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This article is part of Football FanCast's Transfer Focus series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent transfer news...

Newcastle starlet Elias Sorensen has joined Carlisle on loan, but the Magpies are playing a very risky game by allowing the 19 year-old to leave.

What's the story?

Sorensen has joined Carlisle United on a season-long loan, the club confirmed on Friday.

The teenager joins the League Two outfit having slammed in 20 goals for the Magpies’ U23 side last season.

He played well in pre-season, featuring in friendlies against Wolves and West Ham.

Big risk

It’s all very well and good sending a young striker out to gain first-team experience, and we will soon find out if he can take his scoring talents from the youth game into senior football.

However, Steve Bruce opted for two up front in a 3-5-2 against Arsenal, as he seems to favour a traditional striking partnership.

This means that with Sorensen leaving, Dwight Gayle and Andy Carroll are the only back-ups, with Yoshinori Muto more of a versatile forward or number ten than out-and-out striker.

Carroll is out for another four or five weeks, says Bruce, while Dwight Gayle has never performed well in the top-flight and is yet to prove that he can, despite impressing in the Championship.

Then you have the fact that Miguel Almiron, who partnered Joelinton last weekend, isn’t even a striker himself but more of a winger, with Transfermarkt claiming he has only started at centre-forward once in his career.

Finally, Joelinton is new to the league and scored just seven times in the Bundesliga last season, so there’s really no telling how well the young Brazilian will adjust in his new surroundings.

So, the Magpies now have an injury-prone Carroll, a Championship player, a winger and an unproven talent as their only striking options, despite seemingly wanting to deploy two up front.

Allowing Sorensen, who let’s not forget bagged 20 goals last term, to leave seems like a disaster waiting to happen, potentially leaving the manager very short of genuine goalscoring threats.

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