Alan Shearer has now revealed whether or not he thinks Newcastle United should sack Eddie Howe if they do go on to lose to Sunderland on Saturday afternoon.
Newcastle are on a poor run of form having lost seven of their last eight games and things only look to be getting tougher with three huge fixtures now on the horizon.
On The Rest Is Football podcast, Shearer claimed that Howe should have enough credit in the bank to keep his job even if January does go all wrong, though the pressure will certainly be on.
Shearer says Howe should stay regardless of the derby result
It’s a difficult one to predict at the moment with Newcastle currently going through their worst spell under Howe, so the derby game has probably come at the worst time for the Magpies.
The team are very low on confidence at the minute and will be hoping that they can use this as a platform to kick start the second half of their season, almost as if it’s a fresh start.
Should they lose this, however, they will then face an in-form Manchester City side before travelling to Aston Villa, so any pressure that Howe is currently feeling will only intensify.
Football fans have short memories and things could quickly turn sour with a defeat to Sunderland, but Shearer is backing the 46-year-old to come out of January still in a job even if he loses all three games, which Gary Lineker completely agreed with.
On the podcast, Shearer said: “It’s worrying. They are shipping goals for fun. From what was a great strength of theirs last season, where they looked really tight and compact to now, and certainly the last five or six weeks, they are so open and giving so many chances to the oppositions.
“Teams are going right through the middle, which is another concern. They look really weak defensively at the minutes, not just the back four but the protection they are getting.
“In terms of Eddie. Yeah, it’s probably the first test but is he under pressure? I think he has enough in the bank and he should have enough in the bank for what he has done for the football club.
“I know they have Sunderland on Saturday lunch time which is a huge game, then they have City and Villa as the two league games after that. Even if the worst comes to the worst he has enough in the bank to carry on and do what he has to do, because he deserves that time.”
Gary Lineker then added: “I can’t think for a minute that they would possibly consider changing at this point, he has been superb.”
Howe has always succeeded in the face of adversity
One thing Howe has always managed to do in the two years as manager of Newcastle is consistently pull himself and the team back up after a tough moment, whether that’s a big defeat or losing in the Carabao Cup final.
Especially last season, the team were brilliant at making comebacks both within games and from week to week, they never looked to be truly down and out.
This year, though, we’re quite often seeing their heads drop a bit more, whether or not that’s to do with the fatigue and the number of injuries is up for debate but it’s a long way off what they were doing in the previous Premier League campaign.
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