Newcastle United chief Eddie Howe goes in against a Tottenham Hotspur team that has served goal-packed games in their last three home fixtures.
Spurs beat Man United 4-3 in the Carabao Cup just before Christmas, then followed up with a 6-3 defeat at home to Liverpool and drew 2-2 against Wolverhampton Wanderers. It left Ange Postecoglou to ask critical pundits one question at the end of the year when he said: “Are you not entertained? What do you want?”
Postecoglou may have has talked up his Tottenham team’s entertainment value in recent weeks but may even struggle to put a team together against Newcastle after a sickness bug swept through the Spurs camp on the eve of the clash. Richarlison, Guglielmo Vicario, Ben Davies, Djed Spence, Wilson Odobert, Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven will all miss the game due to injury or illness.
Howe has spoken about entertaining the Newcastle fans brought up on Kevin Keegan and Sir Bobby Robson’s forward thinking approach, but after going 2-0 up at Old Trafford, the United head coach smartly played a more cautious game to ensure a much-needed victory in the North-West.
With TV bosses expecting another goal-filled cracker, Howe was asked where his commitment to entertaining stopped and told Chronicle Live: “I have always said that we have a duty to entertain. But clarifying that is not as simple.
“I want the supporters to come and genuinely look forward to seeing the team play. I want them to genuinely be excited about what could happen and I think we have some great players in the team that bring that quality, they bring: ‘What’s going to happen next?’
“Are they capable of something truly inspiring? I want that feeling for the supporters to watch the team. Of course, our job is to try to produce a winning team and we doing that. That is always the challenge. It is important to me that everybody enjoys watching us perform.”
Howe also praised his team’s steely defensive outlook in recent games with four clean sheets on the spin picked up in the Premier League. He said: “We have looked a good attacking side, but I think the most pleasing thing with the recent run is how well we have protected our goal, defensively we have been brilliant. We have had a lot of control in that respect.”
View news Source: https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/eddie-howes-important-pledge-newcastle-30705108
