The new signing who's yet to catch fire, the Dan Burn dilemma, the missing sporting director and the Bruno Guimaraes gripe: My key concerns about Newcastle ahead of two crunch fixtures - CRAIG HOPE

Newcastle United head into two crunch fixtures ahead of the international break with a chance to get their season up and running.

What feels like a must-win trip to Belgian champions Union Saint-Gilloise in the Champions League on Wednesday is followed by a Premier League match of equal magnitude at home to Nottingham Forest on Sunday.

A stuttering start has left Eddie Howe’s side 15th in the Premier League and with questions being asked over how their campaign plays out after a difficult summer.

Here, our chief football reporter Craig Hope outlines his five key concerns for the Magpies…

1. Bruno's inconsistency 

So far this season, Bruno Guimaraes has either been a five out of 10 or nine out of 10. From a captain who plays in midfield, that is not what a team needs, especially one striving for inspiration higher up the pitch. 

The Brazilian will always be a player they can depend on for effort and character, but he is not consistently shaping games in the way he can - and should.

Take Sunday against Arsenal. Guimaraes had 39 touches and felt like a peripheral figure. Compare that to Declan Rice, who had 104 touches and ran the midfield. 

Newcastle, with a 1-0 lead from the 34th minute until the 84th, needed their midfield to control and see out the game. They never had a grip on the contest and Guimaraes could not impose his will over Rice and Martin Zubimendi.

The frustration for Newcastle is that this was the sort of feisty encounter when he does don his superhero’s cape, as he did when scoring in the 3-2 defeat by Liverpool in August. He was Captain Marvel that night, as he is at his best. 

Right now, though, there are too many matches when he does not impact to game-changing effect. History has shown that Guimaraes grows into a season, but Newcastle need one of their best players to stand tall - and fast.

2. Elanga's slow start

For perhaps the fastest player ever to wear black and white, this has been a slow start. Elanga, at £55million, is the third-most expensive signing in the club’s history. He was brought in from Nottingham Forest with a belief he could hit the ground running. 

Save for one electrifying half versus Barcelona, his landing on Tyneside has been heavy and not as fleet-footed as Howe would have hoped.

Elanga was the first right winger signed post-2021 takeover and was supposed to be an upgrade on Jacob Murphy, who was signed in 2017. After two matches, though, Murphy replaced Elanga in the starting XI and still appears ahead of the latter in the pecking order.

All new arrivals need a period of adaption, of course, and Howe was right to point out that the Swede would have recorded an assist had the finishing on the end of some of his deliveries been better. As it stands, he has not created or scored a goal in eight appearances, four of which have been starts.

But Elanga is still learning how to use his speed in a new team, and likewise his team-mates are working out what he wants. At Forest, in a side that ceded possession and played on the break, he was perfect. It needs some work before we can say that about his fit at Newcastle.

3. Big decision on Big Dan Burn

This is a nice problem for Howe to have, but in Burn and Sven Botman he has two outstanding left-sided centre backs, both of whom want and deserve to start in that position. To accommodate both means a compromise.

Against Arsenal, Burn went to left back. Can he perform there? Yes, but his outstanding form at centre back over the past 12 months has deservedly taken him into the England squad. At left back, as we saw against Bukayo Saka, he is at times exposed for a lack of pace. At centre back, his know-how rarely sees him done for toe. Put it this way, he is not an England left back.

One other option is playing three centre backs. However, in a team struggling for goals, removing an attacking player and adding another to an-already solid backline would feel like taking an umbrella to the desert.

And then there is the choice of pairing Botman and Burn together, with the former shifted to the right. They have tried this before and, while Botman is smart enough to adapt, he does look a little awkward and loses a little of what makes him so good. That is why his four starts this season have all come on his favoured side.

This is a dilemma Howe will welcome, but it will not be easy telling one of Burn or Botman they are not first pick for the biggest matches, if this is the call he makes. That’s the life of a manager.

Speaking in Brussels on Tuesday, Howe said: ‘It’s a great problem to have in the sense that you have two outstanding players who bring different qualities but both perform very strongly.

‘It’s great to see Sven back to the form that we know he’s capable of. He is a big player in terms of ball distribution and helping us elevate our game to another level. When he was in his best moment, he was fundamental to our rise two years ago.

‘Dan has just been a giant in every sense for us. His leadership skills are invaluable to us. Dan has played left back a lot. Even though we haven’t started him there in a lot of games this season, he has ended up playing there because of how we’ve pressed or tactically built our game.

‘I am comfortable with all of the options (for Burn and Botman) and I’m sure I will use all of them through the season.’

4. Woltemade worries

The £69m German feels like both the problem and the solution for Newcastle at present. 

And that, it should be said, is not a criticism. He could not have done much more, scoring from the only two chances his new team-mates have created for him. But therein lies the concern, Woltemade does not seem the type to fashion openings on his own - at least not yet - and finds himself in an attacking unit next to under-performing personnel who look spooked by the change at centre forward. 

We mentioned Elanga above because there is focus given the recent price tag, but the form of Harvey Barnes and Anthony Gordon is worthy of equal inspection. Between the four wingers, there is one assist and one goal from eight matches.

‘It’s been a bit stop-start for all of them, there has not been much fluency for any of the four,’ said Howe. ‘We need them firing, in terms of goalscoring and creating. If you play with wingers, as we have done historically, if they are not performing then they hurt the system. That is something we really need to focus on.’ 

Some of Woltemade’s best work has been on halfway with his back to goal - but what Newcastle need more is a striker in the penalty area facing the goal! They need to miss some chances!

The concern is that Woltemade is a very good player but, in the immediacy of what Newcastle require post-Alexander Isak, perhaps not the right player. The transition was meant to be eased by the signing of Yoane Wissa - more like in Isak in style - but he is currently injured and not expected to return until after the international break.

So, as long as Woltemade is fit and scoring - two from three starts - he has to play. He has carried the shirt with personality and deserves huge credit for a pair of clinical finishes. The hope is that this early exposure accelerates his acclimatisation to the Premier League and his new colleagues - and, by extension, them to him.

Supporters, though, are worried that their team looks unlike the one defined by its front-foot intensity, where the playbook was as familiar to those in the stands as it was those on the pitch. Much like Woltemade’s baggy jersey, the fit of Howe’s team feels far less tailored than it once was.

5. The lesser-spotted sporting director

Ross Wilson is expected to arrive from Nottingham Forest in October, and that should mark the end of three months without a sporting director. 

It has been too long and does not reflect well on the running of the club that a position of such importance has been vacant during a key period. It sends the wrong message to those inside and outside Newcastle United.

There are contract issues to be addressed across the squad, including with star player Sandro Tonali. 

Lessons should be learnt by what happened with Isak. His desire to leave was, ironically, in part motivated by the decision of former sporting director, Paul Mitchell, not to give him a new contract.

Newcastle need presence and direction from the top, not just with a new sporting director, but from a Saudi ownership whose communication with supporters continues to be more occasional than accountable.