Newcastle United journalist Chris Waugh has been discussing some of the issues that might be facing boss Eddie Howe ahead of this weekend’s game.
The international break for a lot of countries is now over, and players can start coming back to their clubs ahead of the return of the Premier League this weekend.
Newcastle are set to take on Tottenham Hotspur in a game that can go a huge way to helping Eddie Howe’s men stay in the Premier League, whilst also dictating what will happen for Spurs in their bid to make it into Europe.
However, according to Waugh, the Magpies might not be able to field a full-strength team against Antonio Conte’s men.
Speaking on the Pod On The Tyne podcast, he outlined that there were a number of players who, as a result of their international duty, won’t be coming back to Tyneside until later on this week, which will minimise the time that Howe is going to have with them in the lead-up to the game in north London.
He said: “Bruno Guimaraes is not going to be back until later in the week, Miguel Almiron’s not going to be back until later in the week, Chris Wood might not be back until later in the week.
“Some of Newcastle’s star players, who you would either expect to start or have been starting in recent weeks aren’t going to have trained much at all with Eddie Howe and the team going into Sunday, and whether that affects team selection will be interesting to see.”
TIF Thoughts on Chris Waugh’s comments about possible Newcastle United team selection issues…
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If Waugh’s analysis of the situation is right, it could well cause a few problems when it comes to Howe picking the team.
Take Chris Wood for instance. The Kiwi currently leads the side when it comes to aerial duels won per game, ranks third in shots per game (via WhoScored) and finally managed to break his duck in front of goal in their recent match against Southampton, so missing him would be a major blow for Howe when it comes to putting a team together.
And given the importance of the game, Newcastle need the strongest team possible available for them. So hopefully the situation isn’t as bad as Waugh portrays and some of their players can get back and be in a position to play at the weekend, or it could cause Howe a bit of a headache.
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