Eddie Howe dropping Newcastle United players just gets dafter | OneFootball

I have already written about this issue previously, Eddie Howe dropping Newcastle United players.

The whole thing just dafter.

Eddie Howe isn’t dropping anybody.

Newcastle United players getting rotated is a different matter.

As I say, I wrote about this before on The Mag this season but I am prompted to do so again.

Eddie Howe now has a Newcastle United squad AND the weeks and months that lie ahead of us, see NUFC playing weekend – midweek – weekend – midweek, apart from when the players have a ‘break’ for the internationals, when so many of our top Newcastle United players will also be playing for their countries, rather than having a ‘break’.

The fixture schedule is brutal and certainly no outfield player is starting every single match.

Indeed, only nine matches into the season so far, not a single Newcastle United player has started in all nine of them.

Look at the runs of games Eddie Howe and his squad face.

After this next international break, it is Brighton away in the Premier League on Saturday 18 October and then Brentford away on Sunday 9 November, before another international fortnight. In that time period there are seven Newcastle games (see below) in all competitions, a stretch of 22 days between the first game and the seventh.

It is then the same in November to December, after the Nov int ‘break’, from Man City at home on Saturday 22 November to the Mackems away currently scheduled for Saturday 13 December, it is seven matches again with a 22 day stretch between first and seventh matches.

It would be pure folly to start any outfield player evert match.

For some NUFC fans, they still struggle to come to terms with the reality of a Newcastle United squad now existing, where we don’t have a first eleven and the rest.

It is simply a case of Eddie Howe picking what he considers the right eleven for any match, taking into consideration all factors, especially how his players are each feeling physically at any moment in time and the match schedule overall.

I saw mention after the win in Belgium from a Newcastle fan that it is impossible to ‘drop’ Malick Thiaw now.

I would say that Thiaw is absolutely guaranteed to be left out of the team by Eddie Howe in the very near future BUT he won’t be dropped. Fabian Schar will absolutely get a start again very soon BUT again, how long he stays in the team will be up to Eddie Howe. Maybe out again straight away with Thiaw having had a rest, or maybe Schar given a little run of starts.

I think everybody should just relax and enjoy this new experience of Eddie Howe having some really good options.

What I believe a lot of people are missing as well, is that Eddie Howe also makes selection decisions depending on who NUFC are playing. The left-back spot is really interesting in this respect, as a perfect illustration of horses for courses.

With everybody fit, Eddie Howe could play at left-back – Lewis Hall, Dan Burn, Tino Livramento, Kieran Trippier.

Taking the first three of those, they are totally different players with very different strengths. Tino has pace, Hall is really good on the ball, BDB has the height.

I think that certainly these last two matches, it is very clear why Eddie Howe went with Dan Burn at left-back. Against Arsenal he could have played Livramento and Trippier as his full-backs, whilst against Union S-G he could have gone with Trippier and Hall.

With Arsenal so dangerous on set-pieces and long throws and Union S-G having a number of very tall players, I think having Dan Burn at left-back, meant that when defending (and attacking) set-pieces, Howe liked having Burn as well as Thiaw and Botman.

Against other opposition teams with different strengths and threats, Eddie Howe’s decision(s) might have been different when choosing his left-back.

Hopefully Yoane Wissa is back fully fit again in the near future and when he is, I have no doubt that he and Big Nick Woltemade (BNW?) will be sharing the workload up front. Sometimes playing together in the same team, probably most of the time, one starts and the other gets minutes off the bench.

This then replicated in many positions, match to match and indeed during games.

Having a Newcastle United squad gives Eddie Howe the ability to take on a packed schedule of games AND the chance to make a number of positive substitutions in any match.

Newcastle United fixtures (All of the Champions League matches will also be available to watch on TV in the UK):

Sunday 5 October– Newcastle v Forest (2pm) Sky Sports

Saturday 18 October – Brighton v Newcastle (3pm)

Tuesday 21 October: Newcastle United vs Benfica (8pm)

Saturday 25 October – Newcastle v Fulham (3pm)

Wednesday 29 October – Newcastle v Spurs (8pm) ITV and Sky Sports

Sunday 2 November – West Ham v Newcastle (2pm) Sky Sports