Sport
Eddie Howe facing uphill task to fix Newcastle defence
Newcastle United fans were left cursing their club’s luck when it was revealed on Friday that Eddie Howe had tested positive for COVID-19. The Magpies’ new manager was therefore unable to attend his first game in charge, a thrilling 3-3 draw with Brentford at St James’ Park.
Howe watched the match from his hotel room while Jason Tindall, his long-time assistant, called the shots on the touchline. It is hard to imagine Howe sitting comfortably with his feet up and ordering room service. He must have been pacing the room as the game swung in both directions, with Newcastle taking a 1-0 lead, falling 2-1 and 3-2 behind, and then securing a point in the 75th minute.
There were elements of his new team’s performance that would have pleased Eddie Howe, who set Newcastle up in a 3-4-3 formation.
Newcastle played with the sort of attacking ambition that the St James’ Park faithful have long been calling for. The home team got on the front foot and took the game to Brentford whenever they could. Newcastle averaged more than 50 percent possession for only the second time this season. They took 23 shots and registered an xG of 1.6, their second-highest figure of the campaign.
Newcastle fans will draw optimism from the way the front three performed. Callum Wilson and Allan Saint-Maximin have long been regarded as the Magpies’ two most important players, but Joelinton was arguably the standout performer on Saturday. With Ryan Fraser and Miguel Almiron beginning the game on the bench, Newcastle are not short of quality in forward areas.
The problem, as ever, was at the other end of the field. Brentford arrived in the northeast on a four-match losing run in which they had scored only three goals. They had notched as many within an hour of facing Newcastle, whose wait for a clean sheet – as well as a win – will now extend to at least a 13th Premier League game.
No team in the division has conceded more goals than Newcastle, whose backline has been breached on 27 occasions. There is talk of strengthening in defence when the January transfer window opens, but there are still eight games to play until then. Besides, defensive solidity is about collective structure as much as individual quality. Just look at the immediate impact Thomas Tuchel had on the Chelsea reargued he inherited from Frank Lampard.
The concern for Newcastle is that Eddie Howe does not exactly have a great track record of building watertight defences. In his five seasons as a top-flight manager with Bournemouth, his team conceded 330 goals – an average of 66 per campaign and 1.74 per game.
Howe would argue, and with a certain amount of justification, that Bournemouth’s defensive openness was a price to pay for their attacking output. For four years he exceeded expectations by keeping the Cherries in the Premier League. But at no point did Howe come close to striking a better balance between attack and defence. Eventually the goals dried up and Bournemouth’s inability to shut their opponents out proved fatal.
Eddie Howe will be hoping that the Newcastle frontline, led by Wilson and Saint-Maximin, can make up for the defensive deficiencies that look set to plague this team until January at the earliest. In a 38-game top-flight season only one team (Derby County in 2000/01) has survived after failing to win any of their first 12 games. If Newcastle are to replicate the Rams, they must find a way to tighten up at the back.
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