Eddie Howe is doing all he can to ensure his Newcastle United players are ready for the Carabao Cup final on Sunday, and that includes shielding them from the outside noise.
The game at Wembley will be Newcastle‘s first cup final since 1999, and Howe can put his name in the history books if he can end the Toon trophy drought that has gone on since 1969.
It is a game of huge importance for the Magpies, and it comes at a time when Howe’s side are on a bad run of form. Our unbeaten run in the Premier League came to an end on Saturday when we lost 2-0 to Liverpool.
That result means we have now only won one of our previous seven games, while Manchester United will arrive at Wembley full of confidence. They beat Barcelona in the Europa League on Thursday night, and will believe they can win their first trophy under Erik ten Hag.
But while they haven’t been able to focus on the cup final until now, Newcastle have been thinking about Sunday’s game ever since Anthony Taylor blew his whistle and called time on the match with Liverpool.
Eddie Howe stops Newcastle players doing media before the final
Howe has been able to work with his team all week in preparation for the final, but has still had to ensure that all focus is on the game.
According to Miguel Delaney’s newsletter for the Independent, the Newcastle manager has stopped all of his players from doing any additional media ahead of the cup final.
We have heard from Kieran Trippier, Sean Longstaff and Dan Burn, with each of them doing a press conference at the beginning of the week. However, the club will have been obligated to do that – whereas Howe has banned any other interviews during the buildup to Sunday’s game at Wembley.
It is a smart decision from Howe, and also telling that and his players did their media commitments at the start of the week. That allowed them to get it over with so they could then just focus on training and preparing for the match for the rest of the week.
The decision from Howe shows how dedicated he is to ensuring his players have the right mindset going into the game against Man United. He wants complete focus.
If we lose, it will be because Man United were better on the day – not because the players didn’t do enough interviews in the buildup. Howe has eliminated all distractions and hopefully his decision pays dividends.
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