FM20 Team Guide & Tactic - Newcastle

Here is a brief FM20 team guide of the Newcastle squad, their club structure, relationship any potential managers will have with the board, expectations and possible tactics any FM manager can use in Football Manager 2020 save.

Here is a brief FM20 team guide of the Newcastle squad, their club structure, relationship any potential managers will have with the board, expectations and possible tactics any FM manager can use.

About the club

Newcastle are a club rich in history. They have spent a staggering 87 seasons in England’s top flight football. However, things are not all rosy for the magpies. There is a lot of growing discord between the fans and the owners regarding the direction that the club is heading into. Rafael Benitez who was successful in bringing stability to the Magpies after their promotion left on his own accord and Newcastle have the highest odds of being relegated from the Premier League.

The board's expectations

The Newcastle board understandably has set the minimum expectations for anyone taking over, they should be;

1. Survival from relegation in the league, mid-table finish.
2. Making the 5th round of the FA cup
3. Making the 4th round of the EFL Carabao Cup

There will not be any specific requirement from the board for which you’ll be judged on. There is no good news from the financial side as the magpies board only offer a shoestring budget to work with.

The club has decent training facilities but a mediocre youth setup. Should you achieve stability with the club, you should definitely concentrate on improving these.

Squad, Formation and Tactical Style

Wing play is one of the tactics that bodes well for the squad you are provided with and my suggestion would be to go with that. Newcastle do not have the players to play any sort of possession based football.

A 5-4-1 formation is what Newcastle deploy in real life and is probably the best setup up you can use in game as well. There is a total shortage of creativity in the squad with crosses & set plays remain as one of the few ways to create chances. You need to ensure that your defence is tight as scoring goals is going to be a hard ask.

A rough example of what your line-up would look like in a 5-4-1 formation is as follows;

• Martin Dubravka as a regular keeper
• Fabian Schar, Jamal Lascelles & Federico Fernandez as your back 3. A tight defence is crucial to your survival in the league.
• DeAndre Yedlin & Jetro Willems as your 2 wingbacks with increased crossing instructions.
• Sean & Matthew Longstaff as your 2 central mids, you can probably deploy Matthew in a box to box role
• Miguel Almiron & Allan Saint Maximin as your 2 wide midfielders. They are few of the creative players in your squad.
• Joelington as the lone striker up front in a target man or Complete forward role.
• If you’re chasing goals you can opt for attacking wingers in place of wide midfielders in a 4-2-2-2 formation, with Atsu replacing a central defender and Dwight Gayle playing as a support striker up front.

Key Players

1. Joelington



Joelington is the club record signing, the Brazilian forward is expected to a physical goal threat and is crucial for the magpies to stay afloat.

2. Miguel Almiron



One of the very few creative players in the squad. The South American can create chances with his direct running and passing vision.

3. Allan Saint Maximin



Maximin is a very direct winger. He can create a lot of trouble for defences with his trickery and quick feet.

4. Fabian Schar



Swiss international who is an accomplished defender. He is very strong aerially and could pose problems from set pieces.

Weaknesses

1. The overall quality outside the first XI is very poor. The team especially lacks any creative or attacking players.
2. With very few options available to play in attacking positions you have to be very rigid with formation and tactics so once team figure you out it could be very difficult to achieve results.
3. With a shoestring budget and no real backing from the owner it is a very hard task to create stability and sustain good results.

Youngsters to keep an eye on

There are a few exciting young prospects in the ranks who have the potential to be very good players in the league. A few examples are;

• Sean Longstaff (CM)
• Matthew Longstaff (CM)
• Yannick Toure (ST)

FM20 Newcastle Team Guide - Summary

To summarise, Newcastle are not a very easy club to start your managerial career in. With so many challenges and the ever increasing quality of competing teams it could be very difficult to achieve desirable results. Are you up for this FM20 challenge?