Look, easy is boring. Just 40 games in a season across all competitions? Couldn't be Newcastle United!
The game should be 90 minutes long? Not for the Magpies! Give us thirty more. Give us penalties. Give us every senior player available being absolutely knackered (and freezing) by the end of the match only days before they have to play again.
Give us cup hope! That is what this weekend did. And it is hope that might be further compounded against Manchester City this week as we head into another League Cup semi-final.
Today I'm serving hope with a side of 'oh GOD, what next?', because of course last week when I wrote about Fabian Schar's 250th game, I cursed him and he picked up a serious ankle injury in the next match.
On Saturday, Tino Livramento got a hamstring injury. We are now extremely light on the ground defensively.
Luckily there is Lewis Miley, who seems able to play in literally any position and has slotted into defending nicely, but I do worry about our coverage there. Hindsight is always 20/20, but if we are having a mid-season check-in and considering the summer, it does seem like our transfer window was lacking.
It is true that on paper we strengthened the squad, but in practice it looks entirely different. We have got a busy January and now February, with an FA cup fixture in the mix, and we find ourselves back in the position of having to field almost all our senior players for almost all the games. This is untenable – we see that it leads to serious fatigue and, ultimately, opens us up to injuries.
It is a fun time to be a Newcastle fan, with momentum shifting in our favour a bit. I just hope we use the remaining time in this window to buy or loan a defensive option to help us push on across the many competitions we are in.
Find more from Charlotte Robson at the True Faith: Newcastle United Podcast
