Newcastle still look for Rondon solution

But the impact of Salomon Rondon during his one season at St James’ Park has clearly been hard to recover from after the Venezuelan headed to China to team up with his former boss Rafa Benitez. Newcastle have badly missed him.

Only now it seems with 28 matches played in this Premier League season, head coach Steve Bruce has resigned himself to have to come up with something different. Had the finishing been better, his first attempt may just have worked.

First and foremost Bruce deserves to be given some leeway given he only took over late in pre-season when the club’s transfer plans had already been decided. Joelinton and Allan Saint-Maximim were recruited just months after Miguel Almiron’s arrival from Major League Soccer.

It is safe to assume the idea was that the club’s new £40m record buy Joelinton could slot straight in and assume the target-man role vacated by Rondon.

That, largely, is why Bruce has spent the majority of the season playing the same sort of system that Benitez stuck to, and it has earned sufficient results to be sitting clear of the relegation zone at this stage – having learned early season lessons in how not to tinker for the sake of it.

Now, with Newcastle in desperate need of a lift after winning just one of their last ten league games and without a goal in six hours, Bruce feels it is time to change. Midfielder Isaac Hayden feels, after a goalless draw with Burnley, the signs were encouraging.

“People don’t understand. They probably think you’re footballers so you can play whatever system the manager wants, but when you have played the same rigid system for over a year, with no games to change it because the manager came in late, he didn’t really have a chance to do a great deal with the squad, it is always difficult,” said Hayden.

“People don’t realise last season the reason why the formation worked so well was because Salomon Rondon was a massive part of that. You could hit the ball 40 yards to his chest and he would knock four players off the ball.

“We don’t have that this season. That’s maybe a reason why things haven’t worked as well in that formation. We have tried to find a formula with different players, playing the same way, and managed to get some good results playing in that way. For whatever it hasn’t worked in the last few weeks, you can see there are positive signs there and to work on for the future.”

In a bid to solve the problem left by Rondon, Bruce surprised everyone by playing Joelinton in left-midfield with Dwight Gayle up front on his own and Almiron was asked to play just behind. Together with Matt Ritchie on the right, that quartet all attacked together when Newcastle had the ball.

“The manager last year wanted to play a certain style of football, a certain way, so he needed a certain type of player,” said Hayden. “It was well coveted he wanted Salomon Rondon and there was a reason for that. Last season the way we played suited him down to a tea.

“We have changed personnel this season, it’s no one’s fault because no player is the same. You have to work out different ways to play, which we have done, Andy Carroll has been fit sometimes and has done that role well, big Joe has played a lot of minutes in that role, for a someone coming from a foreign country with a lot of expectation on him in the Premier League, it can be hard. We have had to share things around more this season.”

Hayden sat deep in midfield alongside the fit-again Jonjo Shelvey, who did more of the forward probing of the two. Shelvey’s eye for a pass and occasional shot contributed to an afternoon in which Newcastle had four shots on target and 17 recorded off. Such statistics alone represent progress, even if they didn’t score.

“We had 21 shots, some were very good chances too,” said Hayden. “Matt Ritchie in the last minute, that deflected chance off the post, that’s what we have worked towards, creating better chances. We have to take those.

“We have played far worse and won games and sent people home happy. Here we played better than we have in recent weeks but not managed to get that win. People will say certain things, we have a certain style of play, unfortunately you get stuck with that a little, you do create more, hit with you a stigma but there is nothing you can do about that. As players we have to just try to improve.”

Newcastle regularly probed the Burnley backline and there were opportunities good enough to score. The best of which was probably at the end when after a breakaway, Shelvey played in Ritchie when it was two on one and the Scotland international got in a muddle and was unable to beat Nick Pope.

The Clarets goalkeeper was asked to make a few saves but nothing of real note, with Ritchie’s deflected first half effort that shaved the post and his thunderbolt from distance that was inches wide as close as they came. Almiron and Gayle also had efforts at Pope.

“People are still frustrated in there that we aren’t scoring, or taking the chances, but the bad thing in recent weeks is that we weren’t creating enough,” said Hayden. “We have created plenty here and haven’t taken them. It is disappointing. But as long as we keep creating chances we will score goals.”

While Newcastle have made a number of new recruits in recent years, Bruce and Benitez have still tended to rely heavily on the likes of Hayden, Ritchie, Jamaal Lascelles to keep things together

That was apparent against Burnley once more, with January recruit Nabil Bentaleb left on the bench in favour of a recall for Shelvey in the middle alongside Hayden - two players who were part of the successful Championship title success two seasons ago.

“It’s a benefit to have us all around,” said Hayden. “Without the core players the club wouldn’t be where it is today, they have been a massive part of this club for four or five years and back to when it was in the Championship.

“Clearly a club will want to bring new players in, better players, but when you do that you can’t say you want to change 11 players, get rid of 11, you need structure, continuity.

“They are not experienced players who are coming in either, they are young who will learn from those who have been and done it and got Newcastle through sticky situations before.

“It is frustrating sometimes for players to hear criticism of their selection, because some of these guys have played more than 100 times for Newcastle. Some of us came to the club in the Championship, still here, finished 13th in the Premier League, so you need to give those players some respect. If everyone wanted to get rid of the old players then you might not have got same result.”

Gayle is one of those too. The former Crystal Palace man was on loan at West Bromwich Albion last season and he would have gone again had a club been willing to match his wages.

Instead he has remained at Newcastle, where Bruce is more than happy to have him around and his tenacity and energy in the final third against Burnley suggested he could well stay in the side now for the trip to Southampton on Saturday.

“If you’d have asked the manager last year if he would have preferred to keep Dwight rather than send him on loan then he would have agreed,” said Hayden. “When he is fully fit and firing, he is a very useful player to have. He might not have scored the Premier League goals he would have wanted in his career, but he is always a threat and hopefully we can keep him fit and pull us up the table.”

Given his injury record this season, Bruce will be faced with a selection poser against West Brom in the FA Cup tomorrow night. Saint-Maximim, introduced from the bench against Burnley in the closing stages, has also been struggling with a hamstring problem.

Hayden said: “I hope the FA Cup can given everyone a lift.”