Eddie Howe has been speaking to the media this morning, talking all things Newcastle and Bradford ahead of our Carabao Cup third round clash at St James’ Park tomorrow night.
What we already know is that Fabian Schar (concussion), Yoane Wissa (knee) and Jacob Ramsey (ankle) have all been ruled out, with Schar set to miss our next two due to concussion rules, while Wissa and Ramsey will be missing until after the next international break.
However, Howe has hinted this morning that he’ll rest players who’ve just played three games in a week, meaning we can expect to see anyone who started against Wolves, Barcelona and Bournemouth to miss out.
With this in mind, it’s likely that Nick Pope, Dan Burn, Tino Livramento and Sandro Tonali are all given a night off on Wednesday, with all four not missing a minute over the last three games.
Discussing this and the Bradford test as we look to defend the Carabao Cup, Howe said:
“There will be an element of rotation, we might look to give the guys who have played three times in a week a rest. We have to get the balance right and you don’t want to lose.”
“I always enjoy the games and preparing for them. The matches are what we are here for. We embrace every competition we are in, the Carabao Cup is one we love so we are desperate to do well again.”
With this in mind, we could see Aaron Ramsdale, Jamaal Lascells and/or Emil Krafth handed rare starts, with Bruno Guimaraes likely to return and Will Osula primed to start in attack.
Howe also commented on Sunday’s seven changes and the performance against Bournemouth, admitting that rotation is a reflection of our stronger squad and bid to cope better in all competitions than we did two years ago.
“I think we have a strong squad and I think the rotations we made in the game were a reflection of that. Two years ago we got to the stage where we couldn’t rotate anybody.
“We’re trying to navigate the situation better this time round but we still want to win games.
“We still have to win games and be competitive. I thought we performed strongly, albeit without a real goal threat.”
