The Newcastle United midfield situation is something that Eddie Howe is now considering.
There is no dispute as to what the preferred choice is.
As things stand, Eddie Howe will always play a midfield trio of Bruno Guimaraes, Sandro Tonali and Joelinton.
The quandary comes of course if one or more of these three aren’t available.
Last season, the cover in midfield was Sean Longstaff, Lewis Miley and Joe Willock.
As we are now only 11 days from the new season kicking off, Sean Longstaff has left and Joe Willock set to be missing until after the September international break.
This means Eddie Howe has currently only four obvious midfield options, with Lewis Miley covering that first choice trio.
The Head Coach talking to The Mail about how that Newcastle United midfield situation now looks:
“We had six [midfielders last season) and we want six (available for this 2025/26 season).
“Now we are (currently) down to four, so that’s an issue for us.
“That is a position that we are looking in (to strengthen).
“We don’t think Joe Willock’s injury is serious.
“I gave a prognosis of four to six weeks but that could be less.
“But I think it is an area that is a bit of a concern.”
Sandro Tonali watched the entire Tottenham game from the bench, with the Italy international having reportedly picked up a (hopefully) minor knee issue.
Eddie Howe though reassuring fans on that front:
“Sandro Tonali is fine.
“There is no issue there.
“It was just precautionary.
“He wanted to play (against Tottenham) but it was my decision to hold him back a little bit, just make sure his knee is OK.”
As the freak serious injury James Maddison picked up on Sunday highlighted, avoiding injury to key players is a massive priority in pre-season.
With Newcastle United only a week and a half away from playing Aston Villa, Eddie Howe making clear that if/when more signings are added, they would be unlikely to start at Villa Park:
“There isn’t much time left (to get a player in time to start the first match.
“Especially when you consider that you have to get any player up to speed with how we play, get into the intricacies of what we do.
“It is not easy for players to do that straight away.”
As Eddie Howe has repeatedly shown in the past, he is always willing to take the longer-term view and not just throw new signings in straight away, even if they are not ready to do themselves justice.
It is ridiculous how there is now an international break so soon after the season kicks off. Only two weeks after Newcastle kick off against Villa a two week break for internationals.
So three matches against Villa (A), Liverpool (H) and Leeds (A), before a fortnight’s gap leading up to Wolves at home on Saturday 13 September.
I think the reality is that Eddie Howe will be almost entirely reliant on current Newcastle players as starters for the opening three matches. Then any new signings that arrive in these next four weeks will be mainly aimed at getting properly involved from mid-September onwards.
The clock is ticking on all fronts and hopefully we can shortly see more additions on top of Elanga and Ramsdale.
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