Newcastle United: 6 Things We Learned From Atromitos Draw

3. Obertan Must Have Confidence Ask any Newcastle fan who they think the most frustrating player at the club is and time and time again the ex-Man United player's name will come up, and it is occasionally for good reason. Though he possesses blistering pace and can cross a ball, Obertan seems shackled by a lack of belief in his ability to beat a man, rather than simply knocking it past them and out-running his opponent down the line as he should. This is particularly frustrating when he shows flashes of what he can do, getting to the byline and hitting crosses into the box, because it just doesn't happen enough. And coupled with that, the player seems intent to frustrate even more by misplacing passes and miscontrolling the ball, as he did for the majority of the first half last night. But once he got his head in the game, Obertan started to attack more freely and crucially more confidently, and he looked a different player. His confidence is key, and as it grew last night he grew in stature and ability visibly, it's just frustrating we have to wait for that to happen, and as long as it continues, he will fail to break into the first-team, especially with Hatem Ben Arfa ahead of him. Unfortunately Obertan also suffers when the crowd get on his back, and the notoriously passionate Toon crowd tends to do so quite frequently, even before he has made a mistake, rather unhelpfully. That won't change until he shows he is worth their affections, as James Perch has managed despite an inauspicious start to his career, but it feels very much like Obertan is stuck in a vicious cycle more than Perch ever was.