IF there was one thing you would have expected from Newcastle United, after spending £22m on two forward players at the start of the summer, it would be goals. Now, after the first two matches in the Championship, Rafael Benitez must be wondering where they will come from.

Defeats to Fulham and Huddersfield Town are not what anyone on Tyneside had expected after an exciting pre-season which made supporters more optimistic about the future, highlighted by a sell-out 52,000-plus crowd for the visit of the Terriers.

What Benitez and everyone else connected with the club have realised quickly is that Newcastle are not certain of anything this season. Life in the Championship could take some adjusting to and the Champions League-winning manager needs to come up with some answers.

For whatever reason, Newcastle are playing with a system that doesn’t suit the players Benitez is fielding. Aleksandar Mitrovic’s suspension – he still has a further two games to serve – and the uncertainty surrounding Moussa Sissoko’s future doesn’t help, but it is still hard to believe there have been no points and just one goal from two games.

As a lone striker Dwight Gayle, the £10m buy from Crystal Palace, is struggling to hold the ball up and has been starved of chances, while there will be no balance to the team while little midfielder Vurnon Anita is being asked to play on the wing.

It is only when Matt Ritchie, who was rested in the first half as a precaution after being unable to train last week, has been involved that Newcastle have looked more threatening, but Benitez could do with that sort of option on the opposite flank too.

Huddersfield goalkeeper Danny Ward was not tested anywhere near as much as he would have expected on his trip to Tyneside, and even when Gayle did find the net it was a headed rebound from his own missed penalty just after the hour.

“You just have to look at the players in our forward areas and they are proven to score goals. I don’t think that’s necessarily going to be an issue,” said Newcastle midfielder Isaac Hayden, who did link well with Jonjo Shelvey in the first half.

“It’s just about creating more chances, getting into more dangerous areas. Maybe we have to work out the team’s weaknesses and try to work on those a bit more. We got it wide a lot more second half, got the ball into the box and caused more problems. We need to look at things with a bit more perspective.”

That is what Benitez plans to do, although he does not have much time to dissect the problems because Reading are at St James’ Park on Wednesday before the trip to Bristol City on Saturday follows.

Not even the introduction of Mohamed Diame, the £4.5m signing from Hull, in behind Gayle had the desired effect. Diame hardly made an impact going forward, other than to flick the ball up on to Mark Hudson’s arm to earn the penalty for Gayle to score from.

Newcastle are in dire need of greater creativity, which is why Benitez is looking at players like Sheffield Wednesday’s Fernando Forestieri and Brighton’s Anthony Knockaert, two players who will not be easy to prise away from Hillsborough or the Amex.

It would be wrong, though, to purely point the finger at the team’s forward play alone.

Newcastle have lost both games because of defensive errors too.

After Matt Smith was allowed the freedom of the penalty area at Craven Cottage eight days earlier, captain Jamaal Lascelles was slow to react to prevent Nahki Wells from applying the low finish to Rajiv van la Parra’s low delivery on the stroke of half-time at St James’ Park.

When Newcastle pushed on in the second half looking for a winner after Gayle’s equaliser, Huddersfield’s effective counter-attack cut the black and white defensive ranks open too easily.

Kasey Palmer rolled the ball to fellow substitute Jack Payne with eight minutes to go and he took a touch before finding the bottom corner of Matz Sels’ net when Lascelles and Chancel Mbemba failed to get close to their men.

Hayden said: “It is frustrating. On the pitch we have a few things we need to iron out. We sound like a broken record after last week.

“It was like their cup final, they defended resolutely and made it difficult for us. That is what we will face this season and it is about us finding the solutions.”