Eddie Howe makes changes at the back – Our Newcastle United lineup prediction to take on Southampton | NUFC Feed
3 – 4 minutes
Newcastle United take on Southampton at St Mary’s on Saturday in an old-fashioned 3pm kick-off.
Eddie Howe’s side looked dead on their feet last week against Bournemouth and that led to a surprise heavy defeat, but with a week between games and Howe granting his players a couple of days off, Newcastle should be raring to go for this one on Saturday.
With that in mind, we don’t expect Howe to ring the changes but with Nick Pope back in contention that does bring up the question of what he will do between the sticks.
Also, is this the week where he reverts to Sven Botman and Fabian Schar at the back?
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Our predicted XI to take on the Saints
Goalkeeper
Nick Pope – He’s back in contention and he’s our Number 1. Martin Dubravka knows his role and if Pope is fit, he starts.
Defenders
Tino Livramento – The David Batty of Kieran Trippiers. The lad needs to learn to just stick a cross in rather than going sideways or backwards and then we’ll have one hell of a player on our hands.
Sven Botman – Still debating whether it will be Botman, or Fabian Schar in this position, Much like we were with whether it’s Botman or Dan Burn at LCB. Options are good.
Dan Burn – We just can’t see Eddie Howe dropping Burn. He’s been phenomenal this season.
Lewis Hall – Speaking of phenomenal.
Midfielders
Bruno Guimaraes (c) – Apologised to fans after last week’s defeat and vowed to put it right. Time to step up.
Sandro Tonali – Pretty much the only player to come away with any sort of credit last week. An absolute powerhouse in midfield.
Joelinton – Hopefully a week off has given him a bit of time to calm down after wanting to fight everybody last week.
Forwards
Jacob Murphy – With Miguel Almiron heading out the door, Murph has to step up and keep performing.
Alexander Isak – Broke his streak last week. It’s time to start another one.
Anthony Gordon – Like the rest of the team, we hope Gordon’s rest has been enough to bring him back to the levels he was at before last week.
Eddie Howe will have options on the bench to cover most positions, which is nice. Fabian Schar in defence, Joe Willock and Lewis Miley in the middle and Will Osula up front. However, with Harvey Barnes still injured and Miggy 50/50 as to whether he’ll be included given the ongoing transfer to Atlanta United, we don’t have many options to change things up out wide.
We should, SHOULD have enough to beat Southampton comfortably, but this is football and it rarely goes how you’d expect.
