Looking at the Newcastle United team v Manchester United.
Eddie Howe and his players hoping to continue the levels of their four three excellent wins and performances against Leicester, Brentford, Ipswich and Aston Villa.
Four victories and fourteen goals scored, just the one conceded.
A win today would ensure United are in fifth place in the Premier League, heading into 2025.
What can we expect the Newcastle United team v Manchester United to be?
As a starting point, this was the Newcastle team v Aston Villa:
Dubravka, Trippier, Schar, Burn, Hall, Tonali, Bruno, Joelinton, Murphy, Isak, Gordon
Sven Botman, Callum Wilson, Nick Pope, Emil Krafth and Jamaal Lascelles won’t be in contention to start tonight.
Tino Livramento is expected to be available again after illness saw him miss the Villa match.
Kieran Trippier deputised and was subbed late on. Though Eddie Howe said afterwards that he always expected that Trippier wouldn’t see out the full match after so little football in recent times, no confirmation of whether there was any injury issue for the 34 year old following that Boxing Day matcb.
Anyway, my take on all of this, my best guesstimate of the Newcastle United team v Manchester United is:
Dubravka, Livramento, Schar, Burn, Hall, Tonali, Bruno, Joelinton, Murphy, Isak, Gordon
Eddie Howe has only made one change that wasn’t enforced, in these last four Newcastle United wins, that was Joelinton coming back in for Joe Willock on Boxing Day after serving a one game suspension.
When your side has won all four matches, scoring fourteen and conceding just the one, it is difficult to believe Eddie Howe will choose to make significant changes.
With TV dictating a Monday night slot, it has given the Newcastle United players four days between matches, whilst the fact they played against ten men for an hour against Villa, certainly won’t have done any harm, in terms of ensuring energy reserves are depleted for any individuals.
Even if Kieran Trippier is available tonight, I think Eddie Howe was always going to bring Tino Livramento back in for this Man U game, assuming he is over his illness issue.
The high energy and intensity that Eddie Howe will be sure to want to employ once again against Man U, leads me to think for sure that Tino will return, especially with Trippier having played so little football recently.
Unless any nasty injury/illness surprises, very difficult to think of any other changes Eddie Howe would consider making.
So with this Newcastle United team v Manchester United tonight, hopefully the same energy, intensity, level of performance AND result, that we have seen these most recent four NUFC games.
Monday 30 December – Man U v Newcastle (8pm) Sky Sports
Saturday 4 January – Tottenham v Newcastle (12.30pm) TNT Sports
Tuesday 7 January – Arsenal v Newcastle (8pm) Sky Sports and ITV1 and ITVX
Sunday 12 January – Newcastle v Bromley (3pm) BBC iPlayer (FA Cup)
Wednesday 15 January – Newcastle v Wolves (7.30pm) TNT Sports
Saturday 18 January – Newcastle v Bournemouth (12.30pm) TNT Sports
Saturday 25 January – Southampton v Newcastle (3pm)
Saturday 1 February – Newcastle v Fulham (3pm)
Wednesday 5 February – Newcastle v Arsenal (8pm) Sky Sports
Saturday 15 February – Man City v Newcastle (3pm)
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