Newcastle United will be on the road again this evening as they taken on Nottingham Forest at the City Ground in the second round of the Carabao Cup.
The Magpies will start their journey to challenging for a domestic cup this evening when they take on Nottingham Forest in the Carabao Cup and Eddie Howe will be looking for an ambitious and improved performance.
Newcastle have collected four points from their first two outings in the Premier League so far, but neither have come easy with a 10-men victory at St James’ Park on the opening day against Southampton and a hard-fought draw away from home against Bournemouth last weekend which was saved by a controversially disallowed goal for the Cherries.
There is no doubt that Howe will be working hard with his players to improve their control of games and adopt a more convincing presence on the pitch, something they have struggled with in their first 180 minutes of football.
A trip to the City Ground will be a real test of where the current crop of Newcastle talent is at and whether they can compete for trophies this season, but in recent fixtures, they have struggled to take results away from the Trentside team.
In their last two EFL Cup fixtures, Forest have progressed in clashes against the Magpies with both defeats coming from the second round of the competition, but curses are there to be broken and with the return of Sandro Tonali, there will certainly be plenty to be confident about for the fans.
Newcastle’s Italian midfield stallion returns to competitive action after serving a lengthy ban for breeching betting rules and the fans will be excited about the prospect of the immediate impact and fresh perspective that Tonali could serve in a currently unconvincing side.
On the 24-year-old midfielder, Howe revealed in his pre-match press conference on Tuesday morning:
“He will definitely be in the squad [for this Nottingham Forest match] providing he comes through training today.”
“He’s fit. He just hasn’t had the match time, the 11 v 11, which players will tell you is the most important thing within the game.”
“He has worked incredibly hard with the sports science team to be on top of his fitness, to make sure he’s fitter than he was when he was banned.”
In terms of injuries, Sven Botman, Jamaal Lascelles, Lewis Miley and Callum Wilson will all remain unavailable for selection as they continue their work back to fitness, while Fabian Schar remains suspended for the game as he serves a three-match ban for violent conduct.
How could Newcastle line up against Nottingham Forest?
We predicted that Howe will be keen to put out a strong starting eleven in the all-Premier League tie, maintaining his classic 4-3-3 formation but making six changes.
In the defensive set-up, we predict that the Newcastle boss will opt for new addition and former Nottingham Forest goalkeeper Odysseas Vlachodimos to replace Nick Pope, while Lloyd Kelly retains his spot in the back-line but instead in the right centre-back role alongside Dan Burn who also remains in the starting eleven.
We expect that it will be all change in the full-back roles with Kieran Trippier reprising his role on the right flank, while Lewis Hall replaces Kelly at left-back to accommodate his move to the centre-back partnership instead.
In the centre of the pitch, we predict that Brazilian sensation Bruno Guimaraes and local lad Sean Longstaff will remain, while Joelinton will be rested to make way for Joe Willock to take his opportunity to impress in midfield.
We expect to see England star Anthony Gordon as the only forward keeping his spot in the starting eleven, while Alexander Isak is replaced with newcomer William Osula and Miguel Almiron is given the role on the right wing over Jacob Murphy.
Howe did hint in his pre-match press conference that there would be an opportunity for Tonali to feature as he will be in the match-day squad, but given the competitiveness of the opposition, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him eased in and given some minutes in the second half as opposed to being thrown in the deep end from the very start.
