ยท December 12 2024, 16:00
Newcastle United are in the middle of two big crises - a crisis of confidence and an identity crisis. Solving one could likely solve the other, but it's knowing where to start that seems to be the problem right now.
Eddie Howe's men have treated the fans to some scintillating football at times this season, but those positives have been greatly overshadowed by poor performances and an inability to find the net.
The intensity that made Newcastle a joy to watch under Eddie Howe is weirdly absent, and whether this is to do with an apparent lack of confidence or whether it's part of James Bunce's work to ensure the squad stays fit, only those behind the scenes will know for sure.
Whatever the reasons, a solution needs to be found quickly as the Magpies currently lie in 12th place in the Premier League and while they're still in the running, with each poor result, the idea of qualifying for Europe in any of its guises via league position slips away.
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Eddie Howe is suffering a Newcastle United hangover
Chris Sutton has backed Eddie Howe to turn it around for Newcastle
Chris Sutton has been speaking to a Swedish betting site (via The Chronicle) about Newcastle and the former Blackburn striker can see light at the end of the tunnel for Newcastle, but admits the side is suffering some sort of hangover right now.
"You look at the table and a couple of wins and they'll be back in the mix. They haven't had European football this year. They don't have that excuse as such. I don't think they're far away. I do think that there's been a bit of a hangover for Eddie Howe this season. I don't think there needs to be anything too knee-jerk about Newcastle. They have an identity; they have their way of playing.
"It hasn't quite clicked this season. I think that there is no doubting Eddie Howe was frustrated in the summer, there's no doubt about that, I think that it seems to me that maybe he's come through that, but then the results haven't quite been there for them.
"It seems like they're not far away, but then they go and perform like they did against Brentford at the weekend. Having said that, Brentford, they're a brilliantly strange team. Top of the Premier League on the home league table, aren't they? And I think they're 19th on the away form table. So how do you work that out?"
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Eddie Howe's stubbornness is costing Newcastle
It's very easy to point at the mitigating factors that could easily be used as excuses to shield Eddie Howe from blame, but after coating him in Teflon and surrounding him with Kevlar last season due to the injury crisis, Sandro Tonali's ban, we can't simply say that Eddie Howe is completely blameless any more.
A reluctance to change formation, an insistence on putting Anthony Gordon as a striker when Alexander Isak is injured when we have a 21-year-old striker sitting on the bench, and a reluctance to part with sub-par players in the past to the point where they are now worth nothing have all played their part.
We still stand by Eddie Howe. We've seen enough from him to know that given time he can turn this around, but that's not to say he's not without his flaws and those flaws are biting us now.
If this is just a 'hangover' then get some coffee, some orange juice and tonnes of Irn Bru and get to work! it's time to pull round and get on with it!