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Opinion

Newcastle team v Bournemouth predicted here

2 years ago
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Looking at this Newcastle team v Bournemouth.

Eddie Howe and his team looking to head into the international break on the back of morale boosting win.

The visitors are behind Newcastle only on goal difference, a rollercoaster ride so far, seeing three defeats in a row and 16 goals conceded without reply, but they have been sandwiched between wins over Villa and Forest, plus a draw at home to Wolves.

Newcastle on the other hand, have only lost once and that was to a very late goal at Anfield. United arguably have deserved a fair few more points based on performances and now today, they need to start putting that right.

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

As a starting point…

This was the Newcastle team v Crystal Palace:

Pope, Trippier, Schar, Botman, Targett, Sean Longstaff, Willock, Joelinton, Almiron, Fraser, Isak

Nick Pope likely to start for England in at least one of their two matches this month and on Friday won ‘save of the month’ (Lallana for Brighton), and excellent start to his NUFC career and looking to make it four clean sheets in seven PL games today.

Difficult to see any changes at all in defence, all played well against Palace and picked up that third clean sheet (from six) of the season.

Always a chance Eddie Howe could bring Dan Burn back in but Schar and Botman look to have edged it as first choice in the middle for the time being.

Trippier was excellent in that Palace game and his set-piece delivery a big part of Newcastle’s goal threat now, whilst Matt Targett now back to his best after an early season injury.

Moving forward in the team and will we see any changes in the most advanced six?

Eddie Howe wasn’t giving anything away on Friday when asked about the fitness and availability of ASM, Bruno and Joelinton, saying journalists and fans would need to wait and see who had made it, when announcing his team / matchday squad at 2pm today (Saturday).

Following the press conference, some of the more reliable NUFC journalists were all coming out with the same info / claim, their message was that ASM and Callum Wilson won’t be involved today BUT Bruno will be in the 18 man squad for this Bournemouth match.

Even if he is in the matchday squad, I can’t see Bruno Guimaraes starting. After missing a number of matches / weeks and not even having been spotted in any of the club’s official training galleries, up to and including Wednesday’s, I can’t see him getting thrown straight into the team.

Eddie Howe has shown caution / professionalism already in his time at Newcastle, when it comes to not taking risks on the fitness of players, so Bruno will only start today if the head coach sees no more than a normal risk of injury for the Brazilian.

I’m guessing that ideally Eddie Howe won’t even bring Bruno off the bench, apart from maybe a brief cameo at the end, unless Newcastle desperately need him to affect the result.

Willock and Longstaff did ok against Palace alongside Joelinton and Newcastle absolutely deserved to win, only to be thwarted by a very good goalkeeping performance, some dogged last gasp defensive blocks and tackles, a bit of wayward finishing, plus of course the match officials having a shocker.

A similar level of team performance will surely bring a win against Bournemouth.

Alexander Isak will lead the attack and I expect Fraser and Almiron to continue. They did decent against Palace and whilst we hope for better finishing and more goal threat all round, with the expected injured it means limited alternatives.

Elliot Anderson really impressed when coming on as a sub against Palace and his time will definitely come this season, however, I’m sure for now, Eddie Howe will continue to use the teenager as an impact sub.

When the club published the training photos from Wednesday’s session, both Elliot Anderson and Miguel Almiron were among those players who couldn’t be seen. Hopefully this was just coincidence and Eddie Howe hasn’t got even more injuries to cope with today.

Predicted Newcastle team v Bournemouth:

Pope, Trippier, Schar, Botman, Targett, Sean Longstaff, Willock, Joelinton, Almiron, Fraser, Isak

So, I think Eddie Howe will stick with the team that faced Crystal Palace, partly through choice and partly due to the limitations of who he has available.

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