'Area of concern': Eddie Howe admits to having team selection problems ahead of Bayer Leverkusen clash
Newcastle United are in Germany preparing for tomorrow's Champions League clash with Bundesliga side Bayer Leverkusen.
It's the first of two massive games for Newcastle this week, with Sunderland at the Stadium of Light on Sunday after tomorrow's Champions League game.
While Eddie Howe obviously knows the importance of the derby, he told reporters today that he's not got one eye on Sunday's fixture and the upcoming derby will not necessarily inform his team selection tomorrow night.
That's not to say that we're having an easy time coming up with a predicted lineup for tomorrow night, and that's only been made more difficult by Howe's comments this afternoon.
Eddie Howe says he's got a few injuries at the back
Howe told the gathered media (via The Chronicle) that he has some concerns in the backline that he has to be careful of.
"We will pick a team that will be strong tomorrow and strong for Sunday. We have a few injuries to our backline which is an area of concern for us.
"We don't have the depth at the moment we would really want. Lewis [Hall] was ill before the game on Saturday so we didn't want to push him too hard but were pleased with the 30 minutes he gave us.
Eddie Howe has a lot of big calls to make tomorrow and Sunday
Newcastle are already missing Kieran Trippier and Emil Krafth as well as Sven Botman, so Howe doesn't have the luxury of being able to rotate right now.
In the midfield and up front, however, there are some decisions to be made, and as much as Howe says he won't be thinking about the derby on Sunday, we can't help but feel it will influence him somehow.
A win in Leverkusen tomorrow would see Newcastle back in contention for the automatic promotion spots in the Champions League, so we aren't expecting to just roll over in a bid to focus on beating Sunderland at the weekend. Not that I'd expect us to do that anyway unless our Champions League fate was already sealed.
