Watch Eddie Howe clash with Lee Ryder as journalist raises two Newcastle concerns
Last season, Eddie Howe and Newcastle United swept aside the lower-placed teams in the Premier League at a canter, and it’s a big reason why we ended up qualifying for the Champions League.
This season is a far different story: points dropped against Leeds and Sunderland, and two less-than-convincing wins against Scott Parker’s Burnley have rightfully led to questions being asked to just what’s changed in our approach to playing this calibre of opponent.
Tuesday’s game against the Clarets in particular was a tough one to comprehend, with the lads going 2-0 up away from home then inviting near constant pressure for the next hour, with Howe’s tactics doing little to change the balance of the game until Bruno Guimaraes made it 3-1 late on.
But the manager has backed the team’s performance, fired back against claims that our current approach to games is flawed and hit back at claims we were hanging on for much of that second half at Turf Moor.
Howe hits back at Burnley claims
When asked by The Chronicle’s Lee Ryder about the supposed lack of a Plan B and strategy with his substitutions, particularly during the Burnley ‘onslaught’ against us, Howe seemed perplexed by this perception from the fans and the media.
Ryder also commented that there was an "onslaught" from Burnley at one stage as they pushed for an equaliser, although Howe hit back quickly and asked the North East reporter if he'd watched the same game as him. Watch below:
The clip of Howe clashing with Lee Ryder…
My personal opinion is that I’d have preferred this question to be asked after the Man United defeat, when we had nothing to lose and plenty of fans would’ve liked to see the Plan B of Woltemade and Wissa on the pitch together — even… pic.twitter.com/iaznuztG7i
— Newcastle Updates (@nufcupdates9) January 2, 2026
“An onslaught on…(who)? Against us? Have you seen the stats of the game? You must’ve been watching a different game then. There was no onslaught. Yes we had moments of course, we had moments the other way, i would never describe it as that. If it was an onslaught, I would give you my opinion and say that it was.
“But a Plan B is always a difficult one, because if you have too many Plan Bs, it means your Plan A is flawed and your players are thinking what’s next rather than trying to deliver Plan A to the best of their ability.
“We have loads of different ways of playing, but within the structure and the principles of what we believe in. I see countless managers asked questions about Plan Bs, but as I say you have to be careful. We have a very strong plan for every situation, we just need to deliver it better. That’s where I am, and the focus is on the players to try and improve our performances all the time.”
Performances must improve in manic January
Starting with Sunday’s clash with Crystal Palace, we have nine huge games across spread out over all four major competitions, and four games in a row at home against Palace, Leeds, Bournemouth and Man City in league and cup.
The particularly brutal four game run to close the month, starting with PSV in the Champions League and followed by Aston Villa, PSG and Liverpool in particular stand out, as poor results there could set us back significantly for the rest of the season.
Whilst we’ll be backing Howe and the lads all the way, it would be very disheartening to see similar tactical approaches employed against these elite sides like what we’ve seen the gaffer roll out against Sunderland, Manchester United and Burnley in the last few weeks.
Individual magic from Lewis Hall, Bruno Guimaraes and Nick Woltemade will only go so far, meaning some much-improved team performances aren’t just wanted, but needed if we want to enjoy a positive January and get ourselves properly back into Champions League contention for the rest of the season.
A win against Crystal Palace, who are winless in their last six games in all competitions, would be the perfect place to start…
