Eddie Howe Birmingham press conference – The key messages ahead of Saturday | OneFootball

The Eddie Howe Birmingham Press Conference has taken place.

The Newcastle United Head Coach speaking to the media ahead of Saturday’s game.

United playing for a place in the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Newcastle having defeated Bromley 3-1 in the third round.

Eddie Howe’s side now hoping to follow up Wednesday’s confirmation of a return to Wembley in the League Cup.

Eddie Howe Birmingham press conference – 7 February 2025:

Eddie Howe asked about the Carabao Cup final against Liverpool:

“We have a great game lined up.

“Whoever we were going to face it was going to be a real challenge.

“It will be a mouthwatering tie, we are really looking forward to it.”

Eddie Howe on the FA Cup:

“It is a very important competition.

“We enjoyed the run we had last year until we met Manchester City.

“We want to try and go as far as we can.

“We know this will be a difficult game, they have a long unbeaten run.

“It is going to be a good test for us and a real test of our strength.”

Eddie Howe on Birmingham City:

“We respect them, Chris Davies has done a brilliant job.

“Every time you go to Birmingham, you realise the size of the club. It is a huge football club with a brilliant supporter base.

“It is a really good ground to play at.

“We see this as a big challenge, and we need to rise to the challenge.

“They are a very aggressive, a high pressing team, we cannot underestimate them in any way.”

Eddie Howe on the challenge facing his team now:

“The biggest challenge for us now is to eradicate it [the Carabao Cup final] from our brain for now and when it comes around, we will look forward to it.

“We have some big games coming up so we will focus on those.”

Now this Friday morning, Eddie Howe updating on the Sven Botman situation:

“Sven is not available for this weekend.

“He has taken a knock to his knee [the opposite one to his ACL injury].

“We don’t believe it is serious but enough to keep him out of the Birmingham game.”

Eddie Howe on squad rotation and looking after players to prevent unnecessary risk of injury:

“We will have to make changes, it would be a difficult ask for those players to go again, physically and mentally.

“We don’t have a huge squad in terms of depth, we will give opportunities to other players, but they will have to take their chance.