Mitrovic will have to wait

If you move somewhere for £12m, you can generally assume that you’ll go straight into the first team. However, after missing the majority of pre-season and watching from the substitutes’ bench as Papiss Cisse made a goalscoring start to the season last weekend, Aleksandar Mitrovic will have to be patient.

There’s every chance Steve McClaren will name an unchanged starting line-up for today’s game at Swansea, which will mean Mitrovic remaining on the bench for the second game in succession.

The Northern Echo:

That’s only fair, as Cisse deserves to retain his spot after producing one of his liveliest performances for quite a while last weekend.

The Senegal international has endured a mixed last couple of years, and it had looked like there was every chance of him leaving Tyneside earlier in the summer. That is now unlikely, and if McClaren can channel his energies successfully, he remains one of the most effective finishers in the Premier League.

 

A pressing matter

When he assessed his side’s performances from last season, one of the major weaknesses McClaren identified was the haphazard and disorganised manner in which Newcastle’s players pressed their opponents when they were not in possession of the ball.

That has to improve this term, but it was difficult to measure the effectiveness of McClaren’s work in last weekend’s opening game against Southampton as Newcastle’s players enjoyed plenty of possession and were quick to get on the front foot and take the game to the Saints.

Things will be different this afternoon. Swansea are a side who like to dominate the possession statistics, and as the away team at the Liberty Stadium, Newcastle’s players will have to accept there are likely to be lengthy periods when they do not have the ball.

Will they press early and diligently, in an attempt to contain Swansea in less threatening areas of the field? Or will last season’s weaknesses reappear, leaving the Magpies’ back four dangerously exposed?

The Northern Echo:

 

A glimpse of what might have been

Swansea’s attack for today’s game is likely to feature Bafetimbi Gomis and Andre Ayew – both players who have been closely monitored by Newcastle’s recruitment set-up in the last couple of years.

Gomis was extensively linked with Newcastle throughout the majority of his time at Lyon, and the Magpies were offered the chance to sign the 30-year-old on a free transfer last summer. However, his age and the size of his wages were a problem, and the Magpies focused on signing Remy Cabella instead, enabling Swansea to land Gomis.

The Northern Echo:

Newcastle officials also spoke to Ayew, another player who eventually moved as a free agent, towards the end of last season, and there was even talk of the Ghanaian being offered a four-year deal. Talks collapsed though, and Ayew moved to South Wales in June.