Eddie Howe reacts - Talks wingers, away worries and what went wrong at Brighton

It’s another Premier League season and another game away at the Amex without a win for Newcastle United, as we fell to a 2-1 defeat against Brighton and Hove Albion on Saturday afternoon.

Expectations weren’t high for our trip to the south coast, but a shambolic performance was only salvaged by another sensational goal from Nick Woltemade, sandwiched between strikes by Danny Welbeck.

And it was a game that has called more players’ form and current contributions to the squad into question: we’ll need to shape up fast ahead of next week’s Champions League game against Benfica.

Here’s what Eddie Howe had to say after the game:

On today’s overall performance

The last time we won away at the hosts’ ground, we were in a title race in the Championship, with Dwight Gayle and Mo Diame being on the scoresheet.

And quite a lot has changed since then, but despite our late efforts and even hope we could snatch a win after Woltemade’s equaliser, it’s more points dropped on the road as our domestic season has yet to really kick off.

And Howe expressed his bitter regret that we again couldn’t beat our bogey team.

“Yeah, tough tough result for us. Don’t think we played well for half an hour of that first half.”

“We made a bright start to the first half and looked in a good place initially, then we fell away from that. We were loose on the ball in that first period and ended up being in transition an awful lot.”

“Yeah of course (travel) will affect individuals, I mean there’s no denying that. But it will be the same for Brighton, they’d have had players here, there and everywhere themselves.”

On misfiring wingers Gordon and Elanga

The recent international break was one of differing fortunes for Anthony Gordon and Anthony Elanga: where Gordon’s MOTM display against Latvia put him in pole position for England’s left wing spot at the World Cup, Elanga was left on the bench, despite a strong recent record for his country, as Sweden face an uphill battle to even qualify.

But neither player was at their best against Brighton, failing to launch effective counter attacks nor providing Woltemade with opportunities as often as the striker needs.

“We need more from everybody. It is never about one player.

"Anthony is going to be a great player for this football club, I have no doubt about that.”

"Some players need a little bit more time and extra support, something to happen positively to kick off.

But he has all the attributes to do really well here. So I have no issues or worries about him.”

On rare midfield mishaps

Perhaps the one downside to us having such an exceptional selection of midfielders at the moment is that they’re also amongst the best options for their respective national teams, and can’t turn down international duty in a World Cup year.

Judging from Saturday’s performance, you can tell each of Joelinton, Sandro Tonali and Bruno Guimaraes were exhausted from their travels and minutes with Italy and Brazil respectively, and none of the three played the full 90 minutes.

Commenting on what was a rare poor performance from the trio, Howe simply said:

“(Our midfield) are brilliant players but they didn't function well today.”

“When we conceded the second goal, we were the dominant team.

"We responded really well in the second half. They didn't have many attacks in that spell but they did go and score.”

On lack of goals away from home

Until today, we had failed to score away from home in the Premier League this season: a stark contrast from our rampant 4-0 performance away to Union Saint Gilloise in the Champions League.

Naturally, teams expect an attacking performance away from us so are prepared to sit deep at home. But when we can’t even muster many strong attempts at goal, questions will be asked over what can be done to improve our attacking output.

It’s something Howe knows he we will need to address sooner rather than later, adding:

“That is a concern for us. We can't rely on one individual. We have always historically been a team that scores a lot of goals from different areas.”

“We have never been reliant on any one player. Nick has done really well and we are delighted with him, but we want more from other areas. of the team.”

“I thought there were chances there for us today. Especially the second half. I thought it was a good attacking display, albeit we weren't clinical enough.”

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