Newcastle United head into another Champions League tie in mid-week off the back of a disappointing result in the Premier League on the road.
Before facing off against Jose Mourinho’s Benfica in mid-October, and convincingly putting them to the sword 3-0 in Europe’s illustrious competition, the Toon had come up short away at Brighton and Hove Albion in a 2-1 loss on the South Coast.
Eddie Howe will hope he gets a similar response out of his troops when Athletic Club travel to Tyneside on Wednesday night, as Newcastle’s “passive” afternoon against the Hammers – as journalist Craig Hope put it – resulted in the away side coming away empty-handed from the London Stadium in a 3-1 loss.
Howe will have been left with lots to chew over from that defeat, as he cut a forlorn figure after the match, while Nuno Espirito Santo jumped for joy, as he momentarily stopped the West Ham rot.
The changes Eddie Howe must make vs Athletic Club
The usually mild-mannered Howe blasted his team’s performance as “unrecognisable” of what Newcastle is all about. Indeed, as Toon great Alan Shearer noted post-match, it was a “leggy” performance rather than an energetic one.
Joelinton, again, showed signs of his worrying decline against Nuno’s hosts, as the quiet Brazilian won just three of his seven duels during the 3-1 defeat.
Off the back of such a lifeless showing, both Lucas Paqueta and Freddie Potts dominated proceedings centrally for the East Londoners, as Paqueta scored a long-range bullet to level the match in the first half, while Potts also managed to win one more duel than the below-par number seven, on what was his first league start of the season.
He could be in danger of being dropped for the coming clash with the La Liga outfit; therefore, with Anthony Gordon also at risk of the axe, having lasted just 45 minutes at the London Stadium, before being taken off.
With no goals or assists next to his name in the Premier League this season, it isn’t a shock to see journalist Charlie Bennett state that the ex-Everton winger is “not undroppable”, heading into the St James’ Park clash on Wednesday.
But, as much as it’s slightly contentious whether the likes of Gordon and Joelinton will actually be dropped, it feels a far more pressing matter that this duo must be axed from the starting XI immediately.
Newcastle duo must never play together again
Halloween might well have been done for another year when West Ham and Newcastle locked horns, but the Toon’s defensive performance was still scarily below-par.
Heading into the showdown at the London Stadium, the relegation-threatened hosts had only managed to score a meagre seven Premier League goals all season long.
But, with Howe selecting Emil Krafth and Dan Burn as his two full-back options, the Hammers were in luck going forward, as can be seen by looking at their disastrous performances in greater detail.
Indeed, combined, the makeshift full-back partnership managed to win zero tackles and won just two of their seven duels.
Krafth would, thankfully, be put out of his misery at the half-time interval, but – when he was still on the pitch – he also failed to muster up one single successful dribble to try and turn his faltering team more of a front-foot threat.
Burn lasted the full 90 minutes, though, with the Blyth-born battler also failing to complete a single successful dribble, on top of squandering possession a costly 14 times.
As one analyst put it at the final whistle, both the underperforming number 17 and number 33 are more “centre-back profiles”, with Newcastle becoming “less dynamic” this season as a result of these two options being regularly chosen as limited full-backs.
Howe will pray he can call upon Tino Livramento and Lewis Hall in these problem areas, soon, with Hall back on the substitutes bench against the Hammers, after a lengthy spell out with an injury.
Kieran Trippier could also be available again for the test of Ernesto Valverde’s men on Wednesday night, as Howe now tries to put together a coherent XI, that removes the possibility of Krafth and Burn lining up as a car-crash duo.