Steve Bruce will take charge of his first game as the new Newcastle United boss on Saturday against West Ham United in the third-place play-off of the Premier League Asia Trophy.
The experienced boss was unveiled by the Magpies earlier in the week and immediately flew out to China to link up with the first-team squad.
Bruce will hope to have picked the Newcastle players up after their struggles in the first match of the pre-season tournament.
The Magpies were comprehensively put to the sword by Wolverhampton Wanderers, who stormed to a 4-0 victory to book a place in the final against Manchester City.
Pep Guardiola’s men defeated West Ham United 4-1, setting up a third-place play-off fixture between Newcastle and the East London club.
Whether or not Bruce will ring the changes remains to be seen, but the new manager will undoubtedly be desperate to give the supporters some cause for optimism.
Here is our predicted Newcastle line-up for the clash against West Ham.
