Newcastle United head coach Eddie Howe spoke at the post-match press conference after his side’s 1-3 FA Cup defeat to Manchester City.
Do you think Newcastle can compete for the trophies you want once you have rebuilt?
Yes, absolutely, although I think it’s too early to talk about that right now. I believe a team is always in a process of small-scale rebuilding or transition, because football changes so quickly. We are in a cycle where we need to get some players back fit and strengthen the squad.
Again, I couldn’t bring Jacob Murphy on today because he picked up a neck injury yesterday. I wanted to see how he felt in the warm-up before deciding whether to involve him.
So we were under a lot of pressure again today. I think the players who started gave everything they had, but we eventually ran out of energy.
In terms of the centre-forward position, the situation was clearly similar today, but Nick, John and Anthony have all played there in recent months. Do you still enjoy the challenge of finding, supporting and filling that position? Or do you think at this level one of them can be so good they become unstoppable?
I think Anthony has done that in recent weeks. I think he has been excellent in that role. I think he has led the line really well.
I think he has enjoyed the responsibility. So I think his performances have been outstanding. And yes, Nick has obviously played there too, and he’s been playing regularly.
I have absolutely no doubt about his ability. Position-wise, it doesn’t really matter to me. He ends up between centre-forward and midfield.
Whether he starts from the front or drops in from deep, that’s where he plays his best football. He needs to be there for us to see his best qualities. John, we’re still building his fitness.
Osula was excellent on Wednesday and I think he’s a real positive. I thought he did well again today. He had some really bright moments.
I think the chance he had when Stones was chasing him back was a big moment in the game. I think on another day he might have got the shot away quicker, but there were still a lot of positives to his performance today.
You made four changes, but it seemed to affect you more. Does that highlight where you both are at the moment? You changed your entire spine.
You brought Joelinton on – is he still not in a condition to replace that spine in terms of mentality and energy, after what we saw clearly on Wednesday?
Yes, I think we’re in a really difficult position right now. We’re trying to play well and win matches, but also protect the players’ fitness and condition, and it’s extremely difficult.
Combining those two things, I don’t think we have the strength right now to make lots of changes and still maintain the same level of performance.
We tried to protect several key players today. Anthony Gordon has an ankle issue, so we had to manage him today.
We also had to manage Joelinton today, based on previous experience. These players are too important for us to risk getting injured. Dan Byrne came on mainly to allow Sven Botman to play.
Sven is a top-class player. Apart from that, we had a relatively full squad.
I thought I heard you say you believe Tuesday’s game is one of the biggest in the club’s history? If so, can you explain why you feel it’s so important?
Well, we’ve never been in a position like this in the Champions League before. And the Champions League is the pinnacle of the sport.
So I think it’s obvious that this game is huge for us.
We need to approach it with that mindset. We need our fans to see it that way too. We need to find energy from somewhere to raise our performance to a level we haven’t reached yet this season, because I think that’s the only way we’ll get through.
You mentioned energy earlier. Obviously you had to play with 10 men on Wednesday, then play again tonight, with a short turnaround until Tuesday.
Yeah, it’s really disappointing for us, because we’ve played Manchester City twice – first winning in extra time in the FA Cup, then today – and we’ve been down to 10 men.
I feel like we maybe haven’t turned up in our best condition for either of these big cup ties. There are no excuses for that.
They played extremely well today, and we didn’t. But this period has been really challenging for us, and we’re still trying to get through it.
