Tottenham vs. Newcastle — Eddie Howe: Match Preview
The Magpies arrive on the back of a 3-2 home defeat to Brentford, their third straight Premier League loss and fifth consecutive match without a win in all competitions, and with manager Eddie Howe under very serious pressure.
That disastrous run has Howe’s side in the bottom half of the table, closer to relegation than they are to the UCL places, but still with an outside chance to make it there.
Away from home, Newcastle have struggled throughout the season and have scored more than once in only two league matches on the road, a problem aggravated by injuries limitting Howe’s lineup options.
Tottenham, meanwhile, sit just above Newcastle after a 2-0 defeat at Manchester United. They are without suspended captain Cristian Romero and have a lengthy injury list, particularly in defence. The Spurs have failed to win any of their last seven league matches, so you know what’s coming.
On Miley, Gordon and Joelinton…
“Miley, I need to see today - we’ll get another update on his progress. He got a nasty bang to his leg so it’s like a sort of dead leg that’s dragged on a little bit longer than we thought, so we’ll see how he is.
On one of the toughest spells of his reign…
“I think (it is) any time when you’re not getting the results that you want. I don’t think performances have been particularly bad - statistically we’re still pretty strong in every game, but the results certainly haven’t matched that.
”It’s been a difficult run of games, it will continue to be a difficult run of games for us, but that’s where we all need to show our strength of character, resolve, resilience and our feeling of how important this is to us. That needs to show, most importantly, on the pitch.”
On the need for unity…
“I think if you don’t have that, you lose everything. At the moment we still have that, and that’s the most important thing. The supporters, even on Saturday, again were incredible for us. That’s never taken for granted - that’s never, from our side, expected. We have to earn it.
“We have to continue to have the respect of our supporters, and the only way we can do that is with our intention in the next game, with how we attack the next game, with everything we give off with our body language - the supporters will feed off it, and we need to make sure it’s a positive response. I’m confident it will be, and I can’t thank the supporters for their loyalty enough.”
On where the Magpies must improve…
“I think firstly we have to defend better. When you look back at the last run of games, we haven’t defended our goal well enough and that’s cost us those games. It’s a simple thing to say and sometimes a difficult thing to execute, but we need to find solutions to our defensive vulnerabilities.
“And of course we need to be more clinical the other way. The two things go hand-in-hand. We’ve not defended well enough and we haven’t been clinical enough at the other end, so it’s a bad mix and that’s a big issue for us.”
On Saturday’s result and moving on…
“I was really disappointed on Saturday with the result. We’ve tried to take ownership of that, and now we focus on the future. Hopefully we’ll have a good day’s training today, and a massive game tomorrow.”
