Newcastle United return to St James’ Park on April 18 for their Premier League MD33 fixture against Bournemouth.
Eddie Howe’s side enter the match following a 2-1 defeat to Crystal Palace, where they conceded twice in the final 10 minutes. That result extended Newcastle’s losing run to three matches in all competitions and left them 14th in the table. They have lost four of their last six league games and have dropped points from winning positions on seven occasions this season. At home, Newcastle have lost six league matches,
including four of their last five, although both teams have scored in each of their last seven matches at St James’ Park.
Joelinton is suspended after accumulating 10 yellow cards. Emil Krafth and Fabian Schar remain unavailable, while Bruno Guimaraes is a game-time decision for this fixture. Options to replace Joelinton include Jacob Ramsey, Joe Willock or Nick Woltemade. William Osula is in contention to start after scoring against Crystal Palace, but don’t get overly hyped about his chances at actually bagging goals.
Bournemouth arrive following a 2-1 win over Arsenal, extending their unbeaten Premier League run to 12 matches and their away run to six. They have conceded three goals in their last six league games. Lewis Cook and Justin Kluivert are expected to miss out, while Julio Soler could return.
Here are some of Howe’s Wisdom Nuggets, courtesy of NUFC.co.uk
On whether Guimarães would play a part at the weekend…
“There is a chance. We’ve seen him training. He’s pushing really, really hard to be back involved. The medical team are trying to hold him back – I say hold him back, but there’s always that type of (situation) if the player wants desperately to play, and I love that about Bruno. I always have done.
“He’s desperate to help the team, especially in this moment. I’ll make a decision based on what I see today in training.”
On his side’s recent struggles…
“It’s been a difficult period, of course, with results, and it’s not where you want to live in my job – you want to live in the world of winning games, and the pitfalls that come with that are complacency. You want to really keep standards high to keep that feeling of winning and that momentum going.
“But this is a different moment. This is a moment where we have to critique ourselves honestly. There are some harsh words in terms of, ‘our performance levels haven’t been good enough’, but at the same time, you have to protect confidence levels, you have to protect players’ ability to go onto the pitch and execute what they need to, really, so it’s a delicate balancing act.
“And also stay very level and calm, because you have to put things in perspective. A couple of games ago we were playing Barcelona in the Champions League, and if you react to distorted reality, you think that we can’t play football again. You’ve got to keep that level head, believe in ourselves and go again.”
On the run-in…
“The future’s always the most important (thing). That’s always how I look at it regardless of what’s happened historically. Six games to finish the season on a really strong footing and a strong note is what we all have to do. We’re all determined to try and do it.
“The training ground’s had a different feeling this week, but that is really positive in the sense that we’re really focused.”
On Bournemouth…
“They’re a very good team and they’re on a great run in the Premier League recently as well. They’ve got clear strengths. We know what we need to do to win the game. Certain parts of the game we’re going to have to function really well. We’re under no illusions – this is a tough game.”
Howay!
- Date: Saturday, April 18th
- Kick-off: 15:00 BST / 10:00 EST
- Location: St. James’ Park, Newcastle (England)
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