Eddie Howe’s relatively controversial decision to bench Nick Woltemade for Newcastle United against Barcelona is starting to make sense after a pre-season message was revealed.
Woltemade started on the bench for Newcastle United against Barcelona and the sight of the towering German sitting there was rather galling while his teammates missed a number of chances.
Clearly, there’s no guarantee Woltemade would have buried one of them, but it doesn’t exactly take a great leap to imagine him making a better fist of it than either Anthony Gordon or Harvey Barnes.
Still, Howe was looking to manage the striker’s minutes as he bids to keep everyone fit over a busy period of action.
Indeed, a message from the Newcastle United manager to his players during pre-season indicated that.
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Eddie Howe told his Newcastle United squad they will be rotated
According to iNews, Howe told the Newcastle United squad that every member would need to play a part this season.
With the Champions League back on the agenda and surely an expectation to go deep in the domestic cups following last season’s success, rotation will be key.
Newcastle, of course, seriously struggled with injuries during their last European campaign in the 2023/24 season and will be keen to avoid such a crisis from happening again.
What Eddie Howe has said about rotating his squad this season
Speaking after Newcastle’s 2-1 loss to Barcelona in the Champions League, Howe all-but confirmed he would be rotating his squad frequently in the build-up to Christmas.
“The big thing for me is whoever enters the pitch, whoever we decide to play, you want them at their best physical condition to execute what we ask them to do,” he said.
He also said in reference to dropping Jacob Murphy in favour of Anthony Elanga: “I think they both understand – especially in a week like this week – that’s copy and repeat until Christmas for us.”
Newcastle have five more games until next month’s international break, so do need to rotate their options where possible.
Woltemade now looks almost certain to start for Newcastle against Bournemouth on Sunday, with Gordon – the man who replaced the German from the start on Thursday – suspended for the game following his red card against Liverpool last month.
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