Newcastle United have made an ambitious move to sign Crystal Palace defender Marc Guehi and the England international would bring the ‘not-so-nice’ quality the Magpies lacked at times last season

Seven. That is how many first-team defenders Newcastle United have on their books who can play at centre-back. When fit, of course.

The Magpies have signed Lloyd Kelly while Sven Botman and Jamaal Lascelles are making encouraging progress with their recoveries after suffering serious knee injuries. However, that does not tell the full story. This still feels like a department that needs strengthening.

After all, leaky Newcastle, who had the meanest defence in the Premier League in 2022-23, conceded a whopping 40 top-flight goals on the road last season. Only West Ham and relegated pair Sheffield United and Luton Town let in more.

It is important to stress that Newcastle defend as a unit and the injury-ravaged black-and-whites also sorely missed key players such as Nick Pope and Joelinton at crucial junctures. However, Howe was the first to recognise that his side, defensively, were ‘different from the previous season’.

“Last season [2022-23] we were great away from home defensively,” the Newcastle boss said back in May. “A lot of clean sheets. Maybe not true classic performances but 1-0 wins. We’ve missed that this year.

“We haven’t delivered anywhere near as many of those types of performances that you need on the road and we have to look at why. We have to look at the personnel of the team. We have to look at the mentality of the group because we should be delivering better than that.”

In truth, this is a department that will need freshening up at some stage in the next 12 months. Botman, Kelly and Alex Murphy are the only centre-backs in their twenties in the first-team squad and by the time this season ends, the infatigable Fabian Schar and Dan Burn, who moved inside towards the end the previous campaign, will both be 33.

Is this where Marc Guehi comes in as a 24-year-old England international with so much room still to develop? And that is saying something. Of those defenders to play a minimum of 25 games in the Premier League last season, according to Opta, Guehi ranked in the top 25 for duel success, possession won, successful passes, recoveries, headed clearances and clearances per 90 minutes.

You won’t find Guehi anywhere near those players who made the most tackles in the top-flight – the Crystal Palace centre-back made just 28 in 2023-24 – but this is a defender who quietly gets himself into position so that a last-ditch challenge is rarely required.

“I think Paolo Maldini said something like, ‘If you have to make a tackle, you weren’t in the right position in the first place,'” Guehi previously told reporters. “If a defender can go in a game and seem to be doing absolutely nothing then he is doing absolutely everything right.”

That is not to say that Guehi can’t be aggressive, of course. Even a heavyweight like Ivan Toney has admitted that he sometimes drifts to the other side where Guehi’s partner is playing because the centre-back is ‘up there with the strongest’ defenders despite not necessarily being the tallest.

Jude Bellingham, another of Guehi’s international team-mates, added: “He’s such a nice guy that you forget about his physical presence and playing against him. Whenever I see him going for headers, I think it’s nice guy Marc and, then, boom, it’s not-so-nice Marc.”

There were times last season when Newcastle needed that ‘not-so-nice’ quality and as much as the Magpies have other priorities – not least signing a quality right winger – landing a strong centre-back could be just as important this summer. Even if this won’t be an easy deal to pull off.