It pains us to say this but £40m man must be dropped for certain games this season

After a season where Eddie Howe's Newcastle United team practically picked itself due to the number of players available to him, he now has options.

Last season we knew who was going to play each week as there were only 11 fit first-team players available at any one time it seemed.

However, this season Howe can actually afford to rotate his team a bit, which he has been doing, but he's not really got the balance right yet.

And one big problem with it is that he's persisted with one of our favourite players despite very sub-standard performances.

GQ

We need to talk about our beloved Joelinton

You won't find an office more stacked with Joelinton fans anywhere else in Newcastle, of that I'm sure, but a discussion this morning has thrown up an excellent suggestion that makes perfect sense, as much as it stings.

In games where we are expected to have a lot of the ball, we need to leave the £40 million ex-Hoffenheim man on the bench and go with a middle three of Bruno Guimaraes, Sandro Tonali and Joe Willock or Sean Longstaff.

Joey is our enforcer, he's needed for games like the upcoming Manchester City clash where we're going to be chasing the ball a lot and he can clatter through some players to win possession back.

Eddie Howe needs to drop Joelinton or change the system completely

In games in which we dominate, he's much less suited. He tends to panic with too much time to think. In those games we need him to come off the bench late on to protect what we've got, his box-to-box running while the other side are exhausted can benefit us both on attack and defence.

We honestly feel almost dirty suggesting dropping Big Joe, but it would be for the benefit of the team.

Ideally, as we've already said, Howe would ditch the 4-3-3 and switch to another system, but we can't see it happening. He'll maybe try it once and if it doesn't work right away he'll reset to default because stubbornness is his identity now that the intensity is gone.