Newcastle United: 8 Best Players Of The Season So Far

3. Cheick Tiote

For some, the Ivorian represents everything that is wrong about Alan Pardew's approach to football - he is a reductive player, an enforcer designed to "get amongst" the opposition and unsettle them, and win the ball back, with a side of aggression thrown in. In that role alone, he doesn't need to be technical nor able to pass or to have an eye for starting moves, which is exactly the kind of defensive midfielder those fans want. But full credit to the player, he has been good at his job in the games that Newcastle have scored in (the others he was mostly poor, which says something in itself). When he stops trying to play too many short, triangle passes around in front of the defence to boost the possession stats, Tiote has proved himself able to get forward, to pass longer (but on the floor) and to help build attacks from deep. And it helps his cause that he's been one of the more consistent performers throughout the first quarter of the season too.