News broke to day that Ibrahima Konate will not be fit enough to face Newcastle tomorrow and Eddie Howe has the perfect weapon in his arsenal to exploit that fact.
It might be a bit late in the day for Eddie Howe to be calling an audible in terms of Newcastle’s line-up following the news of Ibrahima Konate’s absence, but if he wants to really capitalise on the situation then Anthony Gordon could be the key.
The 22-year-old former Everton player played as a number 10 for England Under-21s in the U21’s European Championship. Not only did England win the tournament but Gordon picked up Player of the Tournament playing in that more central role.
Gordon’s pace is going to be key against Liverpool
Tomorrow could be the perfect time for Howe to use this to his advantage. Gordon’s blistering pace will be a huge problem for Liverpool‘s defence.
Gordon will probably start tomorrow anyway, but Howe is likely to name an unchanged side again meaning Gordon will be out on the left of the attack.
For me, he’d be better off running through the middle supporting Alexander Isak tomorrow. The pair will be a nightmare for ageing Virgil Van Dijk and whether it’s Joel Matip or Joe Gomez who fills in for Konate, I feel Gordon and Isak will cause them plenty of problems.
Even if Howe still lines the team up with Gordon on the left but gives him a more free role allowing him to come inside more often to keep their shaky defence on their toes, that might work.
Ideally it would be good to see Harvey Barnes on the pitch along with Gordon. High intensity from pacey players is what can deliver us the victory tomorrow.
Newcastle showed too much respect to Man City last week
Our mistake last week was we gave Manchester City too much respect, particularly in the first half. We backed off and let them play. We can’t make that mistake tomorrow.
I’ve said it before but if Newcastle come charging out of the blocks tomorrow and grab an early goal we can go on to finish the game off early. Having everyone on full-on attack mode will do that for us.
But hey, I’m just a fat bloke with a keyboard and this is my opinion. Eddie Howe is the one earning the big bucks and will have his gameplan all worked out. I just hope it’s similar in terms of getting on the front-foot early.
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