Where do Newcastle United go from here?

Newcastle United went above and beyond all expectations and beat Liverpool 2-0 at St. James’ Park on Sunday. We saw them returned to a level they’ve showed in glimpses earlier in the season, except this time, they held that performance for 90 minutes. It’s a performance that previously held teams like Manchester City at bay for 45 minutes.

It was very encouraging to watch. It wasn’t a great game for the neutral, but it was a spotless match for the NUFC fan. And that is what currently counts.

Perhaps the best part of the match was to view the fight in some of our players initially showed, which later one infected the whole team and also the stadium.

Almost 52K supporters were present, and they wanted to win as bad as the team. We were back to where we should be for a game.

But how do NUFC improve on this?

There’s a saying; If it’s not broken, don’t fix it. However, Newcastle United have been broken for almost the entirety of 2015. Now is the time to go from strength to strength and improve on the areas where we have been lacking.

After this we’ll be on a high, we’ll be confident, we’ll be far more assured going into the next match, and that gives good grounds to make some necessary changes.

Drop Coloccini as captain. He did well on Sunday, but no better than what should be expected of him. Janmaat, Elliot, Colback & De Jong perhaps showed more elements and traits that should be in a captain of Newcastle United. My two most outstanding selections would be De Jong and Janmaat, Janmaat perhaps being a bit ahead in that race. Either way, captaincy can not be retained by Coloccini. McClaren has to understand that.

Keep De Jong in the team. I’d preferably keep him in at the expense of a DM and give Ayoze the go ahead in front of Sissoko. Sissoko took his time growing into the match against LFC. A bit too long. But he came through for us in the second half, though there has been enough of the on/off performances. One win doesn’t change that.

For now, that’s probably the most prominent changes that need to happen. And I think we should take care of that now, no need to wait for it. Make the necessary changes and have the players with the desire to help Newcastle United up the table do the work they want to do.

Will McClaren makes some moves or will he continue with the current crop of players? Time will tell.