Eddie Howe has heaped praise on the ‘immense’ Sandro Tonali following his ‘perfect’ debut, but doesn’t want to ‘go over the top’ and ‘put pressure’ on the midfielder following our 5-1 win over Aston Villa.
The Magpies blew Unai Emery’s side away, with the Italian – who Howe ‘fell in love’ watching last year – scoring our opener in the first half before pulling the strings in the second 45.
After a dominant and dynamic performance from our midfield trio, Howe revealed that he always sets the team up to be as ‘unpredictable’ as possible, feeling Tonali has a combination of attributes that make him ideal for Premier League football.
Ahead of what will be an intense and long season, Howe also stated that the ‘power of our bench is going to be huge’ after seeing Harvey Barnes and Callum Wilson be so effective in the second half.
Things are certainly looking positive in terms of squad depth, especially with Willock still to return, but rotation will be key and it will be interesting to see Howe utilises his squad in each competition.
Speaking on Tonali’s debut, Howe said: “Sandro was immense. He looked at home in the midfield. He’s an incredible technician and great to see him score too. The perfect start for us.
“We pursued him for a long, long time and paid a big fee for him because I fell in love watching him play a game last year.
“Very similar to our other midfielders, he’s got a combination of a lot of attributes that will suit the Premier League. This is one game, I don’t want to go over the top and put more pressure on him but it’s a very good start and I’m just pleased he looked confident in the shirt and the fans have certainly taken to him, which is great to see.
On his midfield set-up, Howe added: “We work very hard at trying to give teams problems with our midfield shape so trust me there is a structure, it’s just we try and make it as unpredictable as we can.
“I have to credit those players because their intelligence and understanding of the game is at the highest level. They’ve all got different characteristics – Joelinton is so good off the ball and so strong, and then you’ve got the technical ability of Sandro and Bruno, so they work well.”
On the importance of a strong bench, Howe said: “I think the squad dynamic this year is going to be even more important than ever because of the extra time in games. We know that the power of our bench is going to be huge and I think we had a strong bench today, hopefully we can keep that for the rest of the season.
