Newcastle United were beaten 2-1 on the South Coast as Eddie Howe's selection was scrutinised
Anthony Elanga arrives ahead of Brighton vs Newcastle
Anthony Elanga arrives ahead of Brighton vs Newcastle
View Image
Eddie Howe shielded £55million star Anthony Elanga from any blame for Newcastle United's 2-1 defeat after another no-show from the Sweden international.
But Howe admitted that Elanga was part of a group of players who should be bringing more attacking intent to the pitch after defeat 2-1 loss on the South Coast.
Elanga was hooked at half-time as Newcastle could not conjure up anything meaningful against the Seagulls at the Amex Stadium in the opening 45 minutes.
When asked about Elanga, Howe said: "We need more from everybody. It is never about one player. Anthony is going to be a great player for this football club, I have no doubt about that.
Content Image
Content Image
"Some players need a little bit more time and extra support, something to happen positively to kick off. But he has all the attributes to do really well here. So I have no issues or worries about him.
"It is always about the team and the collective, and too many of our attacking players are not delivering enough.
"We are looking right through the team, the centre-halves and their distributions or the full-backs and their contributions, it is never about one player."
When asked about the decision to take off Elanga and Joelinton, Howe said: "It was tactical. I was not happy with the first half.
"It was a time to get new energy onto the pitch, different players with different qualities, and I thought the team benefited."
When asked why Joelinton and Bruno Guimaraes started ahead of Lewis Miley and Jacob Ramsey, with the pair coming in from the Far East, Howe said: "If you are talking about Joelinton and Bruno - they would be the two. Lewis Miley had not trained for two weeks, and Jacob Ramsey is back from a long lay off.
"So they are difficult players to bring in because they are arguably not 100% match fit either. So we made the decision to go with the two lads who have done the travelling.
"Bruno had a much better second half than he did first, so maybe that is not just fatigue. We were much better with the changes in the second half. It was a much brighter second half display."
Nick Woltemade popped up with an equaliser, but Newcastle could not add to his back-heeled strike late in the second half.
Howe said: "That is a concern for us. We can't rely on one individual. We have always historically been a team that scores a lot of goals from different areas.
"We have never been reliant on any one player. Nick has done really well and we are delighted with him, but we want more from other areas. of the team.
"I thought there were chances there for us today. Especially the second half. I thought it was a good attacking display, albeit we weren't clinical enough.
We made a bright start to the first half and looked in a good place initially, then we fell away from that. We were loose on the ball in that first period and ended up being in transition an awful lot.
"We didn't play with normal clarity on the ball. Much more like ourselves in the second half. In the end, we are really disappointed."