The Newcastle Jets have been starved of success in recent times, but drama is never far away in the Hunter – and this pre-season has been no different.
The unexpected sacking of manager Scott Miller, and then his assistant Luciano Trani saw the club spiral out of control. Hardly ideal preparation for the upcoming season.
Last Season
Newcastle finished last season in eighth place with eight wins, six draws and 13 losses, scoring a measly 28 goals and conceding 41 in their 27 matches. On the bright side, it was a significant improvement on the wooden spoon won by the club under the disastrous Phil Stubbins reign during the previous season. Although not overly aesthetically pleasing to football fans across the country, Miller ensured his paper-thin squad were competitive for the majority of the fixtures.
Strengths
The current squad has proven they are hard to break down and remain compact in defence, suffocating the opposition of many clear cut goalscoring opportunities. During their eight pre-season matches, Newcastle have conceded just nine goals, although six goals were conceded in three games against Chinese opposition.
On the flip side, Newcastle were very poor in front of goal last season, however pre-season form suggests they may have turned the corner. Despite not playing the highest of calibre opposition during warm up matches, the Jets have netted 21 goals in eight matches. Should the Jets maintain this strike-rate, last season’s weakness may turn out to be one of this season’s strengths.
Weaknesses
As alluded to above, historically this squad has struggled to trouble the scoreboard – averaging slightly over one goal a game last season. However, the arrival of Andrew Hoole and Andrew Nabbout will go a long way to alleviating the burden from Morten Nordstrand.
Despite keeping clean sheets against Northern NSW NPL champions Edgeworth Eagles, a youthful Western Sydney Wanderers and a young Melbourne City, of concern from the pre-season schedule will be the fact they conceded twice against the Central Coast Mariners, twice against Liaoning Whowin FC and three times against Hong Kong Premier League side Kitchee SC. The usually dependable central block of Daniel Mullen, Nigel Boogaard and Steven Ugarkovic will need to step it up a notch, if Newcastle are to avoid a strength turning into a weakness.
Best XI
(4-4-2) Ben Kennedy; Jason Hoffman, Nigel Boogaard, Daniel Mullen, Nick Cowburn; Andrew Hoole, Steven Ugarkovic, Wayne Brown; Andrew Nabbout, Aleksandr Kokko, Morten Nordstrand.
Prediction – 9th place
The sudden dismissal of Miller and Trani as a result of the ill-fated tour of China, has certainly been a major disruption to the squad. Mark Jones has since been appointed as head coach, with Clayton Zane his assistant.
One would think a change of such magnitude, as well as the manner in which it was done will have a very unsettling effect on the playing group, particularly those who were in-favour with the now departed coach. Jones has effectively inherited a group of players not of his own choosing, which may affect the way he wishes to ordinarily set his team up and the way in which he hopes to play. This, combined with the fact Newcastle have yet another paper-thin squad which is arguably one of the poorest in the league on paper, suggests nothing but yet another difficult year for the perennial strugglers from the Hunter.
What are your thoughts? Let us know by dropping a comment below via our Facebook comment box. Make sure you follow us on Twitter @Outside90 and like us on Facebook.
