Burnley host Newcastle United at Turf Moor on Tuesday night, with both sides looking to close out the calendar year with momentum and having very different goals in mind.
The home team remains in the relegation zone and aims to escape that dangerous situation, although Burnley have shown signs of improvement after a prolonged slump. Scott Parker’s side are still 19th with 12 points, five adrift of safety, and goal-scoring remains a major issue.
Newcastle, meanwhile, arrive having won just one of their
last five matches in all competitions and were beaten 1-0 at Manchester United on Boxing Day. That result extended the Magpies’ Premier League winless run to three games.
Eddie Howe’s side sits a putrid 14th in the table, but so tight is the EPL that the Geordie Boys are just six points off Chelsea and Man Utd in fourth and fifth place respectively, both with 29 points in 18 games entering Tuesday’s slate.
Away form remains the main concern for the Magpies, with only one league win on the road all season. That said, the head-to-head matchup against Burnley makes for a promising outlook, as Newcastle beat Burnley 2-1 at St James’ Park earlier this month and will have a chance to win a game away from home once and for all.
Here are some of Howe’s Wisdom Nuggets, courtesy of NUFC.co.uk
On Nick Pope…
“Nick had really limited training time for (the Manchester United) game. He declared himself fit and then was subsequently ill right before kick-off and wasn’t feeling great – so it was probably fortunate that he wasn’t playing (on Boxing Day).
“I’ll take a view from the training that I see, although it’s been limited so far. I need to see that Nick’s back to his very best – and Aaron (Ramsdale)’s played well in his absence, so I’ll make a call.”
On the availability of Kieran Trippier, Sven Botman and other injured defenders…
“I don’t think so. We’re not 100 per cent sure. We’ve got a whole group of players that are getting closer – obviously not as quick as I would like. I’d like them fit and available as quickly as possible because our backline’s been really stretched.
“The guys that have played, I think, have done really well – especially Lewis Miley playing out of position – but we really would welcome some of those players back. But whether it’s for Burnley, I don’t know.
“We would like to rotate, especially with the schedule that we’ve got coming up; January is probably going to be harder than it was during December. We’ve got a tough period of games coming up and we need fresh players fit and available for that. But we’re at a point where we can’t lose any more players to our backline.”
On Yoane Wissa…
“With Yoane, I think we’ve got to look after him. He’s still relatively early in his return to full fitness. He did really well in his one start, against Fulham – I was really pleased with him on that day, and there’ll be other opportunities.
“The problem for us is, with our schedule, playing every three, four days, I don’t think he’s in a condition where he could start regularly at the moment. But hopefully we can manage him to that point at some stage.”
On teenager Sam Alabi, who was on the bench at Man United…
“Sam’s done well when he’s trained with us. He’s so young and we’ve got to be mindful of that, look after him and protect him and nurture him, but he’s certainly got a lot of talent.
“He’s got a great attitude as well. I love his fearlessness and how he’s adapted himself to the group. He’s got a great future ahead of him if he continues to work hard.”
On the team’s current levels of intensity…
“I think it’s certainly been more difficult for us to do that when you’re playing every two-to-three days. I have seen it, it’s still there, it’s still part of us; we look back at that Chelsea first half, that was as intense as I’ve seen us play, possibly ever. I thought it was a brilliant 45 minutes from us.
“There have been some games where I’ve looked at us and we haven’t had that. But there can be a multitude of reasons for that. I think it’s easy to look at the result and go down that way of thinking. I thought generally the last seven, eight games, our performances bar the Sunderland game have been much better.”
On Burnley…
“It is a tough place to go, as I know having managed there. But we just need to look at it independently and give everything we can to get a positive result there.
“We need to start feeling better about ourselves on the road, we need some good feelings on our travels for our supporters, who give so much and who travel in such numbers. We need to give them the feeling that they want.”
Howay!
- Date: Tuesday, December 30th
- Kick-off: 19:30 BST / 14:30 EST
- Location: Turf Moor, Burnley (England)
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