HIS side have failed to score in six of their 11 Premier League matches this season, but it is the opposite end of the field that is causing Newcastle United head coach Steve McClaren the biggest headaches as he prepares for Saturday’s basement battle at Bournemouth.

With goalkeeping duo Tim Krul and Karl Darlow definitely ruled out of the trip to the south coast, and Rob Elliot having gingerly returned to training yesterday in an attempt to prove his fitness following a thigh injury, McClaren faces a difficult choice in arguably the most important position on the field.

Should he play Elliot, even though the Republic of Ireland international is clearly suffering with a long-standing problem? Is Freddie Woodman ready for the first team, even though he only turned 18 in March? Or should McClaren be calling in a favour from one of his fellow Premier League bosses and signing an emergency replacement on loan?

 

PLAY ROB ELLIOT

In the immediate aftermath of last weekend’s goalless draw with Stoke City, it looked as though Elliot would have no chance of lining up against Bournemouth.

McClaren freely admitted he “feared the worst”, and revealed that Elliot had been struggling in the build up to the game with a thigh complaint that initially troubled him at the start of the summer.

The Northern Echo:

THIGH PROBLEM: Rob Elliot

It appears as though the situation has changed, with Elliot having trained yesterday in order to test his thigh muscle and see how it responded to some strenuous stretching. Even if he came through unscathed though, should Newcastle really be heading into one of their biggest games of the season with a goalkeeper who is clearly less than 100 per cent?

There will be a strong temptation to play Elliot because he boasts much more experience than Woodman and is an integral part of the first-team group rather than an outsider parachuted in for just one game. Even though he was struggling last weekend, he still made a crucial second-half save from Jonathan Walters.

He was shaky in the derby defeat to Sunderland though, and in hindsight, perhaps the hesitancy that contributed to Fabricio Coloccini’s dismissal and concession of a penalty was partly due to Elliot’s inability to sprint from his line as he would have liked.

If there are any concerns about the 29-year-old’s mobility, he should not play this weekend. McClaren will give him every chance to prove his fitness, but until he is thrust into a match situation, the extent of Elliot’s recovery will have to be taken on trust.

 

PLAY FREDDIE WOODMAN

If retaining Elliot in the starting line-up is regarded as too risky, McClaren will have to make a difficult decision over Woodman.

One school of thought is that if you’re good enough, you’re old enough. Newcastle’s coaching staff rate Woodman – who is the son of former Newcastle goalkeeping coach, Andy – very highly, and he is a regular at England Under-19 level.

He impressed while playing for Newcastle’s development side on Monday night, with his reading of the game and willingness to leave his line especially notable given Bournemouth’s passing style and tendency to try to get their forwards behind an opponents’ defence.

The Northern Echo:

HIGHLY RATED: Freddie Woodman

Nine years ago this week, Tim Krul made his Newcastle debut as an 18-year-old in a UEFA Cup game in Palermo and performed superbly, saving from Giuseppe Biava and David Di Michele as the Magpies claimed a surprise 1-0 win.

Woodman is rated every bit as highly as Krul was at the same age, so if the Dutchman was capable of handling the step up to senior level at a similar stage of his career, why should Newcastle’s latest teenage prodigy freeze in the Premier League spotlight?

The counter-argument is that similar things were being said about Jak Alnwick last season, and after a fantastic debut against Chelsea, the youngster quickly saw his form desert him, culminating in a disastrous display as he conceded four goals in a Capital One Cup quarter-final defeat at Spurs.

Woodman’s only senior experience to date came with League Two side Crawley Town, and he spent a month on loan at Hartlepool last autumn, only for Pools to conclude he was too raw for the first team. Has he progressed quickly enough to merit a Premier League place this weekend?

 

MAKE A LOAN SIGNING

If neither Elliot nor Woodman starts, Newcastle’s only other option is to make an emergency loan signing for an initial period of seven days.

The Magpies have not made a formal request to the Premier League as things stand, but are understood to have received assurances that such an application would be viewed favourably, and could be processed quickly provided medical checks did not throw up any problems.

The main concern in terms of going down this route, however, is that none of the players likely to be available at such short notice are particularly appealing.

Premier League clubs would be understandably unwilling to loan out their second-choice goalkeeper, so Newcastle would probably be looking at either Manchester United’s Victor Valdes or Crystal Palace’s Julian Speroni as their best third-choice options. Neither has played much football recently though.

The Northern Echo:

LOAN OPTION: Victor Valdes

Free agents would be another possibility, but Steve Harper is surely too long in the tooth now, while Brad Jones, who worked with McClaren at Middlesbrough, left Bradford City under a cloud last week and is understood to be pursuing options abroad.

Even if Newcastle could identify a top-class goalkeeper, they would be arriving with very little time to get to know their new team-mates and get used to Newcastle’s defensive system.

Given that the Magpies are hardly the most secure of sides at the best of times, throwing a goalkeeper in cold would be a major risk. Might it be better for McClaren to stick with what he knows?