Next up is a repeat of last season’s Carabao Cup final against Manchester United. Newcastle had lost that title match 2-0 to Erik ten Hag’s men.
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Newcastle United are going through a tricky spell of late, with the club facing some of the best teams in domestic and European competitions. Add to it, they are on a two-game winless run in all competitions. Newcastle lost to Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League last mid-week and followed it up with a 2-2 draw against Wolverhampton Wanderers. Next up is a repeat of last season’s Carabao Cup final against Manchester United. Newcastle had lost that title match 2-0 to Erik ten Hag’s men.
They are also scheduled to face Arsenal and Borussia Dortmund in their next two games. With so many difficult games to play, it will be interesting to see how much Newcastle United will rotate their squad for the Carabao Cup fixture against Manchester United at Old Trafford. Just like Man United, Newcastle have also been plagued with absentees. Ahead of the contest, Newcastle head coach Eddie Howe gave injury updates on Sven Botman and Alexander Isak.
“I don’t think, for this game, we’re expecting anyone that wasn’t available before Wolves to be available now. The majority are longer-term unfortunately for us. That’s the position we’re in so we’ll be going with a very similar squad. (Sven) Botman is unclear at the moment so we’re going day-by-day with that one currently. Alex, we hope, will be back after the international break,” he was quoted as saying on the club’s website during the pre-match press conference.
Since Newcastle finished fourth in the Premier League last season, they have to also deal with Champions League football this term. It increases their workload, as the team will have plenty of games to play before the end of the calendar year. Speaking about it, Howe said, “It’s a busy period for us. A lot of games. We look forward to Manchester United next. We’re going to have to utilise our squad, we have another game against Arsenal a couple of days later and then we go to Dortmund.”
He added: “To not use our squad would be foolish but that doesn’t mean that we don’t trust and back our squad to be able to go to Old Trafford and try to win the game. You can have a game where you lose one or two players and suddenly the outlook on the squad and dynamic of the squad changes but you just have to roll with the punches. You have to absorb the hits and have to find a way, which is what we’ll try to do.”
Due to their hectic schedule, Howe has urged every single member of the squad to step up and help the team in this period. “It’s not ideal for us, especially with the season we have. It’s a totally different feel to last season where we could maybe absorb those hits a bit easier with the week to week games. We’re not in that position now so we’re going to need everybody in the squad to step up which I think is the key message. Everyone has to give a bit more. Every player in the squad is so important and has a huge role to play,” he explained.
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