JOHNGIBSON Toon must strike lucky - or Seagulls will swoop
facebook.com/NewcastleChronicle WHEN all is said and done it comes down to football’s chief currency – goals, and who will score them for Newcastle.
We are approaching half a dozen Premier League matches played and so far United’s leading marksman has one.
Four players have shared the four goals – Joelinton, Fabian Schar, Jonjo Shelvey and Jetro Willems.
Never mind Miggy Almiron and Christian Atsu, the wing-footed chief support up top, it looks as though Newcastle’s main threat is a central defender.
Schar has scored five times in just over a season and he strikes the ball with the sweetness of a forward.
Front trio Joelinton, Almiron and Atsu cost a considerable amount of money to assemble (£77m) but they don’t look better at pulling the trigger than our Swiss international, who has scored for his country too this season.
Maybe the answer will lie with the returning Andy Carroll, who is ready to be benched, though his scoring record over more than eight years since leaving Newcastle has never reached the respectability of double figures - which does not fill us full of hope that a feast awaits.
Joelinton has oodles of potential and promise and he did score the winner at Spurs, of course, but Anfield proved he has an awful long way to go if he wants to emulate Roberto Firmino as he does.
A fellow Brazilian yes, from the same German club Hoffenheim yes, but when it comes to current impact on a game Firmino is on another planet.
Time is very much on Joe’s side, of course, to grow into the real deal – he was only 23 last month while Firmino is 28 next month.
True, both are as adapt at creating as they are at finishing while neither tots up the scoring figures of the likes of Alan Shearer here or Mo Salah at Liverpool.
Firmino only reached double figures once in five Bundesliga seasons and his best PL return at Anfield is 15 in season 2017-18.
Still, let me emphasise Joelinton is a work in progress, while Firmino stands on a pedestal above all but the greats.
Perhaps Jamie Redknapp, once a star footballer himself, has the best advice for our Joe. Budding strikers should study Firmino and learn from him, declares Harry’s little boy, because he is the full package.
Brighton come among us having dispensed with former Magpie Chris Hughton and sent for Graham Potter, a revolutionary young manager with original ideas.
If Steve Bruce has grown through traditional paths – old-school background, not that there is anything wrong with that – then Potter is a different breed and, as such, a gamble.
His longest playing run of games was at York City but his path since has been very unusual.
With support from the Professional Footballers’ Association he graduated from the Open University in December 2005 with a degree in Social Sciences, worked as a football development manager for the University of Hull and as technical director for the Ghana women’s team at the 2007 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Potter then became assistant coach to the England Universities squad before joining Leeds Metropolitan University in a similar role.
While at Leeds he completed a Masters in leadership and emotional intelligence.
Now tell me that is a well-worn path! Swansea gave him his major breakthrough after Potter had joined Ostersund in the fourth tier of Swedish football on the recommendation of a Geordie Graeme Jones, who is now manager of Luton Town.
Brighton nicked him from South Wales and now here we are.
Potter, whose approach to training is different, is also not averse to switching tactical formation during a match – he went from three central defenders to a flat back four midway through Brighton’s last match against Burnley and transformed his team’s fortunes.
Nevertheless, Brighton arrive as possible relegation contenders and are the sort of team United need to beat for the sake of their own survival.
The Magpies are third bottom of the table and no one expects the two teams beneath them to stay there – neither Wolves, last season’s surprise package and European performers, nor Watford now they have a new manager.
Brighton have not tasted victory at home yet and neither have United. That second fact must be changed by tomorrow evening. Bruce, who it appears has won over the players but not as yet the fans, needs a positive result as much as Potter and knows this is his opportunity.
A similar chance was scorned against Watford and they don’t come along often enough to be passed up. Next up are Leicester City away, Manchester United at home and Chelsea away.
It all boils down to who gets the tactics right and who scores the decisive goals. May the answers not be muddied or confused but written crystal clear in big blackand-white letters.