Newcastle were knocked out of the Champions League, conceding seven to Barcelona in midweek. Do you think this has increased the pressure massively to win the derby?
I wouldn’t say it has increased the pressure as the pressure on Newcastle to win this game would have been huge regardless.
Eddie Howe admitted their performance let the fans down in the reverse fixture at the Stadium of Light and the importance of responding to that in the right way on Sunday has not been lost on him or the Newcastle
players.
In the Premier League, Newcastle have beaten both Chelsea and Man United of late. Does it feel like you can now focus on finishing 7th and achieving European football again?
Newcastle are out of the FA Cup and the Champions League so after relentlessly having a game every three or four days for the past seven months, they can now purely focus on the Premier League.
Qualifying for Europe was the minimum aim this season and it is still firmly in Newcastle’s grasp. There are three weeks between the derby and Newcastle’s game against Crystal Palace and that will give Eddie Howe what he has craved all season.
Time on the training ground to work with and improve his players. That should see Newcastle end what has been a difficult season in a positive manner and reeling in Brentford for a place in next season’s Europa League will be their immediate aim.
Things have continued to be up and down surrounding Eddie Howe’s popularity amongst the fanbase this season. Although Newcastle are favourites to win, do you think another loss to Sunderland could be the final straw for many fans?
I always say the best gauge for a manager’s popularity is in a stadium rather than on social media and the fan on terraces continue to chant Eddie Howe’s name game after game. A second defeat to Sunderland in a season would be hard to swallow and maybe that is when that popularity starts to wane.
But the overriding feeling remains that while he is not beyond criticism this season, he remains the best manager for the job and the manager who finally delivered a trophy after 70 years of hurt. For that reason, regardless of how the season ends, he will almost certainly be given a summer to work with new CEO David Hopkinson and sporting director Ross Wilson to plot a route forward.
Against Barcelona, Newcastle opted against playing summer signings Nick Woltemade and Yoane Wissa. What is not working for the pair of them of late?
Wissa just hasn’t been fully fit and Newcastle haven’t seen the best of him yet. There’s a feeling we may have to wait until he has had a proper pre-season to see that but that is disappointing for a £55million signing who was expected to hit the ground running. He has been Newcastle’s most underwhelming signing of the summer by a distance.
Woltemade started well but the goals dried up at the turn of the year and he has been used in midfield in recent weeks – an experiment that just hasn’t worked. The feeling is he is a very good player who doesn’t fit Newcastle’s style. How he ends the season will be telling as to whether he must adapt to Newcastle’s way of playing or whether Newcastle try and adapt to him.
Now we’re well into the season, who would you say have been Newcastle’s most standout players this season?
Malick Thiaw has been outstanding at the back but he has played a lot of football and looks like he is running on empty a little bit. Anthony Gordon and Harvey Barnes’ goalscoring records across all competitions, not necessarily the Premier League, have been impressive, too, but there are two Newcastle players who stand out above the rest.
Bruno Guimaraes has put the club on his back at times this season and without his contribution in the first half of the campaign, I dread to think where they would be in the Premier League table.
Lewis Hall has been outstanding, too. He got huge plaudits for the way he dealt with Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal in the first leg at St James’ Park but that is something we have become accustomed to seeing week in, week out. His close control is phenomenal and his one-v-one defending has improved immeasurably.
I think he is one of the best left-backs in world football and could be England’s first choice there for the next decade. He is that good.
Last time against Sunderland, Newcastle sat deep and were very passive. Are you expecting Howe to set up with more intensity and pressing this time around?
100%. I don’t think Howe grasped the enormity of the defeat in the first game until his next pre-match press conference ahead of the Carabao Cup quarter-final against Fulham two days later turned into a bit of a post-mortem. In today’s press conference, he hit the right tone and you could tell the fallout from that defeat still weighs heavy on him and the players.
I think you will see a much more aggressive approach and I think the home crowd will feed into that too. At the very least, there will be no accusations of Newcastle players not grasping the magnitude of the game this time around.
If you were Regis Le Bris, how would you set up to try and beat Newcastle?
I would set up with a low block to try and frustrate Newcastle and I suspect that is what he will do. Newcastle are at their best when the game is stretched and they can kill you in transition.
If Sunderland restrict the space to do that and make it ugly, Newcastle have historically struggled against that sort of style. Wolves and Manchester United did that very successfully against Newcastle away from home earlier this season.
This will be the first derby at St. James’ Park since 2016 – what is your score prediction?
2-0 Newcastle. If Newcastle start well and get an early goal I think it will be a fairly comfortable afternoon given Sunderland’s lack of goal threat.
The longer the game stays 0-0 suits Sunderland as I expect them to set up in a low block and try and frustrate Newcastle. Newcastle have struggled to break down teams who set up that way and that is why the first goal, and the timing of it, feels key.
