Newcastle United have endured a great upturn in form in 2022, seeing themselves climbing up the Premier League table towards safety.
The Magpies are now 14th with a nine point cushion to the drop zone, so while safety isn’t mathematically guaranteed, you’d think they’ve done enough with the amount of teams below them to ensure Premier League football remains at St James’ Park for another year.
Despite the improved form, there’s still major issues for Eddie Howe who has received a fresh injury blow prior to the Spurs game.
Is Lascelles a Premier League quality player?
Yes
No
Eddie Howe’s Headache
The Newcastle boss will potentially have to make do without Fabian Schar. The Switzerland international has pulled out of the current friendlies with his national team, including Saturday’s clash at Wembley where England were victorious. It was referred to as precautionary but an abductor injury was cited.
In recent weeks, Howe has opted to go for a four at the back system, selecting Schar and Dan Burn to play in the middle of defence. He’ll either have to trust someone else to play in the new system he’s implementing or revert back to the three/five at the back to try and solidify the back line.
Constantly changing systems and personnel isn’t ideal for Howe as he looks to implement his own style of football at St James’ Park ahead of what he hopes will be his first full season in charge in the Premier League next season.
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Jamaal Lascelles’ Last Chance?
Jamaal Lascelles is still the club captain at Newcastle, but in recent weeks he appears to be falling down the pecking order in Howe’s mind. He has only played in two of the last six games, with one of them appearances coming in the form of a seven minute cameo from the bench.
Howe has started to move towards a back four instead of a back five, meaning that he only has room in the starting lineup for two centre backs instead of the three he’s used earlier in his stint. He has decided to go with Schar and Burn when playing with the two, meaning Lascelles has had to sit out.
If Schar isn’t available, the 208-game veteran Lascelles needs to take his chance if selected and show Howe what he can do. It sounds like Howe is looking to strengthen his defensive options with it being reported that he is going to rekindle his interest from January and look to sign Sven Botman. That could potentially mean Lascelles is on his last chance to prove his worth to save his Newcastle career.
In other news, Bruno Guimaraes’ dream come true