze Perez and Papiss Cisse all have their own individual attributes that make them quality strikers but alone they are essentially useless.
Ayoze Perez is fantastic at approaching a ball at lightning speed and can track a through ball with blistering pace due to his keen eye and acceleration but alone his shots on target ratio is a little off.
Aleksandar Mitrovic on the other hand as part of a partnership up front with Ayoze Perez can provide much needed safety amongst those balls which fall away from a miss-directed shot or deflected save.
Then you have Papiss Cisse who like Mitrovic, can tower over many players with his physic but unlike the average height of Aleksandar Mitrovic, Papiss Cisse offers a huge goal-rate conversion from his experience in Germany with Freiburg FC so he is the ultimate goal-scorer when given the proper chances.
With these three options up front (which doesn’t include the various other options just as Seydou Doumbia who also offers pace) there is sure goals to come from Newcastle United if they can change one thing:
The set lone-striker up front.
Clearly a partnership up front such as those suggested could offer much more shots on goals in the last remaining games for Newcastle and then surely in time could save them from relegation if they employ a striker partnership formation.
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