Eddie Howe’s ability to rotate wisely and utilise his squad may be tested more this season than any other campaign in his managerial career.
It’s a new challenge for the Newcastle United boss in his bid to establish himself as an elite coach, while also keeping the club competing in the Premier League, cup competitions and in Europe.
One tough balancing act is keeping squad players happy, and Howe offered an insight into this during yesterday’s pre-match press conference as we prepare to take on Bradford tonight in the Carabao Cup.
In this, Howe insisted that he won’t play players for the sake of it to “keep them happy”, instead challenging them to earn the right to be given opportunities. That way, anyone “upset” at their lack of games will have to look at their own performance levels, not blame the manager for their lack of starts.
“I think this season we absolutely need the squad,” said Howe. “If you don’t have a big enough squad to carry the weight of games that we’ve got, we’re going to have problems.
“I’ve said all along, we’re going to have enough games to keep the players happy, if that’s something that you have to do, because I think the players ultimately have to play well to earn their place.
“It’s not a case of keeping them happy, it’s a case of them performing to play. So anyone who’s upset really will be upset because they haven’t done well enough to guarantee that starting spot.
“And I think that’s the demand, a healthy demand, that’s placed upon them. The competition for places has always inspired, or should inspire, the group to better outcomes.”
“But managing the squad from my perspective, I think, is something that I have to do. And also, as I said after the Bournemouth game, we have to trust the squad, we’ve got good players, so making changes isn’t a reflection on playing a weaker team, it’s just playing a slightly different team, maybe players with different strengths that are suited more to that game than others.”
Howe is right. More competition only pushes players in the squad to up their game, which we’ve seen via 33-year-olds Dan Burn and Fabian Schar looking better than ever now Malick Thiaw and Sven Botman are breathing down their necks.
This may also apply in wide areas, with Jacob Murphy pushed to maintain his recent for now £55m signing Anthony Elanga is looking to take his spot on the right wing, and so on.
Tonight will be a big opportunity for lesser-seen players to grasp their chance – but they’ll have to do so, with the likes of Aaron Ramsdale, Joe Willock, Lewis Miley and Will Osula all eager to impress should they be given the nod.
How can any player prove themselves when Howe just sticks to the same player’s over and over again he is not happy with Elanga as he isn’t playing his best and hasn’t scored a goal Elanga has played brilliantly when given the chance to play and no other players have scored look how bad Gordon has been missing goals Howe is just picking his favourite players again and again i thought the reason we got new players was to rotate them and rest players when big Nick is on they hardly pass the ball to him he is not receiving the ball enough for him to have a chance at scoring a goal at the end of the day it’s Howe who picks the squad and it’s always the same players
Graham(Quote)