How Eddie Howe can lineup Newcastle United vs Brentford
Newcastle United are set to face Brentford and a change to lineup is expected. Sven Botman, Elliot Anderson, and new boy Sandro Tonali are all nursing some sort of injury. It is believed that both Botman and Anderson could feature in this weekend’s fixture, Tonali however is set to miss the game against the Bees.
With that in mind let us try and get into the mind of our beloved Eddie Howe and predict this weekend’s lineup. We shall start in defense of Newcastle United, one of the easiest places to start when predicting a Howe lineup.
Newcastle United defense
In goal, Nick Pope will be sure to try and recapture last season’s form. Right-back and right centreback will stay the same with Kieran Tripper and Fabian Schar keeping their places. That’s the easy part done. Now, this is where things get tricky. If you are Eddie Howe, do you start Botman with a massive game against AC Milan coming up on Tuesday? My thinking is no, mainly due to his recent injury and wanting to keep him for the biggest Newcastle game in 20 years. So instead, I think we see Dan Burn back in at left centreback and Matt Targett again starting at left-back for Newcastle United.
The midfield of Eddie Howe
Moving to midfield now, a little less of a head scratch with Tonali being ruled out completely. Bruno starts alongside Joelinton in midfield. I think Bruno stepped into the role Tonali was playing to allow himself to push up the field more as we saw he could do so well while playing for Brazil. I think Sean Longstaff comes into that defensive midfield role. I’m not a fan of Sean’s work going forward but could see him stepping up defensively. This midfield could genuinely work and a change that would be welcomed by most Newcastle fans.
Howe’s Newcastle attacking setup
Attacking Newcastle United need some sort of shakeup. Even a small one. All I want is for Harvey Barnes to get his first start in black and white. I think he will, he will sit on the left while Alexandre Isak occupies the middle. I hope, I really really hope, that Almiron is dropped. I love him, he started so well and had a really good season last year but so far this season it has not been the same. He has slowed down a lot of attacks. A little rotation wouldn’t hurt. I think Anthony Gordon finishes the front three sitting on the right.
Score Prediction
With that eleven, I still don’t think we get our second win of the season yet. We aren’t far off but, we just aren’t there yet. I think tomorrow finishes 2-2. Brentford are a strong side and have attacked well this year. I just don’t see Newcastle United beating this side with how we have played so far this season. I hope more than anything I am wrong.
It is so important to get a result tomorrow as it kicks off 7 games in a 23-day period. If we can start well against Brentford we will definitely get the results we need this month to get back on track in getting European football again in the Northeast.