Elanga injury update shows Newcastle United must try something else on the right-wing
A new revelation about Anthony Elanga’s current injury suggests he won’t be returning to action until December, according to Lee Ryder.
The Swede suffered a hamstring injury at the very end of the Magpies’ Carabao Cup win over Millwall and was initially expected to be out for around 6-8 weeks. But we are now four weeks into that period and Elanga is showing no signs of returning any time soon.
What that means for Newcastle United is that we are stuck with Jacob Murphy on the right-wing for the foreseeable future and, unfortunately, I genuinely don’t believe that is a viable solution while we wait for Elanga to return.
Murphy can’t start all of those games
We all know Murphy hasn’t exactly been up to par since he returned to the starting XI as a permanent fixture, but it was at least defensible to start him when Elanga’s injury wasn’t expected to be too bad.
Now that Elanga is a long-term absentee, I think it’s time that Jaissle starts playing around with other options despite how highly he may think of the 31-year-old.
It’s been pretty clear that we aren’t going to see some magical turnaround in Murphy’s form that returns him to what we saw in the 24/25 season. He seems to have reached a point of decline that may keep him relevant as a squad option this season, but that can’t see him retain anything close to a regular starting spot.
He doesn’t provide the crossing threat to the same extent he once did, he doesn’t have enough pace at this point in his career to carry a prominent threat to Premier League full-backs, and his defensive work also leaves a lot to be desired at times too.
It might sound harsh to say all that, but Newcastle United have to find another solution in my opinion… so what could that be?
The other options
The most plausible options Matthias Jaissle could explore are either moving Harvey Barnes to the right-wing and bringing Bazoumana Toure in on the left, or simply doing a straight swap of Murphy for Toure on the right.
The issue with the first is that Barnes is never quite as productive off the right as he is on the left, with his goalscoring prowess dampened by not being able to come inside onto his favoured right foot.
Toure also poses an issue of his own purely because Jaissle doesn’t really seem to trust him quite yet, meaning putting him on the right is probably a stretch too far, especially if he won’t even give him real minutes on the left.
There is the possibility of promoting a youth player and throwing them in at the deep end, but again, in a team that is still learning, that feels like a risky move. If Jaissle were to choose that route it would probably be Kyran Thompson given the nod, with the winger having already made the bench this season and recently impressing on international duty with England U21s.
But, whilst all of those options are plausible, I actually think it might be the return of Will Osula that would intrigue me the most.
Osula on the right?
Osula coming back opens up a few options for Jaissle.
He could move Fernandez-Pardo out wide, he could probably even put Wissa out there if needed given he was deployed in that role sporadically at Brentford.
But I think the best move would be to use Osula off the right.
There is a discourse among Newcastle fans that Osula would be best used off the right anyway, with his electric pace, ability to beat a man and tremendous work-rate all fitting rather well into Jaissle’s system.
That would also give the front four a rather fluid base to work from, with Osula, Wissa, Fernandez-Pardo and Barnes all being able to rotate and play in different positions across the frontline.
Now, of course, all of the options presented are hypothetical and there isn’t any indication that Jaissle intends to move away from Murphy as his starter.
But if the German is looking for some different personnel while he waits for Elanga to return, I just hope he knows there are plenty of viable options that don’t involve suffering through two more months of Jacob Murphy.
