Eddie Howe has been speaking to preview Sunday's Carabao Cup final between Liverpool and Newcastle United
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Newcastle United manager, Eddie Howe
Newcastle United manager, Eddie Howe
Eddie Howe has confirmed that Newcastle United will be without four players for this weekend’s Carabao Cup final against Liverpool. The excitement is building ahead of Sunday’s showdown at the home of English football as the Reds look to win their first trophy under Arne Slot’s stewardship.
For Newcastle, a win at Wembley would end a trophy drought that has lasted almost 56 years. And Magpies boss Howe has confirmed that his side have no new injury concerns heading into the game.
“We’ve got the long-term issues,” Howe confirmed. “Lewis Hall is recovering after his operation now, Sven is recovering after his operation and Jamaal (Lascelles) is still making progress to come back. Anthony is suspended, but apart from that, we hope to have a full squad.”
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Howe does, however, have a number of selection decisions to make, and he said via the Chronicle: “Genuinely, whenever I look at a team selection for any game, there's always decisions to make.
“That'll be no different for this game because you're always looking at the opposition and your own strengths and trying to figure out what players need to go up against certain players.
“So that's what we've done. We don't have a huge pool of players to select from - that's pretty obvious. We have a very tight squad and in some senses that can help you in different moments and that can also be a negative.”
And asked about ending Newcastle’s trophy drought, Howe added: “It's a difficult one because I think a lot's made of that, of course I understand why.
“But I think it's a real motivation for us to try and break that long time and that long wait that everyone's feeling.
“It should be inspiring for us - not a negative. I understand it will be a negative or a perceived negative for a lot of people, but we're trying to look at it the other way round.
“It's a chance to make history for us as a team - that's very rare in football. You get very few opportunities to do that, a chance to be remembered positively.
“I want the players to look at it that way, as I said earlier, to attack the game and to get a good representation of us.”