Eddie Howe is optimistic that his Newcastle United players’ lackluster performance may be improved with more time spent on the training field.
Although most Premier League teams resume their activities on Saturday following their midweek games, Newcastle’s visit to Anfield to play Liverpool is scheduled for the evening of New Year’s Day.
This implies that the Magpies’ Boxing Day loss to Nottingham Forest and their first match of 2024 on Merseyside will be separated by a just six days, a stretch that will seem endless considering how busy the club’s December schedule is.
Howe’s team has spent the majority of the past month playing, traveling, or recovering, so having three or four consecutive days at Darsley Park could be beneficial.
“We have the opportunity to go back to the training field,” the Newcastle manager stated. His team has dropped six of their previous seven games across all competitions. We seem to have not done it in months. In the end, I believe we need to spend some time relearning some of the components that are lacking from our game.
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They have been resting in between games and preparing for a second game that is scheduled for three days later. We may have suffered as a result of not having had that practice period.
In their Boxing Day defeat to Forest, Newcastle was often undone on the counterattack; Howe acknowledges that in order to win against Liverpool, his squad must strike the proper balance.
Since Leeds United’s unexpected victory over them in October 2022, Jurgen Klopp’s team has won every league game at Anfield, including a 2-0 victory over Burnley earlier this week.
Newcastle can’t be as transparent as they were on Tuesday afternoon, as Howe acknowledged his team’s unusual vulnerability in losing to Forest.
“Considering the kind of opponents we’ve been facing in this
Above all, it will be enjoyable to take some time to prepare for the game and train. The fact that they haven’t spent much time on the turf lately presents a challenge for the players who have contributed the most minutes in previous weeks.
