OPINION
Newcastle United manager Rafael Benitez should make five changes to the team that drew with Wolverhampton Wanderers for Saturday’s clash with Huddersfield Town.
The Magpies were pegged back late by Nuno Espirito Santo’s team last time out, and with the team having enjoyed some warm weather training since, Benitez should take this opportunity to change things around a bit.
Jamaal Lascelles, DeAndre Yedlin, Isaac Hayden, Christian Atsu and Ayoze Perez all deserve to miss out, with Federico Fernandez, Javier Manquillo, Ki Sung-yueng, Yoshinori Muto and Miguel Almiron coming in for them.
Those five changes give this potential Newcastle side a flair that the Magpies haven’t had for much of this season, and would likely be enough to see Benitez’s team demolish the Terries on Saturday.
Martin Dubravka needs to cut the mistakes out of his game having committed a number of costly errors recently, however, he remains the club’s best goalkeeper and should start again here.
Fabian Schar and Florian Lejeune have been standout players for Newcastle in recent months, and should remain in place on Saturday. Lascelles, though, has been poor of late and Fernandez must come in for him.
Yedlin, like Lascelles, has been sub-par this campaign and Manquillo deserves a chance in his place at right wing back. Matt Ritchie has been terrific and should start again on Saturday.
The club’s two best central midfielders, judging by their performances this campaign, are Sean Longstaff and Ki Sung-yueng, and as such they deserve to man the middle of the field against Huddersfield.
Benitez should then employ a very exciting attacking trio of Almiron, Muto and Salomon Rondon. All three of those players are capable of scoring and creating goals, and would give the Terriers fits at St James’ Park.
