Newcastle United PREDICTED XI (And Score) Vs Swansea

6. Midfield-Pivot - Jack Colback (Southampton Rating - 6)

The double-pivot will be up against Jonjo Shelvey and either Ki Sung-yeung (who is suffering from a hamstring injury) or Jack Cork. Shelvey's performance against Chelsea was fantastic and proved that he can compete against the best holding-midfielders in the world, consistently troubling Nemanja Matic throughout the game. Gylfi Sigurdsson will also be a nuisance for Newcastle's holding-midfielders who will have to keep an eye on the Icelandic international's ghosting runs and accurate through-balls. Jack Colback was solid in midfield but his partnership with Vurnon Anita (if it is to be a regular occurrence) needs to be perfected. Like Fabricio Coloccini and Chancel Mbemba, the double-pivot needs to be more structured with each player knowing who they are marking. Too often against Southampton, Sadio Mane and Dusan Tadic found it easy to get in behind the midfield and create chances for the attackers. Swansea represent the same talent across midfield and will punish the Magpies if they're not positionally aware.

7. Midfield-Pivot - Vurnon Anita (Southampton Rating - 6)

Vurnon Anita has trained this week despite being stretchered off after 60 minutes during the Magpies€™ clash against Southampton on the opening day of the season. Speaking to NUFCTV assistant coach, Paul Simpson said:

€œHe€™s had a little bit of grief about that, because it€™s been a proper miraculous recovery - stretchered off on Sunday and fit to train on Wednesday.

€œBut it was a real concern at the time because he took a real heavy, awkward landing in his fall. I€™m going to have to give credit to the medical team - they€™ve laid their magic hands on him and he€™s made a really good recovery.

€œHe joined in training (on Wednesday), hopefully there€™ll be no reaction from that, and we€™ll have a clean bill of health going into the Swansea fixture.€

Anita's substitution has been widely regarded as the turning point of the Southampton fixture as the Magpies became overrun in midfield after he departed and the Saints managed to grab an equaliser. If the 26-year-old is deemed unfit to play then Cheick Tiote will be the most likely replacement although given his level of performance at the weekend, Steve McClaren could consider a tactical switch and play Georginio Wijnaldum as the pivot and bring Siem de Jong or Ayoze Perez into the No 10 role.