Coloccini and Dummett as centre-backs. We would lack height but there's no way I want to see Williamson playing there again. Fair enough he's tall, but he just isn't consistent enough and clearly doesn't read the game well enough to keep up with what's going on at Premier League level. Dummett is young, talented and a local lad, I say we give him as much of a chance as possible, and he looked very good when playing central. He can only benefit and improve when playing alongside Coloccini too. If Steven Taylor was fit I would pick him over Dummett, but he's out for the season and not ideal either.
Janmaat and Haidara for sure. I was very disappointed to see that we had lost Santon but what can you do. Janmaat is the obvious choice, a lot better going forward than he is at defending but that's just the way football is today it seems. Haidara has shown glimpses of real quality and improvement in recent weeks, he's very quick going forward and seems to be very confident. I'm happy with giving him a real run of games for the final part of the season.
Tiote and Sissoko in the middle. Tiote for obvious reasons (especially when playing against the bigger clubs) and Sissoko is much better in the middle than out wide. Sissoko can also track back very efficiently and is strong. Fortunately we have the likes of Colback and Abied we can call up when needed.
Cabella on the left, Obertan on the right. I find it hilarious that I'm actually saying I would pick Obertan, I never thought much of time at all. I actually used to sigh when Pardew brought him on; he was completely useless. But before his injury he was very confident, he was actually using his pace to take players on, and his final ball had improved. If he can play like that, I would take him as first choice any day. Cabella is very tricky with a real burst of pace, he will frighten the life out of a lot of defenders in the league. If we keep playing him he can only improve and he has bags of talent.
de Jong behind the strikers. It's hard to say we've "missed him" when he's barely played for us, but we have. He was a huge signing for us and I was looking forward to seeing him play. He's strong, experienced, tall, good passer and also has a great shot on him. He will add a hell of a lot of experience in the final third.
Perez and Cisse up front. Cisse's decent at holding up the ball and Perez has some of the best close control I've ever seen, along with great skill and pace. I think they will work well together and I'm looking forward to seeing how it works out. Also we don't have any other real options in their positions.
But what I do like about the Newcastle squad is the fact it can be rotated a lot. We have a lot of players who can do a very good job, but aren't in the team I've selected. Ameobi, Colback, Abied and Aarons are the main ones. We can rotate with all of them to keep everyone fresh and help everyone gain experience. Ameobi's a good impact player, Colback's good at breaking up play and hanging onto people who are trying to make things happen, Abied can pick a pass and dictate play and Aarons has a huge amount of pace and has a bright future.