Newcastle United face Premier League leaders Chelsea this weekend.
The Magpies will once again go in search of their first victory of the season.
It is the club’s second game in a post-Steve Bruce world.
Last weekend saw Graeme Jones take the team against Crystal Palace.
The 51-year-old is managing on an interim basis while the new owners get to work on hiring a permanent successor to Bruce.
This weekend’s game should be the hardest of the season for Newcastle.
Chelsea are flying at the moment. They have scored 23 goals and conceded just three.
Only Liverpool have scored more, and Thomas Tuchel’s team will no doubt smell blood against a side that have conceded the second-highest number of goals in the Premier League so far.
Last weekend against Palace, Jones went with three central defenders.
Two of those were Ciaran Clark and Emil Krafth, either side of captain Jamaal Lascelles.
Selecting this backline against Chelsea is asking for trouble.
Realistically Jones should be electing to start Federico Fernandez and Fabian Schar, two players Bruce overlooked in the final weeks of his tenure.
Schar and Fernandez have to start
Schar has not played for Newcastle since the 2-2 draw at Southampton.
Fernandez hasn’t featured since the 2-1 defeat to Wolves at the start of the month.
Realistically both need to come in alongside Lascelles for this Saturday’s game.
According to The Other 14, Fernandez is blocking the most often out of all non-Big Six players in the league so far with 1.64 per 90.
His ability to throw his body in the way is likely to come in handy against the Blues given the amount of chances they create and shots they have.
And Schar has to come back in as he is a bit more mobile than both Krafth and Clark.
He can also distribute better than anyone, which will be key to Newcastle catching Chelsea on the counter-attack.
More than likely, that’s going to be the game plan against a side packed with quality.
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