Eddie Howe will call on his squad players to help Newcastle United get over the line and earn a place in Europe in the final six matches.
The head coach’s team are on the brink of seeing a seasonal comparison from last term’s top four finish turn to a potential sixth or seventh-place final standing. But the Magpies know they can still achieve a coveted slot in either the Europa League or Europa Conference League.
In a season that has been hit by one injury after another, players like Lewis Miley, Martin Dubravka, Jacob Murphy and Emil Krafth are on the list of stars who have stepped in and done a job when required. And it is the efforts of the fringe players, who Howe has always underlined as key to the club’s success, that could well help them achieve what would only be a third European qualification in the last 18 years.
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Speaking about keeping his squad members happy, Howe, who faces Crystal Palace next Wednesday in a crunch game, said: “I don’t look at it like that. We have a squad to pick from, of course, but everyone is on an equal level and everyone is waiting for that opportunity to prove that they should be in the team and at different times, they either prove that or they don’t.”
Another Newcastle star who has stepped in during the upturn in form has been fit-again Elliot Anderson. The Whitley Bay lad was outstanding in the 4-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur and will be a likely starter at Palace next week.
Howe said: “We’ve saw hopefully the emergence of Elliot into what we’ve all thought for a long time, that he’s an outstanding player. “He will be a very, very good player for us not just short-term, but long-term, and the same could be said for other players as well.”
Howe also introduced midfielder Joe White and defender Paul Dummett on from the bench against Spurs, and named Ben Parkinson and Alex Murphy as subs. Both could get a taste of the action in what is certain to be a tight run-in.
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