Chris Hughton is facing toughest decision

Oct 16 2009 by Luke Edwards, The Journal

CHRIS Hughton will have to make his toughest decision of the season so far as he ponders whether to gamble on the fitness of Fabricio Coloccini or Steven Taylor against Nottingham Forest.

Neither of United’s two first-choice centre-halves have been able to train as Coloccini is still struggling with a groin strain picked up against Ipswich Town last month, while Taylor has picked up a slight hamstring problem during the international break. That leaves Hughton with just one senior centre-back in Zurab Khizanishvili and he is tempted to take a risk with either Coloccini or Taylor if they are willing to play despite a lack of proper preparation this week.

However, Hughton also knows that could lead to a long-term lay off for the unfortunate player as he revealed the torment which plagues every manager in these difficult situations.

“I wouldn’t say for the first time that this has exposed the size of the squad, but of course it does make us stretched in that area,” said Hughton, who remains happy with Newcastle’s start to the season despite their failure to win either of their last two home games.

“We’ll look at the alternatives and we’re still hopeful that Coloccini and Taylor will be fit to play, we’ve not given up on either of them. We hope they’ll get out on to the training pitch in the morning.

“Whatever selection decision we make, it will be in the best interests of the team in the long term, it’s very much about that and it has to be the right decision. There are always going to be situations where the risk element is higher or a little bit less.

That’s always going to be a judgement call and we’d look to get more of those right than we do wrong. What we certainly won’t do is to take a needless risk where we don’t have to. This is the tough side of management, very much so.”

If, as expected, Coloccini and Taylor are

both left on Tyneside when Newcastle travel to the Midlands tomorrow, Danny Simpson is likely to come across from right-back with Ryan Taylor slotting into the full-back position.

Hughton, though, was also keen to point out that in Hungarian Tamas Kadar Newcastle have a very promising young defender who can also come into the side if necessary having already featured in the club’s short Carling Cup campaign this season.

He said: “The options we have are Danny Simpson coming into that position and he’s done that a couple of times this season and done well. We’ve also got Tamas Kadar who is a young lad who has been involved in the majority of squads this season, almost every one in fact and we think highly of him.”