Alan Shearer has claimed that Eddie Howe made a slight tweak to his Newcastle United team which was very effective in their win against Wolves.
Newcastle were in a poor run of form, especially defensively, and Howe needed to change things up sooner rather than later if they were to keep their European dream alive.
Speaking on Match of the Day, Shearer was really impressed with the way Howe had set up his Newcastle team in a deeper position and hit Wolves on the counter to the best of their ability.
Newcastle utilise their speed against Wolves
In their most recent run of games, Newcastle have been exposed time and time again because of a lack of pace and physicality in the midfield, leaving huge gaps between them and the defence.
It was most obvious against Arsenal who were practically given the freedom of the pitch to work their way into the box and inevitably fire the ball into the back of the net on several occasions with relative ease.
While it could have been prevented earlier, Howe finally addressed the issue against Wolves by dropping his midfield into a deeper role and inviting the oppostion to retain more possession but putting pressure on them to make a mistake.
During the game on Saturday Newcastle were once again so successful in their high press that has been missing the last couple of months, and they forced Wolves to make a number of errors before capitalising and turning it into an attack.
On the show, Howe said: “There was a slight tweak today. They sat a little bit deeper which meant there was less space in between the lines in midfield and they did that really well.
“They got numbers behind the ball and when they did win it they looked to hit them really quickly on the break.
“When you look at the set-up, they were more selective when they pressed and they were a little less pragmatic.
“They stopped the ball going into the forwards, not letting Wolves have any space in behind.”
Howe proves he can adapt at Newcastle
Howe has come under a lot of criticism because of Newcastle’s poor results and while a lot of it has been down to injuries, he also has had to take a portion of the blame particularly in games against Luton and Bournemouth.
Many have claimed that Howe has relied on his one tactic since coming in as Newcastle manager which brought him such success last year, but that when it doesn’t work then he has no plan b.
However, this Wolves victory proved that Howe can adapt his style to suit the type of game he’s playing in and it gives Newcastle fans hope for the rest of the season.
It’s easy to forget that Howe is still a relatively young manager in the grand scheme of things despite recording 100 Premier League wins and still has room to grow and improve alongside the club.
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