Eddie Howe delivers his honest verdict on Joe White’s performance for Newcastle vs Chelsea last night

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Eddie Howe thinks one of his Newcastle United youngsters did himself proud in the disappointing defeat to Chelsea last night.

Newcastle suffered another poor defeat at Stamford Bridge last night, but Howe was wanting to focus on the positives he could take from the game.

Speaking to BBC Radio Newcastle, Howe was positive about Joe White’s performance after coming on for Bruno Guimaraes for the final 15 minutes of the game.

Howe proud of White’s performance for Newcastle

There was very little to take from Newcastle’s overall display at Stamford Bridge as they fell to a 12th Premier League defeat of the season, but White will be happy to get some more first team action.

Having spent the first half of the campaign on loan at Crew Alexandra, the 21-year-old would never have expected to be playing a key role from the bench for Newcastle this year.

However, Eddie Howe made it clear in January that he would be taking a look at the young midfielder because of all the injuries at Newcastle to the likes of Joe Willock and Joelinton, as well as Sandro Tonali’s suspension.

White didn’t have too much of an impact on the game given that the team were already 3-1 down, but Howe was impressed with the energy he brought to the midfield and his technical ability on the ball.

On White, Howe said: “He did well tonight. He added enthusiasm and desire to get on the ball. He’s creative and a really good technician. He can be pleased with his performance.”

Howe must make a big change moving forwards

It’s fair to say that Howe got his approach wrong against Chelsea as Newcastle were once again exposed at the back having tried to play further up the pitch than they had against Wolves.

Newcastle now face a really difficult challenge as they travel to Man City on Saturday in the FA Cup quarter final, a game which Howe will be desperate to win and take his team back to Wembley.

For the rest of their Premier League games, however, Howe must be looking to make big changes from the defeat against Chelsea, learning from the mistakes he made in last night’s game.

The 46-year-old probably has enough credit in the bank to see him through until the beginning of next season, but a run of poor results in the next couple of months really would make things difficult for him going forwards.