Break is a chance to get season back on right track

EVEN a few days on from Sunday's Tyne-Wear derby defeat to Sunderland, it is very hard to cling to any positives for Newcastle United.

- By SEAN MCCORMICK

The Magpies were out-thought, outfought and deserved losers against their biggest rivals for the second time this season, and it has left their campaign in serious need of repair, with just seven games left to claw back the four-point deficit between themselves and the European places.

The mitigating factors behind Newcastle's stuttering league form are plentiful. They have played 51 games this season so far, more than any other club in European football’s major leagues, and have had a relentless schedule of a game every three or four days between September and March.

That has offered Eddie Howe very little time on the training ground to improve players and plan effectively for games - something he could rely on last season when Newcastle qualified for the Champions League and won the Carabao Cup.

The club's handling of the Alexander Isak saga saw them only replace the Swedish international forward with two new strikers - Nick Woltemade and Yoane Wissa - on the final weekend of the summer transfer window.