The Mag
·21 de diciembre de 2024
The Mag
·21 de diciembre de 2024
Looking at the Newcastle team v Ipswich.
Eddie Howe and his players hoping to continue the levels of their last three excellent St James’ Park performances against Liverpool, Leicester and Brentford.
The exception of course was that dire second half which condemned United to a 4-2 away defeat in their most recent away game at Brentford.
So can Newcastle reproduce that recent home form on their travels?
What can we expect the Newcastle team v Ipswich to be?
As a starting point, this was the Newcastle team v Brentford:
Dubravka, Livramento, Schar, Burn, Hall, Tonali, Bruno, Joelinton, Murphy, Isak, Gordon
Eddie Howe gave an injury and availability update on Friday morning.
The good news, was that there were no new injuries to report after the Brentford match.
The NUFC Head Coach saying there were some tired players by the end of the cup quarter-final but that when returning to training, there was great ‘energy’ in the group, on the back of this week’s performances and results.
Sean Longstaff is back from suspension for this game, whilst Joelinton misses today after picking up five yellows in Premier League matches.
It looks like another five definitely missing, due to injury/recovery still underway.
So the likes of Callum Wilson, Nick Pope, Emil Krafth, Jamaal Lascelles and Sven Botman set to miss as well.
Anyway, my take on all of this, my best guesstimate of the Newcastle team v Ipswich is:
Dubravka, Livramento, Schar, Burn, Hall, Tonali, Bruno, Willock, Murphy, Isak, Gordon
So that would mean one enforced change.
Less than 72 hours between matches this time, but unlike the Liverpool match that preceded the defeat at Brentford where Eddie Howe felt he had to drop both Tonali and Gordon to the bench, I don’t think that will be the case here. Newcastle were obviously still committed for the full match on Wednesday but they were in cruise control really from taking the lead inside ten minutes, then certainly once it was 2-0 by the break. Whereas Liverpool was a full on end to end match from first whistle to last.
Eddie Howe also had the luxury of taking off Isak, Gordon, Hall and Murphy towards the end of the game, helping to ensure availability for today.
Which to me points to an unchanged team, apart from having to replace the suspended (and bloodied/battered!) Joelinton.
My assumption is that this comes down to a choice between Joe Willock and Sean Longstaff.
I think Willock did enough on Wednesday when replacing Joelinton at half-time, to convince Eddie Howe that he should get a start today.
So that’s my only change in this predicted Newcastle team v Ipswich.
Newcastle United upcoming matches:
Saturday 21 December – Ipswich v Newcastle (3pm)
Thursday 26 December – Newcastle v Villa (3pm) Amazon
Monday 30 December – Man U v Newcastle (8pm) Sky Sports
Saturday 4 January – Tottenham v Newcastle (12.30pm) TNT Sports
Week commencing Monday 6 January – Arsenal v Newcastle TBC
Sunday 12 January – Newcastle v Bromley (3pm) BBC iPlayer (FA Cup)
Wednesday 15 January – Newcastle v Wolves (7.30pm) TNT Sports
Saturday 18 January – Newcastle v Bournemouth (12.30pm) TNT Sports
Saturday 25 January – Southampton v Newcastle (3pm)
Saturday 1 February – Newcastle v Fulham (3pm)
Week commencing Monday 3 February – Newcastle v Arsenal TBC