EDDIE Howe plans to make changes to his team for the visit of Manchester City but has stressed the importance of the Carabao Cup as Newcastle United look to fight on four fronts this season.

The Magpies enjoyed a brilliant run to the final of the League Cup last season, eventually suffering heartbreak at the hands of Manchester United at Wembley, but they recovered from that setback to secure a brilliant top four finish and Champions League football.

With Newcastle now facing a testing schedule, Howe says he'll have to "utilise his squad" to cope with the demands - but that doesn't mean he'll be dismissing the domestic cup competitions.

Howe has repeatedly stressed his desire to bring silverware to Tyneside and ahead of his side kicking off their Carabao Cup campaign against last season's treble winners, he said: "It's an important competition for us. Last year was amazing for us.

"We have the ultimate test in the first round this year but we'll give it every importance and try as hard as we can to progress, because we want to try and compete in every competition. We're certainly not dismissing it as anything other than our most important game."

READ MORE:

Despite the game's importance in Howe's mind, the head coach says changes are necessary on the back of a three-game week and with the same to come next week, when the visit of PSG is sandwiched between Premier League games against Burnley and West Ham.

Howe said: "I think we'll use the squad. I say think because it's not finalised in my brain what we're going to do yet.

"I need to assess everyone physically first from the game we've just had. A couple of players have been carrying certain things so we'll need to manage that. But we do have players that are really keen to play and show what they can do.

"I think I have to utilise the squad, especially with what we have coming up. Not just at the weekend but midweek next week, and as I've said many times we want the players to enter the pitch in the best physical condition to showcase their skills. That'll be the same again."

With a number of key players missing for Manchester City, Pep Guardiola has hinted at making major changes to his team at St James' Park, but Howe said: "Pep is a manager who has won so much and he hasn’t done that without giving everything to every moment to try and achieve that success. I’ve no doubt we will see the best [strongest] Manchester City tomorrow."