Newcastle United came away from Germany with a point, but Malick Thiaw may have put his future involvement in the Champions League at risk.
Yet again, it was a case of points dropped rather than a point gained for Newcastle, who were leading until the dying moments against Leverkusen.
Who was your MOTM vs Bayer Leverkusen?
With qualification for the next round now on the line, it looks like the Magpies will end up in the Champions League play-offs.
However, whether Malick Thiaw has a role to play in the next two games is another matter, and here’s why.
Malick Thiaw walking suspension tightrope
Thiaw picked up a yellow card last night against Leverkusen, his second of the tournament so far. One more and he will get a one-match suspension.
The problem is, yellow card tallies do not reset until after the first knockout phase. So, Thiaw could potentially have two league phase games, plus the play-off tie, and the last 16 game to get through without a booking.
That’s potentially six games for the defender to avoid any trouble, which feels almost impossible. Thiaw is not alone in that problem, though. Dan Burn is also at risk of suspension, as is Joelinton.
In fairness to Thiaw, it could have been a lot worse. After he tripped Patrick Schtick, the referee initially pointed to the spot, which would have almost certainly resulted in a red card, but VAR intervened and stated the incident took place just outside the box.
Will Newcastle advance to the next round of the Champions League?
10 points from 6 games is good, but a win vs Leverkusen could have moved us up to 6th!
Should Eddie Howe adjust his team for final two games?
This leaves Eddie Howe with a bit of a predicament. Does he leave Thiaw (or Burn or Joelinton) out of the games against PSG and PSV Eindhoven in the hopes that will reduce their odds of a booking, or does he stick with them and rely on their discipline seeing them through?
To be honest, in situations like this, it’s almost not worth the risk of leaving players out. Without the likes of Thiaw, Burn, and Joelinton, Newcastle are a weaker team, and might well end up not having the knockout stages to worry about if they can’t get results in the next two games.
Bookings happen. There’s no point hiding from this, and Howe just needs to send out his best team at every opportunity, get the results Newcastle need, and deal with the fallout after the fact.
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