Or in other words, stop playing long balls. Right now it seems that Newcastle have two approaches to starting attacks: to give the ball to Tiote, who will play short balls around with his defensive team-mates until someone tries to give it to a full-back who is either marked or not where he should be, or to let Mike Williamson hit long balls up the pitch. Not only do those long balls limit how Emanual Riviere can operate - since he is more often than not the target - it also means that players who are most confident with the ball at their feet - Cabella, Sissoko, Gouffran - are left out to pasture. If Riviere wins the ball, they can then pick the ball up from him, but by then the defence has usually stepped up to stop the runners having space. So the answer is to try and launch attacks quicker on the floor, and to encourage Cabella to drop deeper from his attacking midfield role to pick the ball up and turn and run. Yes, he's likely to be frustrating at times, but he is still the most successful dribbler at the club, and his incisive play when it actually works is the key to playing expansive attacking football. Which other issues do you think Alan Pardew needs to address ahead of the Swansea game?
