Krafth Works ‘ the renaissance of Emil at Newcastle United!

It’s taken a long time but around the half hour mark against Crystal Palace it became official. Newcastle United fans trust Emil Krafth.

Wilfred Zaha was already sick of the sight of him but the Swede told the Ivorian in no uncertain terms that he was going to be seeing a lot more of him.

Zaha was visibly rattled; Krafth had got into his head, just like Wood did with Andersen later. In a game of so small margins, which we would have lost to two late goals pre-Christmas, it was vital Palaces best player knew he couldn’t just prance around St James’ and deliver cross after cross.

If any player can lay claim to have been brought themselves back from the dead, Krafth has to be up there and with minimal fuss, he’s catapulted himself back into Howe’s plans and we are reaping the benefits.

Is Krafth a long term option? No.’Will he be out once Trippier comes back? Almost certainly

Is he worth a new contract? That’s now a serious question people.

This may well still make people scoff and even as short a time ago as late January that sentence would have been a no go as Ljungby’s finest bundled clumsily into Michael Antonio and conceded the free kick which West Ham took the lead from Dawson. The matter of trust that I spoke about earlier just wasn’t there.

Krafth should have just used his undoubted experience of playing in finals of World Cups and Euros and just jockey Antonio. We had plenty of players back and West Ham had barely threatened despite being able to go 4^th‘that day.

That seemed to be the way of Krafth, though. Every mistake seemed to be magnified. He was at times a scapegoat. An easy target. When Krafth made a mistake everyone knew about it.

New players came in and praise was, quite rightly, lauded over the likes of Burn and Targett. ‘This was another reason why it looked like his time was up, however the versatility that ironically had blighted his Newcastle career actually saved it. Howe knew he could use Krafth as a centre half in a five man defence or a right back, or just a plain old centre back in a 442 as rare as that is these days.

Bruce didn’t know where to play Krafth and he was branded as a failure in a multitude of positions, but like a lot of players, he is now rubbing his eyes, coming out of the darkness and realising pretty quick that Bruce was shit and confidence is returning- just like that.

Trippier would be missed by anyone. Quite simply he’s a world class footballer, United captain in the making but we’ve managed to flourish thanks to a magnificent 6 weeks or so from our defence.

Bar a few errors like Burn at Chelsea and the desperate aberration at Tottenham from everyone, Newcastle have become fantastically hard to beat to the point where the Liverpool fixture is now welcomed rather than us sitting in the corner, rocking and sucking out thumbs at the prospect. Krafth has played a massive part in this.

After playing right back twice all season he came on in the 42^nd‘minute against Aston Villa and has never looked back, only missing the Chelsea and Spurs games (link?) and performing way above expectation in a defence that has shrugged off the label of being completely porous to being no frills brilliant. Targett on the other side compliment Burn and Schar and Krafth does the same on the other side.

Whether you saw it coming or not, it works and fair play to a lad who just hasn’t fitted in since a bargain buy from Amiens in the ashes of the Benitez era.

In an interview on Radio Newcastle before the Brentford game, Howe was full of praise for Krafth. For a club synonymous with players and coaches slacking off in training in the last few years,

Howe was at pains to point out how much of a model professional he was. This is Howe’s type of player. This is what he wants in and around the club. In 2022 it seems quite strange you wouldn’t act as professional as this, but it does happen and Krafth had won Howe over on the training pitches. Gained his trust, gained his respect. This was hugely in evidence on Easter Sunday when despite missing a raft of sessions through illness in midweek, Howe trusted Krafth to play and excel against Leicester in a game which really turned the tide in many supporters eyes. The only thing stopping him from being man of the match was not sending a diving header flying into the Gallowgate net in injury time.

The term ‘no dickheads’ has been used a lot lately in terms of which United targets would get ruled in or out and it’s a fair statement to say Howe won’t be interested unless they can play in a system, as a team player and work their balls off in training. Krafth does all three.

We always have to have another side of the coin in these sorts of things and if we are to be this ruthless animal that only has top, top quality in the squad, Krafth remains a player not quite good enough at the top level. Has his improvement been due to the bar being so low over the years? We’ve never had a massive personnel problem at full back but where to use them.

The argument will always be there on Krafth but no one can argue he’s proved an asset we didn’t know we had lately.

Next seasons budget is going to be the talking point, especially after the last ball is kicked as we go into overdrive. Howe is playing it coy in interviews saying we have not loads to spend and we are guided by rules, some are saying that’s bollocks and we are going big.

If we are doing the former, Krafth’s re-emergence has given Howe an opportunity to look at spending elsewhere in the team. As it stands we have more pressing issues of recruitment than in Krafth’s position.

Keep him and spend more somewhere else is an option. See also Schar in this respect.

The next step for Krafth is keeping free of injury and cementing a claim for a new contract before the final whistle goes at Turf Moor.

His ‘3m a year contract which obsessed a few for a while, is now small change in the PIF era and you can certainly see Howe pushing for even a short term extension.

To many this would be a sign we are not wholly changing after all, but if its evolution not revolution, we could do a lot worst and if anyone thinks that’s a thinly veiled compliment, I think the man himself would approve.

Scott Robson