The Newcastle United team selections have been under close scrutiny all season.
Many fans and journalists increasingly questioning what Eddie Howe decides for any particular match.
The critics accusing the manager of having been inflexible, too much loyalty to his favourites, same old tactics, same old formations and so on.
Saturday was no different.
At 1.45pm the Newcastle United team to play Brighton was named.
Eddie Howe selecting:
Nick Pope
Lewis Miley
Malick Thiaw
Sven Botman
Dan Burn
Bruno
Sandro Tonali
Joelinton
Joe Willock
Jacob Murphy
William Osula
This Newcastle United team selection prompting so much moaning and groaning, indeed some fans furious. Eddie Howe’s ‘resignation letter’ and so on.
After the match, the 3-1 WIN, Eddie Howe giving his reasoning…
“Behind-the-scenes the players have been united, they’ve worked hard. I went with players I can really trust and who I know can handle this type of atmosphere pressure. Those players have never let me down and they didn’t today. I am not picking the team on emotion, I am picking the team to win the game. I wanted pace up front with Osula and Willock, I wanted height in the team too. I am very open and for me the training [before a match] is a huge reason for the team I pick, because I have to reward good performances, reward good attitude, reward commitment during the week. I can’t just base it off perception. This is where from a supporter’s perspective, they don’t get to see that. They are not party to those training sessions and I place a big emphasis on that. I accept my fate because I have picked it in good honesty with the intention to win the game. There is no politics involved with me, it is what gives us in my opinion the best chance to win a game.”
As Eddie Howe makes clear, this was a Newcastle United team for this moment in time, it isn’t a statement of intent for the future.
Why wasn’t Lewis Hall playing???
Well, Lewis Hall got skinned for the opening goal in the last home match against Bournemouth and subbed off a half-time. Dan Burn came in and did well against Arsenal, nearly scored as well, then played well against Brighton and did score!
Eddie Howe doesn’t think Dan Burn is a better left-back than Lewis Hall BUT he did think Burn was a better bet against Brighton. As well as the added height and a more defensive emphasis, as Eddie Howe indicated, he went yesterday with players he felt he could most rely on in such a high pressure match.
I think a part of it was also Eddie Howe protecting Lewis Hall, many people choosing to ignore the fact that he is still so young and relatively inexperienced. Indeed, it proved a win-win selection, as Dan Burn played so well (including when moved into a back three/five) and Lewis Hall was excellent when he came on, especially going forward and having more freedom to do so with extra defensive cover behind him.
Experience and shown it all before
The success experienced in recent years under Eddie Howe has been due to the fact that he has consistently put a Newcastle United team on the pitch that has been greater than its individual parts.
At Arsenal he was very unlucky to see his team not get the point or better they deserved for their performance and the back to basics/experience was further enhanced yesterday with the only change proving to be Joelinton back from suspension for Ramsey.
Nine of the starting eleven against Brighton have been at Newcastle United at least three years, the two exceptions proving to be William Osula (two years) who has been there two years and Malick Thiaw who arrived last summer. Osula has got his chance recently due to Eddie Howe wanting/needing pace through the middle and Anthony Gordon not available to fill that role, I thing Gordon would have played yesterday through the middle if fit enough. Whilst I wouldn’t have been surprised if Fabian Schar had started in such a high pressure game, if he was further along on his recovery.
Woltemade?
Big Nick has become the hill that so many of the uber critical Newcastle United fans want to make a stand on. I don’t think for one second that Eddie Howe has given up on him, I believe simply a case of needing to have a short-term strategy that means Woltemade has to bide his time. I think when Nick Woltemade was still starting through the middle on a regular basis he was becoming more and more isolated in many games and his lack of pace made it far easier for the opposition defence to push far higher up the pitch, leading to it becoming easier to play against United.
If Newcastle United don’t control the game then playing Big Nick up top becomes a far more difficult thing to do. When we lost Bruno to long-term injury then controlling matches became far more difficult (impossible?) in his absence. Nick Woltemade is another who I think Eddie Howe has been protecting as well, he had only made 32 starts in the Bundesliga when United signed him and he is still relatively inexperienced. Due to Wissa’s injury, Eddie Howe had no choice but to play him ASAP and start almost every match for months, talk about in at the deep end.
When the over the top critics lay into Eddie Howe about his supposed inflexibility, his supposed over reliance on his favourites, his supposed refusal to change tactics/formation. What they really mean is that Eddie Howe isn’t agreeing with them, with their favourites, their preferred tactics, their preferred formations. Eddie Howe has constantly across this season changed his team selection, his tactics, his formation and so on, often forced to do so by injury.
Against Brighton, Eddie Howe changed six of the eleven who started and lost the most recent home match against Bournemouth only two weeks earlier. If that isn’t a willingness to change, then what is?