What this really told us about Newcastle United ahead of the new season | OneFootball

Newcastle United started their pre-season friendly schedule on Saturday.

A lot has been said since that match in Glasgow but what did it really tell us?

Losing 4-0 is never a good thing but it was just a friendly and there were mitigating factors.

The overall play from Newcastle United was still kind of ok generally, it was more a case of lack of penetration and quality/inspiration when getting to the Celtic penalty area, then mistakes and poor marking when the opposition got near the NUFC box. Plus it was more a 2-0 kind of game/defeat.

We also of course had the more than obvious stand out factor, Celtic playing their fifth friendly of pre-season in front of fans as they prepare for their new league season the weekend after next. Whilst United are a month away from their new league season, it was their first of six friendlies in front of fans scheduled before the proper stuff.

I wanted to have a look beyond the basics of this friendly, look beyond the basic result and those obvious mitigating factors that had out Newcastle United at an obvious disadvantage.

These are the players that were in the matchday squad on Saturday…

Newcastle team v Celtic that started first half:

Pope, Trippier, Schar, Botman, Targett, Bruno, Willock, Miley, Barnes, Jacob Murphy, Osula

Newcastle team v Celtic that started second half:

Dubravka, Krafth, Lascelles, Burn, Alex Murphy, Tonali, Miley, White, Gordon, Elanga, Osula (On 75 minutes Hernes and Neave replaced Miley and Osula)

Unused Subs:

Ruddy, Ashby, Munda

My thoughts

These are, in my opinion, the eleven best outfield Newcastle United players in the current squad:

Livramento, Schar, Botman/Burn, Hall, Bruno, Joelinton, Tonali, Gordon, Elanga, Isak

When you then look at who turned out on Saturday, Eddie Howe had four of those eleven unavailable – Isak, Hall, Livramento and Joelinton.

Eddie Howe split the other six/seven of what I consider the strongest ten outfield players, with Schar, Botman and Bruno playing the first 45, whilst Burn, Tonali, Elanga and Gordon played the second 45.

If this had been Newcastle United fifth pre-season friendly and the players pretty much up to full fitness levels like Celtic’s were, then like them Eddie Howe could have played his first choice team for an hour or more, as Celtic did. They made ten changes after the hour mark.

If the season was just around the corner and hopefully everybody available, then I think a very different story against Celtic if Eddie Howe had started with a team of Pope, Tino, (two of Schar, Botman, Burn), Hall, Brono, Tonali, Joelinton, Gordon, Elanga, Isak.

Maybe you can guess where I am heading with this…

Bottom line, I don’t have any real worries about the Newcastle United first eleven.

Especially when we add the new right-sided central defender which I am confident Eddie Howe and NUFC will in the coming days/weeks.

However…what Saturday massively made clear, as we all knew surely already, is that when playing this kind of exercise in a friendly match of two separate teams for 45 minutes each, it cruelly exposes the squad strength. Or rather, the lack of it.

I think Anthony Elanga is a great signing and for sure means that the first choice eleven is now stronger, with all due respect to Jacob Murphy who is still very much an important player for Eddie Howe.

However, the fact is that these past 12 months Newcastle United have seen Elliot Anderson, Yankuba Minteh, Lloyd Kelly, Miguel Almiron, Callum Wilson and Sean Longstaff all leave NUFC.

We are still waiting this summer for the better players who with Anthony Elanga will give Eddie Howe a strong looking squad, good enough to compete both in the Champions League and domestically.

I am not going to name names BUT of the 25 players in the Newcastle United matchday squad, there are at least 10+ players where if they were in a starting eleven in a competitive NUFC match next season, I would see it as a far too big a drop in ability to be able to rely on them.

Again, without naming names, some of these 25 players have no future at Newcastle United, even as first team squad players. Whilst you have others who can maybe come in and do a job off the bench at times to see a game out, maybe at a push start the odd domestic cup match. However…they aren’t really good enough.

Some of these players I am referring to are ones that other Newcastle United fans might say ‘he never lets us down’ , ‘he always does a job’, ‘he always gives 100 per cent’….

What I would say is that in reality these players might well give 100 per cent but the ‘job’ they do isn’t good enough and whilst they will try their very best, our first team is ‘let down’ if Eddie Howe has no other option but to play some of these fringe players.

The reality is that these fringe players have gone UP the pecking order with Anderson, Minteh, Kelly, Almiron, Wilson and Longstaff having left. Whereas the truth is NUFC desperately needed these fringe players going DOWN the pecking order (or indeed, heading out of the club altogether) as another four or five signings joined Anthony Elanga as summer 2025 signings.

Still time to get this done of course but with now less than four weeks until the new season and six weeks exactly until the transfer window closes (Monday 1 September), action is needed.