I just wanted to refer back to last Saturday regarding the 11 Newcastle United players who took to the pitch against the 11 Aston Villa players.

A very uncomfortable first half as the visitors were by far the better team.

United improved after the break and were marginally the better side I thought.

However, the Newcastle United players struggled to get through a Villa defence that looked so solid with a lead to defend.

That lead having been given by Manzambi, ironically a midfielder Newcastle United had been set to sign as one of their top summer targets, only for the player to stall and eventually head to Aston Villa instead.

Looking back at the 1-0 United defeat…

The 11 Newcastle United players who started last Saturday:

Hornicek, Thiaw, Botman, Hall, Lewis Miley, Gonzalez, Willock, Joelinton, Wissa, Barnes, Fernandez-Pardo

The 11 Aston Villa players who started last Saturday:

Suzuki, Cash, Lindelof, Mings, Wan-Bissaka, Kamara, Joao Gomes, Alysson, Manzambi, Buendia, Jackson

This is only a quick piece.

I won’t bore you with any lengthy detail.

Bottom line is, exactly which Newcastle United players would get in a team from the combined 22 that included the 11 Aston Villa players???

There is no doubt Aston Villa deserved to win but I do think a lot of the reaction has been way over the top from the media and many Newcastle United fans.

So many injured players for United and also many who have returned to the matchday squad but not fully fit, as Matthias Jaissle made clear AHEAD of the Villa match.

Joelinton came back into the team to try and give us something extra but he was clearly half-fit still.

My answer would be that based on Saturday, Lewis Hall is the only Newcastle player who would 100% walk into that Villa team.

When combining the 22 players, I would say usually Malick Thiaw would make the best 11 but he wasn’t great on Saturday.

In the near future I would say players such as Hornicek, Gonzalez, Barnes and Wissa are all good enough to compete with those Villa players hopefully. Whilst young players such as MFP clearly need time.

Aston Villa made a slow start to the season (as was the case 12 months ago) but are obviously a good team.

They will climb the Premier League and are second in the Champions League table only on goal difference behind PSG.

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