There are few certainties in life, and Eddie Howe leaving it until at least the 60th minute to make his first sub is often one of them.
However, with the side trailing 2-1 to West Ham at halftime yesterday, Howe made the early move to substitute Anthony Gordon, Nick Woltemade and Emil Krafth ahead of the second half.
Speaking to the press after the 3-1 defeat at the London Stadium, Howe was uncharacteristically blunt and outright critical of the team’s overall performance and body language on the pitch.
In a damning post-match quote, the Newcastle boss admitted it was the first occasion in his four years in charge where he felt that dissapointed by our first 45 minutes that it could’ve been anyone who was hauled off at halftime.
> _“The most frustrating thing about the first half was I almost could’ve taken anyone off._
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> _“It’s very, very rare for me to feel that way. I don’t think I’ve felt that way since becoming manager of Newcastle”._
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> _“That’s the worst we’ve played. It didn’t look like a Newcastle team. The body language, the spirit on the pitch._
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> _“The longer the half went on, the more frustrated I was with our performance._
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> _“We were unrecognisable in certain aspects of our game.”_
Howe then discussed our inability to do the basics and urged the early subs to bounce back in the right way after being taken off at the break:
> _“You have to do the basics in the game and you have to perform. Everyone’s under huge pressure with the level we’re playing at to do that._
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> _“So I think that (the HT changes) was a reflection. I wanted to get fresh energy on the pitch and of course I expect those players (Gordon, Woltemade and Krafth) to respond in the right way._
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> _“We made the changes to try and bring some fresh energy, a fresh dynamic to the pitch. Although I feel our performance was better in the second half, it still wasn’t our best.”_
Compared to our Premier League form, we’ve been exceptional in the Champions League so far this season.
A competitive display against Barcelona, followed up with dominant wins against Union Saint-Gilloise and Benfica find us in the top eight in the table.
But a number of players need to show that they can perform outside of the big occasions, and that they need to produce better performances against the likes of West Ham if they want to justify their places against teams like Athletic Bilbao, Marseille and Bayer Leverkusen.
So, could we see Howe make a few bold decisions for Wednesday night’s game at St James’ Park?
If anything, the early subs may be the rocket Gordon needed, but Howe does have some huge decisions to make given Bilbao is followed by another away game in the league, with our trip to Brentford feeling like an important point in our Premier League season.