Newcastle’s defensive frailties have long been a source of frustration for managers and supporters alike. Last season was no exception; the club flirted with relegation, leaking 63 goals in 38 Premier League games to follow on from 59 and 68 goals conceded in 2013/14 and 2012/13, respectively, under Alan Pardew.
Is Five at the Back the Way Forward for Newcastle?
It’s been seven years (excluding The Championship campaign of 2009/10) since Newcastle let in fewer than 50 goals in a Premier League season – 47 in 2006/07 under Glenn Roeder’s guidance – and 12 years since 40 or fewer were conceded which they last did under Sir Bobby Robson in 2003/04.
Only once, in Premier League history, at least, have Newcastle let in fewer than 40 goals in a top-flight campaign. Unsurprisingly, in 1995/96, during a real tilt at the title when conceding only 37 goals still only represented the League’s fifth best defence, Kevin Keegan’s men had to settle for second place.
Centre-back is an area The Magpies are strengthening this summer and news Chancel Mbemba has signed subject to a work permit is great for fans sick of seeing Tim Krul fish the ball out of the net.
Mbemba joins Jamaal Lascelles, the highly-rated 21-year-old centre-back bought from Nottingham Forest last summer. He made more of an impression last season with Roy Hodgson, who promoted him to train with the full England squad in November, than he did with former boss, Stuart Pearce, at The City Ground.
Many fans would still like to see the addition of a Premier League-experienced centre-back plus Mbemba as, until players — even capped internationals with fantastic reputations abroad like Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa — play in the high-octane pressure cooker of England’s top flight, they are untried and tested at the highest level.
Yet, even if a couple of defensive recruits arrive, could the solution to tightening Newcastle’s defence be a tactical one? Is five at the back the way forward for Newcastle?
The perfect five-man system contains a ball-playing sweeper and Newcastle’s captain, Fabricio Coloccini, is ideal for the role. His advancing years slow him down slightly, yet he still possesses the first class reading of the game, defensive instincts and organisational ability to lead a Premier League defence.
In front of Coloccini should be two centre-backs. Newcastle possess five men capable of playing there now: Mbemba, Lascelles, Steven Taylor, Mike Williamson and Paul Dummett, the latter of which showed last season that he could be more than relied upon in the middle, after keeping a clean sheet at Manchester City.
A three-man central defensive system could help restore the reputation of Fortress St James’ Park, and would take some of the pressure off much-maligned defenders. It would further reduce the possibility of errors in high-pressure home matches in front of 52,000 fans, while giving Newcastle a solid defensive platform away.
It’s a formation which has been used sporadically in the Premier League since its inception, and is more common in the Bundesliga and on the international stage, where Louis Van Gaal enjoyed great success with it with Holland at the World Cup last year. He tried to bring it to the Premier League at the start of last season, yet, like many managers, jettisoned it after a 5-3 reverse at Leicester, whose wingers exposed the flaws in his system.
Perhaps the best ever Premier League proponents of it were the 1994/95 Liverpool side under Roy Evans, whose back three of Neil Ruddock, John Scales and Phil Babb, complemented by wing-backs Rob Jones and Stig Bjørnebye flourished, finishing fourth and winning the League Cup.
Kevin Keegan tried three centre-halves in 1995/96 without success. Philippe Albert was the sweeper who thrived on getting forward, Darren Peacock the defensive rock, and Steve Howey, the go-between equally adept defending or advancing. However, it never quite worked. Special K was forced to abandon the experiment, saying:
“The three centre halves has not worked… Whether it’s the three personnel I’ve got… Maybe the full backs haven’t quite picked the system up, maybe the midfield don’t understand it properly. You mustn’t think it’s just the three centre halves… but that’s one thing I was so sure of, I said to Terry McDermott, the system Liverpool play should really suit us, but it hasn’t.”
Yet, Steve McClaren just might have the perfect person to model the system Louis Van Gaal employed at the World Cup in Holland’s 5-1 rout of Spain. In fact, McClaren’s got some of the same players used at the tournament, including Daryl Janmaat, keeper Tim Krul and midfield man, Georginio Wijnaldum.
Roving wing-backs make the modern 3-5-2; Janmaat was the man on the right side of the Dutch team that day in Brazil, when World Cup holders, Spain, were defeated due, in part, to his blitzkrieg raids down the right. Indeed, it was Janmaat’s forward run and cross in the third place play-off game against hosts, Brazil, that set up Newcastle’s new signing Wijnaldum to score against the Pentacampeãos.
So, in Janmaat, Newcastle already possess the perfect right-side wing back for the system and, in Massadio Haïdara, more renowned for his attacking than defensive skills, they might have a real asset ready and waiting on the left side, with pace and attacking skills of his own with Shane Ferguson also staking a claim.
Steven Taylor is the best defensive centre-back, when fit, at the club, with four clean sheets in his 12 games last season. Paul Dummett is certainly the best defensive left-back in a back four, yet could feature on the left of three centre-backs, with many tipping him to end up as a centre half.
A five-man defensive shield creates scope for endless attacking and midfield options for Newcastle to feed two strikers like Papiss Cissé and Aleksandar Mitrović, or a lone front man, with two wingers and two central midfielders behind in a double pivot. Perhaps this could be with hotshot, Rolando Aarons, in an Arjen Robben role.
More signings are expected from Newcastle, yet already the tactical permutations for the squad have increased. Under an experienced tactical Head Coach like Steve McClaren, whom Phil Neville described as “the best trainer I’ve ever had”, the bold new era of “refreshing ideas” (to quote Mike Williamson) developing off the pitch, with men like Ian Cathro and Steve Black, can be equally bravely applied on it.
NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE, ENGLAND – JULY 1: Head Coach Steve McClaren smiles during the Newcastle United Pre-Season Training session at The Newcastle United Training Centre on July 1, 2015, in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. (Photo by Serena Taylor/Newcastle United via Getty Images)
