The game was quite telling. I do like the fact that we've seen the team play structured dynamic football, so that way we know how the team should constantly look like.
1. Newcastle have been able to call upon both Isak and Wilson as starting strikers this season with great effect. We've had more money to spend over the last few years, yet we can't even call upon one consistent striker this season. That says a lot. We need 2 strikers this summer, because we don't have any functional ones at the moment.
2. Casemiro and Eriksen both being out affects our play. Bruno dropping deeper is clearly not a solution. I applaud him for trying to offer himself as a versatile option, but it takes away the creative aspect of his game when he drops that deep. Casemiro and Eriksen are above 30, we need at least one quality midfielder that can complement Casemiro, maybe 2 midfielders for security. Sabitzer, Mctominay and Fred are worse individually than most midfielders we meet in the league. They struggle at the basic element of providing an option for the defenders in midfield and can't string two passes without their hands being held. Casemiro needs support and as a team we also need to know that we are competent even when he doesn't play. Right now, we can't say that. Not because Casemiro is as fantastic as he is, but because the midfielders covering him are poor at replicating what he does. that cant happen.
3. Sales need to happen. Antony played well today, but we can't be as dead in attack as we are off the right after spending almost 200m on two wingers. Sancho has to go. there's been enough time to review his game. He's not performing close to youngsters we have coming from the academy, I don't see his value. Maguire/Lindelof also have some value too, I also think we might be able to get a bit from Martial and Mctominay too. We need to start maximizing our efficiency in terms of the talent we have available to us. We know how we can look now, so who do we need that can make it happen consistently. Who is indispensable? Are there stars that we ave that are great, but could also be sold with replacements providing better value. That's what we should be looking at. Right now, Varane, Martinez, Shaw, Casemiro and Rashford are our only indispensable players. Someone like Bruno is fantastic, but can also be sold if there is someone as talented on the market that fits better with what we want to do.
