It’s almost unfair that Newcastle United have to come off the back of a disappointing Wembley defeat to then face the Premier League champions, Manchester City the following week, but that’s where we are. However, Eddie Howe has a plan.
In his pre-match press conference on Friday morning, Eddie Howe talked about what will be required of his team to come away from the Etihad with three points, but also shot down the idea of employing one controversial tactic.
Speaking about how he plans to attack the game against City, Howe said told the media, via The Chronicle: “I don’t think our principles ever change. We’re going to need to be very good defensively & very good with the ball. We’re going to need to pose a threat in the game – I believe we can do that. Certainly we’ll need to get our foundations strong.”
Keep that bus moving
He also confirmed that ‘parking the bus’ is not an option for his team: “I said there’s many ways to approach the game. And I wouldn’t criticise anyone who does that [park the bus] because that might be their best way of getting a result. I’m not sure it’s ours.”
In a world where too many Premier League teams try to snuff out the Manchester City attack by sitting back and soaking up the pressure, hoping for a quick break, it’s nice to know that Howe doesn’t plan on setting up his Newcastle side to do that.
Attacking Man City is the best form of defence. They’re so used to having it their way with players like Kevin De Bruyne and Jack Grealish able to play their own game at their own pace as teams place ten men behind the ball. We need to get out there and disrupt their play. if De Bruyne has no space he can’t find those killer passes. If Grealish has nowhere to run he will just fall over.
We need to stop Jack Grealish
This would be a brilliant game to have Anthony Gordon and Alexander Isak on from the start. Their pace can cause real problems for City. Bruno Guimaraes looks like he’ll be involved so that gives us an extra boost going into the game.
We went on the front-foot at St James’ Park and went 3-1 up against the champions then, and although they managed to peg it back to finish 3-3, it did prove that we were able to go toe-to-toe with the best.
Our biggest concern will be the recent form of Jack Grealish who has suddenly transformed into the Grealish that played for Aston Villa, or I suppose a more accurate comparison would be that he’s playing like Miguel Almiron in October.
Hopefully Miggy coming face-to-face with Grealish for the first time since “that video” will light the spark of inspiration on Saturday and he’ll return to that world-class winger we had before the World Cup.
Our back line will have their work cut out for them, for sure, but with Nick Pope back between the sticks they’ll be feeling like the unit is complete once again. The key will be making sure those in front of them make it so they have little to do.
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