7 Decisions McClaren Needs To Make Ahead Of Swansea Clash

3. Should Moussa Sissoko Continue To Play Out Wide?

Alan Pardew experimented with Moussa Sissoko during his time on Tyneside without an enormous deal of success. While Sissoko runs hard, simply put, his distribution has typically been well below the level expected of a French international and it's a surprise he lines up there for his country. That's what made his performance against Southampton quite surprising. Sissoko burned Maya Yoshida for pace and gave Matt Targett a difficult afternoon running in behind but the main difference was his ability to play short, accurate balls in from the right. It seems from McClaren's press conferences that this is his plan for Sissoko - for better or worse - and if his distribution has improved, fair enough. The problem with that is that there have rarely been signs of Sissoko developing into a more technically-complete player. The main selling point for the Magpies No 7 is that he can drive at defences - if he is going into tighter spaces down the channels, this means he is going to have to learn how to cross a football sooner or later and that could prove a struggle. In other words, the question is: can Moussa Sissoko improve his distribution to such an extent that he isn't just running into blind alleys and swinging his leg at it in the vain hope it falls into the box? If so, great, the change will work well; if not, you're turning him into a rich man's Yoan Gouffran. Stick or twist: Twist Sissoko is a good athlete but not a good technician with a football and so to make him have to hit crosses and passes over more than five yards seems like a sure-fire way to surrender possession. With the likes of Rolando Aarons waiting in the wings, it would make more sense to play a natural winger in that position and give Sissoko a more central role, either in the No 10 spot or in a deeper role where he can power forward from deep. This gives him more space to move into and gives him more options for distributing the ball simply.