Is this the Newcastle United team to defeat Barcelona?
To take United into the last eight of the Champions League for the first time.
As Eddie Howe has said, this season now pretty much rests on the Champions League campaign.
If Newcastle United get past Barcelona, who knows what could be possible…
It would be either Tottenham or Atletico Madrid in the quarter-finals.
First things first though, what should be the Newcastle United team to take on Barcelona?
Goalkeeper
Ramsdale
Defence
Livramento, Thiaw, Burn, Hall
Midfield
Tonali, Joelinton, Ramsey
Attack
Elanga, Gordon, Barnes
This past week kind of summed up the highs and lows of this season.
That brilliant and dominant, even with ten men, win over third in the Premier League Man U. Then the bright opening 30-35 minutes of the Man City that in the end proved a step too far.
I think there were a lot of other factors tied up in that Manchester City defeat, the NUFC performance.
I believe it was just a game too far, sandwiched in between that Man U match, that United ended up having to play with ten men for so long, and this Barcelona game.
Saturday wasn’t sacrificed by Eddie Howe but he had no other option to give Gordon and Joelinton most of the shift off, whilst Ramsey had an enforced rest. All three of them will be huge players tonight, if/when we win.
Dan Burn was another to have a rest, whilst could Tino Livramento now be able to start after his cameo off the bench?
Either way, we will at last be back to a situation where with Tino, Trippier and Hall we have three full-backs to share the load against Barcelona. Whilst Alex Murphy could also be ok to do a defensive job late on off the bench.
Bruno is of course a huge miss, but at the same time, whilst our captain has an incredible non-stop engine, he isn’t the quickest. Ramsey has really impressed me recently and I think if lining up with Tonali and Joelinton, that is a very mobile trio that can really get about Barcelona in midfield.
With the pace and mobility of Gordon, Elanga and Barnes as well, the midfield and attack can really push on and put Barcelona under pressure, Tino and Hall from full-back as well.
It may of course all go wrong, whatever Newcastle United team Eddie Howe puts out on the pitch.
However, I think this will be a Newcastle United eleven that are capable of causing Barcelona problems and as they say…Get Into Them!