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3 Newcastle United players definitely ruled out of Brighton match – With 1 doubt

2 years ago
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Eddie Howe has been speaking to the media on Friday morning.

The Newcastle United Head Coach talking to journalists ahead of the game against Brighton on Saturday afternoon.

Eddie Howe giving an update on the fitness, injury and availability situation.

Callum Wilson of course continues to be absent, Eddie Howe having previously stated the striker will ‘hopefully be back for the last few games’ of the season. Whilst Wilson himself said last week ‘I am positive that I will be back this season AND have a good chunk of games left.’

Matt Ritchie is also on the longer-term injured list, as is Kieran Trippier, who had surgery on the broken bone in his foot,  the England defender facing a fight to return to first team action before the end of the season.

So altogether, that is three Newcastle United players definitely ruled out for Brighton.

On top of that trio, Eddie Howe set to make a decision on whether Allan Saint-Maximin makes the match day squad against Brighton, depending on how he gets on with training today (Friday) and whether suffering any reaction with his calf issue.

Eddie Howe also talking today about how he had wanted ‘healthy competition’ within the squad for first team places and how that side of things has been improving. You only need to look at the bench [Darlow, Lascelles, Dummett, Fernandez, Manquillo, Almiron, Gayle, Longstaff, Guimaraes] for last Saturday’s win at Brentford to see proof of that. A combination of new signings and Eddie Howe doing so well in both coaching the side / squad and also managing the injuries, not taking unnecessary risks (unlike a certain former NUFC boss…) with players carrying knocks and / or those coming back from injury.

Eddie Howe press conference ahead of Brighton – 4 March 2022:

“I think when I first came into the job we wanted competition for places in all positions.

“I wouldn’t say we’re absolutely there yet, but there’s a healthy competition within the squad, you can see that from my side when you’re watching training.

“People are elevating their levels, there is a fight to get in the team, and then when you’re in the team you’ve got to fight to stay in it.

“I think Maxi coming back has given everyone a lift. Hopefully he gets through [training] today and then we’ll make a decision.

“What I would say is they’ve delivered, in terms of our training, a very, very good response to high intensity sessions.

“We’ve tried to push them physically, which is quite difficult to do in the season – you have to get the balance right. But their response to those training sessions and what we’ve asked them has been really, really good.

“Athletically, I think the squad has done very well. In this run, for me the key feature of the team has been our physical output, our off-the-ball performance, our intensity out of possession, so all of those things have helped us stay in games and win games. I can’t compliment the squad enough for what they’ve given me physically.

“I’d say they [Brighton] are very similar both home and away.

“They’ve got tactical flexibility which is probably their biggest strength – they play a number of different shapes, even within one game, so they’re a difficult opponent to line up [against] and predict what they’ll do.

“They’re a very good football team who want to control possession and defensively have been good because they’re not without the ball for too long.

“Full credit to Graham Potter, his team and his squad, because they’ve found a way of controlling most games and playing very good football at the same time.”

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