Where should Loic Remy play in the Newcastle United team?

Remy is a natural striker and that is where many fans feel he should be played. Many fans believe playing players out of position is the wrong thing to do and in several cases this is entirely correct and after seeing what happened when the likes of Sissoko, Cabaye and Jonas being played out of position is a strong argument. However, Remy playing in a two upfront with Papiss Cisse limits Newcastle’s most talented player, Hatem Ben Arfa. Ben Arfa is best when he is deployed in a free role on the right wing where he can drift all over the pitch to find space and produce the quality every Newcastle fan knows he can produce. As happened last year, Ben Arfa is restricted from right mid, he cannot influence the game in the way he wants to and is restricted to playing from the flanks for much of the game which is not his strength.

The alternative is to play Remy on the wing or to leave him or Papiss Cisse on the bench. For starters, neither Cisse nor Remy would be happy to be sat on the bench and this is for good reason as both players are very good goal scorers. To play Remy on the wing would however, lead to criticism from fans as they feel he may struggle to influence the game. Last season, Papiss Cisse cut an isolated figure on the right wing at times and fans feel this could happen to Remy. I however, think that Remy is better equipped to play on the flanks than Papiss Cisse. For me, Cisse is a goal scorer and is very good at doing that but his linkup play is not the best. Remy for me, is a better link man, retains possession better and has more creativity meaning he is better performing from the wing. Furthermore, his increased pace, power and dribbling ability mean he can fill in quite efficiently on the wing and can still influence the game. In the 2011/12 season Demba Ba was employed very productively on the left hand side and whilst his goals dried up, he still influenced matches and Remy more in the Gouffran (who impressed me from wide positions last year) mould than the Cisse mould I believe is very equipped to play from the wing.