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Opinion

Newcastle team v Leicester predicted with one change

2 years ago
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Looking at this Newcastle team v Leicester.

Eddie Howe and his team looking to make it consecutive wins in the Premier League..

Indeed, if Newcastle beat Brendan Rodgers’ team today, it will be five PL victories in a row at St James Park for NUFC.

So what can we expect the Newcastle team v Leicester to be?

As a starting point…

This was the Newcastle team v Wolves:

Dubravka, Krafth, Schar, Burn, Targett, Joelinton, Guimaraes, Shelvey, Fraser, Saint-Maximin, Wood

Eddie Howe on Friday morning said that illness had continued to affect his squad this past week but didn’t name any individuals who had been affected.

Assuming nobody has been affected badly enough to miss this afternoon’s game, the only two definitely missing are Callum Wilson and Kieran Trippier with long-term injuries.

Whilst Eddie Howe said that Joe Willock has trained all week after missing Wolves and so should be available.

Whilst the head coach said that he doesn’t think Ryan Fraser’s injury is serious after the winger was forced off against Wolves, though he (Eddie Howe) would make a late decision on Fraser’s availability for this Leicester match.

Martin Dubravka was back on the clean sheet trail against Wolves and will play once again today. Four clean sheets in the last thirteen matches, whilst if ignoring that Spurs game, only eight goals conceded in his last twelve matches.

Javier Manquillo was really poor at Tottenham and that allowed Emil Krafth to come back in. In Trippier’s absence, Eddie Howe had selected Emil Krafth in five of the previous six games (before Tottenham) and the Swede had one of his best games nine days ago against Wolves. So it will be a surprise if Krafth doesn’t start this one.

The rest of the defence were also back on form against Wolves and a massive surprise if any changes.

Matt Targett, Fabian Schar and Dan Burn set to complete the back four.

Bruno Guimaraes was excellent and man of the match when making his first ever St James Park start, Newcastle fans looking forward to see what he can do today.

Joelinton and Jonjo Shelvey weren’t at Bruno’s level against Wolves but both set to start again in my opinion.

Chris Wood will start up front and will hopefully be full of confidence after scoring that match winner against Wolves, his first ever goal at St James Park.

Allan Saint-Maximin also set to play, wasn’t at his best against Wolves but some of the criticism he gets from a minority is crazy. The Frenchman still doing more than enough to justify his place in the team for me, plus it was only his second Premier League start after almost two months out with injury / illness and not able to train a lot in that time.

Which leaves one space to fill and for me, three possibilities.

Ryan Fraser if passed fit, could continue in the team.

Miguel Almiron was Fraser’s early replacement against Wolves and did a lot better than most previous games he has played under Eddie Howe.

However, I think it will be Joe Willock back in the team, now he is available again. Scoring twice in his last six Premier League starts, Willock is one of Newcastle’s more likely scorers in a team / squad that doesn’t have a great overall goal threat.

Predicted Newcastle team v Leicester:

Dubravka, Krafth, Schar, Burn, Targett, Joelinton, Guimaraes, Shelvey, Willock, Saint-Maximin, Wood

So the one change I think Eddie Howe will make.

Joe Willock in for Ryan Fraser.

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