Robson finds attack the worst form of defence

On the anniversary of his first game as their manager, Newcastle United are precisely where Bobby Robson found them, second bottom of the Premiership, albeit with some rather better players.

"Bobby In Freefall" was how "Alan Shearer's official paper", The Sun, described the situation at St James' Park, although a glance at the table indicates that if Newcastle won their game in hand they would move from 19th to eighth, so tightly bunched is the Premiership.

Nevertheless, after tomorrow's journey to Stamford Bridge, where Robson managed Newcastle for the first time three years ago, and where they have not won since 1986, Newcastle fly uneasily to Kiev to begin their Champions' League campaign in the unforgiving environment of Dynamo's Respublikanski Stadium.

The one area of Newcastle's football which Robson has failed to overhaul has been their defence. Since his £5m move from Ipswich, Titus Bramble has struggled to fit into a back four which even during last season's remarkable Championship challenge kept only nine clean sheets. By contrast, when Kevin Keegan took Newcastle to within an ace of the title in 1996, only Manchester United could boast a better defensive record. The myth would have you believe it was on the back of a raft of 4-3 results.

At Anfield, where the late introduction of Craig Bellamy and Laurent Robert somehow inspired Newcastle to a point, Bramble and Nikos Dabizas were overwhelmed. On Wednesday night against a Leeds side which spent most of the game pinned into their own half, Bramble still looked vulnerable. "I don't know if Viduka was offside or not [for Leeds' first goal], but we have got to do better," said Newcastle's keeper, Shay Given. "It was just too simple for Leeds."

Robson mounted a brave defence of the England Under-21 international, saying: "Titus was playing against good players. He was not playing against Scunthorpe United, he was playing against Leeds United." However, soon he may be playing against Juventus and Newcastle cannot afford to be naïve in the Stadio delle Alpi.

The defeat by Leeds could, in Given's words, have been "just one of those things". Newcastle mustered 18 shots and Robson thought that if they had scored at any time in the opening 70 minutes, they would have won. In their other defeat, against Manchester City, where Robson drew criticism for using a 3-5-2 system, Kieron Dyer squandered a hat-trick of chances.

For the first time he can remember, Robson has a fully fit squad, although neither Robert nor Bellamy, the catalyst for much of last season's successes, will be back to their peak for a few weeks. Even Carl Cort is available, although he was not even considered for a place on the bench on Wednesday.

However, this abundance of (mostly young) talent creates its own problems. If Nolberto Solano and Dyer are certain to play in midfield, then Robson must perm two from Robert, Gary Speed, Jermaine Jenas and Hugo Viana, who dazzled for Portugal at Villa Park on Saturday but did not start against Leeds. Given the wealth of attacking options and the dictum that the hardest thing in football is to score goals, Newcastle should not be 19th for long.

However, since they need to finish fourth or better, the upswing cannot come too soon. Yes, it is early. Newly promoted Nice lead Le Championnat in France, Deportivo La Coruña are third bottom in La Liga while in Italy Serie A has not even begun. But it may be later than Newcastle think. David O'Leary and Gianluca Vialli reached respectively the semis and the quarter-finals of the Champions' League but ultimately were sacked because they failed to qualify again for the tournament; a sobering thought even for a man whose job at St James' Park is probably invulnerable.