IN an ideal world, Eddie Howe would like his Newcastle United team to be a free-flowing attacking side, pressing opponents high up the field as they constantly look to get on the front foot.
If you’re conceding 23 goals in the space of eight league games, however, you’re not living in an ideal world. So, ahead of Saturday’s game with Wolves, Howe did what any good head coach should do when his side is going through a sticky patch. He shelved his footballing principles and changed things up.
Instead of instructing his side to push on, potentially leaving spaces for Wolves’ fluid forward line to exploit, he told his players to sit back, even if that meant ceding possession. Kieran Trippier, normally such a positive attacking full-back, barely got out of his own half in the 50 minutes or so he was on the field at the weekend, with Dan Burn equally conservative on the opposite flank. With Jacob Murphy dropping back when Newcastle did not have the ball, the Magpies regularly defended with a back five, soaking up pressure before looking to break on the counter-attack.
By the time the final whistle blew, Newcastle had enjoyed such 44 per cent possession, an unusually low statistic when not facing one of the established big boys. Crucially, though, they had also claimed a first clean sheet in ten league matches and a first home victory of any description since mid-December.
Wolves fell into their trap. No doubt surprised at the territorial dominance they were able to enjoy, Gary O’Neil’s visitors pushed onto Newcastle’s massed ranks of defence, but could not find a way through. Then, when they turned the ball over, they were vulnerable to the kind of lightning-fast attacking raids that had caused the Magpies so much damage in recent games.
All three of Newcastle’s goals were the result of moves that took Howe’s side from one end of the pitch to the other – coincidentally, all three were sparked by initial balls out of defence from Fabian Schar – with Wolves having no answer to the speed and incisiveness of their opponents’ attacking. Howe, whose side have climbed back up to eighth in the table, was able to reflect on a gameplan that worked a treat. As even the best managers have to occasionally acknowledge, pragmatism tends to trump sticking rigidly to an approach that is no longer working.
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“It was a slight tweak from our normal way of playing,” confirmed Howe, moments after O’Neil had sat in the same chair and scoffed at the notion of his opposite number having adapted his preferred style of play in order to stay one step ahead of him. “We analyse our opposition, like we do always, and I know there’s a lot of people that say we play the same way every week, but I can assure you that’s not the case. There’s always tweaks and little things we try to do to help us in our performance, and that was one today, to try to maybe play a slightly more transitional game.
“I’ve always been prepared to produce a gameplan for an individual game. I've got no problem with that, as long as it doesn't deviate from your philosophy, so if you're doing something that's a total contrast to how you normally work and your normal messages, that's a problem.
“But this wasn't, it was just a slight tweak on what we normally do. I felt it would make us defensively more solid and give us the best opportunity to win, and that's ultimately why you produce any plan, to give you the best opportunity to win depending on your opponent.”
Howe admits it is not an approach he would want to repeat every week, and there are certain opponents where willingly giving up territory and possession would simply not work. After a testing spell in which uncharacteristic defensive frailties have undermined his side, though, the Newcastle boss deserves considerable credit for having the courage and foresight to try something that does not necessarily come naturally to him.
The challenge now, as he readily admits, is to use Saturday’s result as a foundation to start restoring some of the values and attributes that made the Magpies such a formidable proposition for most of last season.
“Sometimes, you just have to find a way to get over the finishing line, and then you know there are better performances ahead,” said Howe. “I think we were sort of in that moment. I don’t think this was ever going to be a classic Newcastle performance, but I think it's a building bridge closer to where we want to be.
⚫️⚪️ Some post-match thoughts on #NUFC’s win over Wolves, Eddie Howe’s successful tactical tinkering and Fabian Schar’s sensational long passing… pic.twitter.com/UDnVQi8w4A
— Scott Wilson (@Scottwilsonecho) March 2, 2024
“I thought Blackburn was very similar. We got through, that was the main thing. This was slightly better again and I'd like to think now with the strength of the group returned that we will hopefully see continued improvement in performances.”
Newcastle’s opening goal at the weekend, scored amid torrential rain, came when Anthony Gordon released Bruno Guimaraes on the overlap, and while the Brazilian’s shot was blocked by a sliding Craig Dawson, the ball looped invitingly for Alexander Isak, who headed home.
The Magpies doubled their lead shortly after the half-hour mark when Jose Sa failed to gather Jacob Murphy’s low cross from the right-hand side, enabling Gordon to slam home the loose ball.
Kieran Trippier hobbled off at the start of the second half as Newcastle’s injury problems reappeared yet again, but the hosts were never seriously troubled and made their win safe in stoppage time when Trippier’s replacement, Tino Livramento, galloped onto a superb long ball from Schar and dribbled his way into the 18-yard box before prodding in.
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