5 Possible Systems Pardew Might Use To Accommodate Newcastle's New Signings

2. That Bloody 3-5-2 He Tries At Least Once Every Season

I'm not sure if he does it for laughs or if it's genuinely got its own page in "Alan Pardew's Big Book Of Tactics", but at least once every 12 months, Newcastle fans are treated to some absolutely dire attempt at playing three at the back. Unlike other seasons though, this might actually be the first time he's got the right personnel to actually do it. On its first outing Shane Ferguson, aged 9, and Sol Campbell, aged 106, starred in a 0-4 thrashing by Stoke. On its last, Dan Gosling started.

There's a little bit more of a balance between the midfielders available now though, and there's a possibility that all four of them could work well together. Tiote deployed to break up the play and move the ball quickly, Sissoko tasked with driving forward and pushing defenders back towards their own goal, De Jong or Cabella given the creative mantle around the box and the license to support the striker, and Colback to... well.. do everything else. Santon and Janmaat also, in theory, make pretty convincing wing-backs, with both capable of bringing the ball forward and joining up with the attacking play.

The main drawback however is the lack of a dependable centre forward who can tie all of this together. Strong, mobile, and capable of dropping wide to draw away defenders and possessing the ability to more or less make something from nothing inside the box, there's nobody even close to this level currently on Newcastle's books. Plus the idea of having Taylor and Williamson in the same team genuinely brings me out in a rash.