4. Encourage Colback To Play Like Scholes, Rather Than Keane
No doubt Sunderland fans would be falling over themselves to laugh at the suggestion that Colback's likeness to Paul Scholes could go further than the colour of his hair, but the point is that the Geordie midfielder is not a reductive player. For too many games, Pardew has asked him to play deeper than he is clearly comfortable with, and the gap in centre-midfield has been an issue in other teams countering. Colback is not like Roy Keane or Cheick Tiote: he will not go through players and form a brick wall in defensive midfield, preferring instead to look for the ball and to move it on quickly. He is a passing midfielder, rather than just one that breaks down the other team, and limiting him to that Keane-like role serves no purpose. He just ends up looking out of place. But then when he's given the chance to pass the ball a bit more, and unlock defences to link up with our attacking midfielders, the result is the breath-taking pass he threaded through to Sammy Ameobi for Newcastle's first goal.
