Newcastle United enjoyed tremendous success last season, rising from the rubble that had shackled the prestigious Premier League outfit to obscurity for too long, now boasting firepower to rival Europe's big boys.
Securing a top-four finish in the league, manager Eddie Howe had manufactured triumph unseen on Tyneside for an age in his first full year with the club.
Newcastle's past four PL finishes
Season
4th (71 points)
22/23
11th (49 points)
21/22
12th (45 points)
20/21
13th (44 points)
19/20
Stats sourced via Transfermarkt
Yes, Newcastle's PIF takeover has pumped in opulence to rival the most well-to-do institutions across the continent, but Dan Ashworth's work plied on the transfer front has been astute and pinpoint.
Nick Pope, Kieran Trippier and Dan Burn, all signed for less than £15m and the cement of the club's instantaneous resurgence in 2021/22; scant purchases have fallen flat. The result? Champions League football and a cup final (albeit ending in defeat).
Regardless, the Magpies are flying and await an enticing Champions League group phase containing European juggernauts Paris Saint-Germain, Borussia Dortmund and AC Milan.
The city is awash with newfound optimism and glimmering with long-lost ambition, however, the start to the 2023/24 campaign has not been convincing, and Howe now needs to rectify the wobbly start.
How have Newcastle performed this season?
When Newcastle and Aston Villa walked onto the St. James' Park pitch to kick off the new campaign, both teams were buoyed by stunning past seasons; Newcastle clinching Champions League, Unai Emery's Villans bagging a spot in the Europa Conference League.
Howe's side opened their account for the year incisively, producing a scintillating offensive display to put five past Emiliano Martinez, winning the game 5-1 and leaving correspondent Craig Hope remarking at the "simply devastating" performance.
It was a reaffirmation of the new position of strength, and while Villa will put it down to simply a poor day at the office, Newcastle were convinced of a continuation of the lasting purple patch. However…
Fast track to the first international break, and the Toon have fallen to defeat in the following trio of Premier League fixtures against Manchester City, Liverpool and Brighton & Hove Albion.
To say that the club are in crisis mode would be a ludicrous, myopic claim; Newcastle have arguably had the toughest start to any outfit in the division, and it took eight fixtures to claim two league victories last term – and we all know how that went.
What is a concern, and certainly presented a quandary in Hope's eyes as he gave his post-match assessment as Brighton dispatched the travelling Toon through Evan Ferguson's clinical hat-trick, was the lack of fluidity and invention.
Despite a lucrative summer of exciting additions, has the equilibrium been unhinged? Have Newcastle adequately targeted the areas of the pitch most important to the strengthening of the framework and the upgrade of an already cohesive machine?
Sandro Tonali was welcomed to the fold from AC Milan in a £55m deal to send shockwaves of excitement through the Magpies masses, but with the midfield partnership of Guimaraes and the Italy international "not working" at present, as Hope claimed, Howe might be inclined to tinker at his system.
What position does Bruno Guimaraes play?
Signed for £40m from French side Lyon in January 2022, months after Howe's appointment, Guimaraes swiftly cemented himself as the midfield centrepiece of the St. James' Park side.
The 12-cap Brazil star – who had been monitored by Manchester United and PSG before his transfer – has been heralded for his "world-class" quality by teammate Burn, and it's clear to see why.
Having made 61 appearances for Newcastle, scoring ten goals and supplying six assists, the 25-year-old has been immense as a deep-lying playmaker, breaking lines with his positive passing and acting as the metronomic component at the centre of the engine.
As per FBref, £46m-rated Guimaraes ranks among the top 16% of midfielders across Europe's top five leagues over the past year for shot-creating actions and successful take-ons, the top 11% for progressive passes, the top 25% for tackles and the top 21% for assists per 90.
Talent scout Jacek Kulig knows his stuff when assessing the potential of budding stars, proclaiming in 2019 – when playing for Athletico Paranaense in Brazil – that the £120k-per-week ace is a midfield "orchestrator" with strength in "passing, vision, tackling, intelligence, technique, work rate."
Last season, the Magpies' midfield worked seamlessly, with Guimaraes partnered, primarily, with Joelinton and Sean Longstaff, with Joe Willock also in the mix.
It was a fluid, interchangeable system, and Tonali's introduction is supposed to be a continuation of this, but the lack of control and balance across the past three fixtures has illuminated the issue that Howe is presented with.
The Brazilian is a very good footballer, that is unquestionable, but he is not a specialist No. 6 and instead utilises his passing prowess, as mentioned, to craft transitional openings for his attack-minded teammates.
Tonali was signed as a multi-functional partner, but from the evidence of the first few weeks, it's not quite working yet.
What are Newcastle's weaknesses?
That's not to say it won't work. If anything, Newcastle should be galvanised by the success in securing the services of one of Italian football's most talented maestros, with Tonali praised for his "gifted" ability by former Italy manager Roberto Mancini.
The £210k-per-week Tonali is not the defensive midfielder the club still needs, but then, neither is Guimaraes. That's not to say it won't work or that they are not first-rate midfielders, take last season's feats for evidence enough, but it is an issue that still needs attention – one would think, when the time comes, it will be a priority position for Ashworth and co.
Ranking among the top 12% of positional peers for assists per 90, Tonali has played a variety of roles already for Newcastle, connecting and ebbing and flowing from the kernel of the midfield against Villa and City, before playing a too-lateral passing game against Liverpool, seemingly contented with preserving the one-goal lead after Virgil van Dijk's red card.
Against the Seagulls, he pushed further up the pitch, evidently a devised plan to combat the lack of positive energy across the past few matches, with the Athletic actually detailing how the 23-year-old's average position was higher up than right-winger Miguel Almiron.
There is a sense that signing a holding midfielder would offer the club a new way of conducting business, Guimaraes could still operate in a base role, utilising his ball-playing range within a double pivot, while Tonali could play that dynamic role and roam around the midfield.
Sean Longstaff's energy and workrate as a box-to-box presence blended well with the 5 foot 11 Guimaraes' own game last season, with the homegrown talent even praised as his side's "unsung hero" by pundit Paul Merson.
Across the summer transfer window, Howe's outfit were linked with an array of midfielders, with the Times (via West Ham Zone) reporting that Mexican titan Edson Alvarez was on the Magpies' radar prior to his £35m move to West Ham United.
Scores more entered transfer circulation, but ultimately, a transfer never materialised and Howe will now need to work out a strategy to get the very best out his current, immensely talented, crop of players.
Are Newcastle in bother? An overreaction. But with the present international break making way for a return to the Premier League and a St. James' Park encounter with Brentford, Howe might be wise to tinker away at his team and seek to restore the balance. Potentially removing Guimaraes from the fold, who has arguably been off his best this season, could well do that.
Either way, it's crucial that Howe hits the nail on the head.
