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Eddie Howe press conference ahead of facing Leicester City – Gap would close to 3 points with NUFC win

2 years ago
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Eddie Howe has been looking ahead to the Leicester City match on Sunday.

A win for Newcastle United would remarkably see NUFC only three points behind the ninth placed Foxes.

Eddie Howe taking his pre-match press conference on Friday morning and insisting that Leicester’s exertions in Europe won’t help Newcastle United in this next match.

Thursday night seeing Leicester beat PSV away, to progress to their European Conference League semi-final.

Newcastle United are though boosted by that very disciplined tough win over Wolves last Friday, making it four Premier League home wins in a row for NUFC.

Newcastle have had a bit of a shocker at St James Park against Leicester since 2014.

United losing all six home games against the Foxes, five Premier League matches and a League Cup knockout.

Current (15 April 2022) Premier League table ahead of Newcastle United v Leicester City:

Eddie Howe pre-Leicester City press conference – 15 April 2022:

“I’ve been in the situation before where we’ve played teams after they’ve played in Europe.

“To be honest, my experience is that it doesn’t have too much bearing on the next game.

“I think they (Leicester) have got a squad to cope – they’ve got a very good group of players,” he said.

“They’ve had a lot of injuries throughout the season but they’ve now returned, so their squad looks a lot stronger, and they’ve got a manager who is very experienced at managing the situation.

“In my experience, it’s never really influenced the next game at all so we expect a full strength Leicester who are in very good form.”

Back to winning form against Wolves:

“I think it’s naturally been a big lift for the group.

“No one wanted to see that losing run continue, and although it was on the back of a really good run before that, I think we were well aware that we needed to respond and respond quickly, especially in front of our own supporters.

“Those nights at home have been so special for us and it was another one of those for us, under the lights.

“I thought it was a brilliant night and a big win for us – and now we have to try and back that up with another performance against an in-form team.”

Eddie Howe on fitness / injury /  illness/ availability:

“I don’t think (Fraser’s injury) is too bad, but it was enough to bring him off.

“We had a scan with him and it showed a very small problem, so hopefully it wont be too long for him.

“We’ll have to see whether he makes this game.

“Joe (Willock) has made good progress, he’s trained this week, and we hope to have him fit (for Leicester).

“As I sit here now, we’ve got a bit of illness in the camp – that’s sort of been with us for most of the season to be honest, so we’re looking at that closely.

“Personally they (Kieran Trippier and Callum Wilson) are OK – they’re both in a good place and they’re both improving in line with what we expected.

“Kieran is very slightly ahead of schedule – he’s beginning to run back on the grass with his boots on, so that’s a great sign for us. He’s still got to build up his fitness and everything that comes with that, but he’s in a good place.

“Callum’s the same. He’s hitting balls towards the goal – there’s no goalkeeper in at the moment, so it’s only against mannequins – but he’s gradually building up to where he wants to be, so it’s great to see.”

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