£5m man bumped up to starting XI - Our lineup prediction as Newcastle face Bournemouth
Eddie Howe already has a selection headache for Newcastle United just two games into the new season thanks to a red card last week.
Fabian Schar was given a straight red card in the opening game against Southampton on Saturday and will now miss the next three games, and with Paul Mitchell asleep at the wheel when it comes to bringing in Marc Guehi, Eddie Howe has a big call to make.
Howe returns to Bournemouth having to cobble together a makeshift back four, but with no new injury concerns beyond what we started the season with, Newcastle should have enough quality to see off the Cherries.
This is how we think Howe will set up on Sunday.
Goalkeeper
Nick Pope - One appearance, one clean sheet. Oh, how we missed this man last season.
Defence
Tino Livramento - We're not sure what's going on with Kieran Trippier but we do believe Tino will keep his spot in the starting XI
Emil Krafth - Krafu will step up to fill the void left by Fabian Schar. The £5m man is right-footed and because of that will get the nod over Lloyd Kelly.
Dan Burn - Solid as a rock last week. Burn is just a different animal at centre-back than at left-back.
Lewis Hall - Goal-line clearance aside last week, Hall didn't have the best of games but he did contribute to a clean sheet. Would be super harsh to drop him.
Midfield
Sean Longstaff - Hardly put a foot wrong against Southampton and that crunching challenge on Ben Brereton-Diaz after Schar's red card was the stuff of legend. Joe Willock will replace him at some point, but not this weekend.
Bruno Guimares - Bruno is now officially El Capitan and we are hoping that the armband pushes him to perform better on the road as he seemed to struggle away from St James' Park last season.
Joelinton - The man The Rock wishes he could be. Like Nick Pope, it's insane how much we missed him last season. Probably the first name on the teamsheet this week after Saturday's outing.
Forwards
Jacob Murphy - The lesser of two evils. Man, do we need a new right-winger before next week's deadline.
Alexander Isak - Got an assist last week but hopefully he'll bag a goal or two on Sunday.
Anthony Gordon - AG has some making up to do after a poor performance last week. He's clearly not up to speed after the summer, but Harvey Barnes is eyeing his place in the side.
The side is practically picking itself again
Last season the side picked itself because so few players were available, this season it's picking itself because we still have two different tiers of quality it feels like.
That being said, even our second-tier players should be more than enough for Bournemouth. But it is the Vitality and it is rarely kind to us, so we'll see.
