Howe seeking 'much more vibrant' display against Forest | OneFootball

The Magpies face third-placed Forest on Tyneside looking for a response following last weekend's 4-0 defeat at Manchester City.

Ahead of the visit of Nuno Espírito Santo's men, Howe spoke to the media about the challenge of facing the high-fliers and their in-form former United frontman Chris Wood, Martin Dúbravka and Emil Krafth's contract extensions and the fitness of some key players.

Here are some of the main talking points from head coach Howe's pre-match media briefing:

On Sunday's challenge...

"Nottingham Forest have been excellent on the road this year. They have a style and a system that is very hard to play against.

"For us, I want to see a much more vibrant performance. I want to see us attack, be very much ourselves, see our attacking players expressing themselves, and hopefully returning to our very best."

On Sven Botman's fitness...

"I don't think he will be available for this weekend, we will have to see how things stand, he is making progress, good progress, he is very much on track but not quite there yet."

On Joelinton's ongoing recovery from injury...

"He's doing well - he's pushing, as joe always does. We just need to be sure that we introduce him at the right time."

On Dúbravka and Krafth's new deals...

"I'm very pleased to sign Martin to a new contract... It was important that we didn't destabilise the group with a departure in a position that we couldn't afford to lose.

"(On) Emil, his character and attitude stands out - his versatility and ability to play different roles, whenever he has played this year, he has been very good. He fully deserves his contract."

On his side's mindset and approach...

"The attitude to training is very good. The attitude and hunger is there to put the last performance to bed and put it right.

"We have very strong characters behind the team, a very strong attitude to represent the club in the right way, and I think that is at our heart and is one of our biggest strengths.

"Then there is really strong leadership within the player group - they know the expectations that they need to reach. We didn't do that as a group last week, but there is really strong will to come back and fight back."