Newcastle approach crisis as Howe faces 21-day fight for future after Man City battering | OneFootball

After a week of recriminations thanks to Manchester City’s second-half collapse against Tottenham and his thoughts on the “genocide in Palestine”, Pep Guardiola took the advice of the Jewish Representative Council on board and ‘focused on the football’ to ease doubts over his future, offer vindication for Liam Rosenior and plunge Eddie Howe and Newcastle into the doldrums, if not quite yet a crisis.

“It just doesn’t look as though it means as much to them as Arsenal. Most of them have won all those trophies and if they win the title, then great. But if they don’t, does it mean as much?” a source told The Telegraph after City allowed a two-goal lead to slip at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday.

Used as evidence to suggest there is ‘tangible uncertainty over whether Guardiola will see out his contract’, as was his “little bit grumpy” net-spend bit in the aftermath, the fires of desire appeared to be burning brightly enough in the City players as they put Newcastle to the sword in the first half at the Etihad.

James Trafford was forced into a couple of excellent early saves, rushing out to deny Joe Willock and then Antony Gordon, but Howe’s high-pressing tactics and Guardiola’s decision to flood the midfield and play Omar Marmoush and Antoine Semenyo high and wide on the wings saw City cut the visitors to ribbons in a first half to illustrate the benefits of so-called ‘pathetic’ football when you’re travelling to play one of the Premier League elite.

“If I go and attack the game, press really high and we can concede two early goals, everyone says ‘What’s he doing?’ That’s the reality,” Rosenior said after Chelsea’s limp exit to Arsenal in the other Carabao Cup semi-final on Tuesday, insisting it’s “easy in hindsight” as a pundit.

His side were a moment away for 96 minutes of their second from taking their tie to extra time because of the negative tactics he deployed. Newcastle had little hope of winning their tie just seven minutes into their second leg and were completely out of it after half an hour thanks to gung-ho Howe.

Newcastle were two goals down already. Sitting deep for 60 minutes as Rosenior did would not have been tolerated. But there can’t be credit afforded merely ‘going for it’ when it goes so wrong, so quickly and your Carabao Cup defence ends in a 5-1 defeat across two legs.

The Magpies’ press was disordered and half-hearted, meaning Tijjani Reijnders had a right old time, picking the ball up in acres of space before running unchallenged for roughly half a pitch to create goals two and three, having played a beautifully weighted first-time pass in a give-and-go with Marmoush for the first.

Newcastle looked nowhere near their aggressive, dynamic best and Howe will be eyeing up the next few weeks, and indeed the rest of the season, with great trepidation after Gordon hobbled off at the end of the first half with a suspected hamstring strain ahead of a run of seven games in just 21 days, including Aston Villa away in the FA Cup, their two-legged Champions League play-off against Qarabag and City away again in the Premier League.

An extension of the poor form which has seen Newcastle lose four and win just one of their last seven games, which has also featured a 0-0 draw with rock-bottom Wolves, and they could quite easily be out of every cup competition and out of contention for Champions League qualification. They’re already seven points behind Chelsea in fifth.

What then of Eddie Howe? After a January transfer window which ended with Sandro Tonali linked heavily – if somewhat spuriously – with a move to Arsenal, on the back of Alexander Isak defecting to Liverpool in the summer, might PIF consider a big-name manager a means of retaining their best players in a bid to make progress?

Any suggestion that Howe is coming under pressure at Newcastle during what has in general been an excellent four-and-half-year tenure has generally been followed by a period of prosperity to render those suggestions laughable.

Howe needs one of those spells now, because neither the results nor the performances are good enough as things stand in what is at best an indication of short-term inertia and at worst a sign that he’s taken them as far as he can.