Rafa Benitez is renowned as a details man, someone who views a football team as a system
into which players must fit, aided by thorough preparation and detailed instruction.
This season, his Newcastle side have recorded three
wins so far, as well as a creditable draw against Liverpool, from seven games played.
Newcastle have been more regular in their formation than many league sides so far, sticking
to a 4-2-3-1.
The main stylistic change has been whether the creative Jonjo Shelvey or the
more combative Isaac Hayden has played alongside metronomic passer Mikel Merino in
central midfield; otherwise, the Magpies are, injuries notwithstanding, a fairly settled
side.
Defensively, Newcastle’s 4-2-3-1 sits back into a 4-5-1 when in a low block.
They defend aggressively in the low block, hassling and
occasionally fouling the man in possession, but
they don’t press assertively otherwise.
Newcastle’s attack focusses largely around two outstanding players, Matt Ritchie and
Ayoze Perez . Generally, Merino and Hayden or Shelvey
are tasked with winning back possession in the middle of the pitch and then releasing
the front four, of whom Ritchie and Perez are the
most dangerous.
The aim is to transition the ball with speed and verticality, with long flat
passes through the centre or out wide.
Perez sits in the hole but certainly gets forwards of preferred striker Joselu as well.
He also drifts left and right, which have different
explanations tactically.
Christian Atsu , a tricky, quick winger with good dribbling skills, likes to
come deep to get the ball to then have the space to
run into, and the left full-back generally puhses up less.
This creates space for Perez to move into and then play quick interchanges with
Atsu, either to feed him for an overlap or drift
even wider as the Ghanaian winger cuts inside.
On the right, Ritchie, who is left-footed with a stinging long range shot, loves to
cut inside.
Perez’s movement here, often deeper than it is on the left, creates room for Ritchie’s
shooting angle by drawing a centre-back with him as he runs across.
It also allows Newcastle to overload the right half-space, much as Spurs do in the left half-
space, creating opportunities for quick give and go’s.
Joselu or Dwight Gayle , who seems to define workmanlike but weighed in significantly for
the Magpies in the Championship and is a willing runner, are there to pressure opposition
centre-backs and play on the shoulder for the long, raking through-balls that Newcastle
try to play.
Newcastle like to try to play with width, maximising the potential for Ritchie and Atsu
to cause problems, and so the centre-backs and
midfield axis are often quite stretched horizontally across the pitch while the full-backs
push high.
This is especially the case on the right, where DeAndre Yedlin or Javier Manquillo
have greater licence to push up behind Ritchie’s inside runs.
While Ciaran Clark, the left centre-back pushes up somewhat to act as a ball-playing
defender, Jamaal Lascelles hangs back to try to ensure that Newcastle aren’t caught out
on the break.
Nonetheless, Newcastle are vulnerable to teams who attack at pace through the
half-spaces, as their wide disposition sees those channels quite open, and while Atsu
and Ritchie do get back, their efforts at tackling
quite often result in the concession of fouls.
Their aggressive wing play also puts a serious emphasis on the defensive covering work of
the midfield two, almost certainly the reason why Hayden has largely been preferred to the
more creative Shelvey, and why Merino, in particular, has stood out with his tidy passing
and high work-rate.
Newcastle look like a strong side, though.
While much of their game seems predicated on
countering with pace and through long passes, which is partly why they’ve averaged only
42% possession this season with 71% passing accuracy, their quality out wide and in the
ten role means they can attack well and pose opposition
teams difficult questions.
Benitez has worked well with a largely unchanged squad
from the one that won promotion and Newcastle already look good enough to stay
the course this term.