Newcastle: 6 Signs Pardew Actually HAS Changed Philosophy

3. Natural Width

At the start of the season, Newcastle were playing Yoan Gouffran as a wide forward, despite the fact that he has been nullified as a threat for the past year or so by being asked to track back too much. He is not a winger at the best of times, and unfortunately he has been so badly out of form that his continued selection looked like nothing short of a mistake by Alan Pardew. But since he was dropped from the team, Pardew has used Sammy Ameobi, Rolando Aarons and Gabriel Obertan - albeit until his injury - with Remy Cabella growing more into a wide player. He's also used the full-backs more effectively, by playing Massadio Haidara in place of Paul Dummett - a wide man replacing a centrally trained one. With the pace they have in the team, Newcastle need to be able to break around defences, rather than just relying on Sissoko to punch through them, and having wingers and full-backs who know how to play wide has been a big step forward.