Newcastle United travel to a buoyant Wolverhampton Wanderers team on Saturday in the last match before the October international break.
Bruno Lage’s side will be riding an emotional wave of positivity after their talisman Raul Jimenez scored his first Premier League goal since returning from a horror head injury.
Steve Bruce’s winless Newcastle will be hoping to capitalise on Wolves’ poor form at home which has seen them fail to score or register a point in the games against Brentford, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur so far this season.
Another end-to-end game awaits?
The Magpies head to Molineux off the back of back-to-back 1-1 draws against Leeds United and Watford.
But after expressing concerns to Bruce’s high-risk, low reward basketball approach prior to the clash against the Hornets, the clash at Vicarage Road was very similar to the game against Marcelo Bielsa’s side.
Both teams had chances to win the game, no more so than Jacob Murphy in the dying stages, but it was yet another roll of the dice performance.
Speaking on Match of the Day after Saturday’s game, Watford’s Joshua King said: “We had more chances and it felt like a basketball game, it was back and forth, back and forth.”
It seems only a matter of time before Newcastle are on the end of a hiding if Bruce continues to adopt an adventurous approach that lacks tactical nous.
If Bruce does go for the jugular at Molineux, then Lage could see it as a perfect opportunity to reinstate speed demon Adama Traore to his starting line-up.
Traore would relish the space Bruce’s side offer on the counter-attack and he could link up with Jimenez to devastating effect.
Lage could also recall Ruben Neves, who if afforded time and space to pick out a pass to the likes of Traore, Jimenez and Hwang Hee-chan could take the game away from Newcastle very quickly.
Bruce needs to be savvier with his tactics and that change has to be implemented urgently at Molineux on Saturday.
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