Eddie Howe addresses issues with his midfield changes in scoreless draw with Bournemouth
Eddie Howe dropped Bruno Guimaraes and Joelinton from his midfield on Sunday as Newcastle United took on Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium.
In a bid to keep his best players fresh for big games, Eddie Howe is utilising his squad as much as possible as the fixtures come thick and fast.
Dropping the Brazilians and replacing them with Lewis Miley and Joe Willock was a huge call by Eddie Howe on Sunday, and you'd be hard pressed to find a Newcastle fan who was happy with how things panned out.
The biggest problem Newcastle have is creating chances, and neither Miley nor Willock really helped with that on Sunday.
Lewis Miley came in for some criticism from a bunch of Newcastle fans on Sunday
We, along with many others, were pretty critical of Joe Willock, who was largely ineffectual all game, but we didn't necessarily have a problem with Lewis Miley. It wasn't his best game, but his role is to be more deep lying than contributing to the attack, so we didn't feel the lack of chances was really his fault.
However, some fans were quick to criticise the youngster, who was making his 50th appearance for the club at 19 years old. Miley has never been blessed with pace, and some fans were using that as a stick to beat him with, but for us, that's not his game. You can still be a strong midfielder without pace if you have the intelligence, and we feel Miley has that.
He's still young and still learning. Look at how Eddie Howe is treating Will Osula, and he's got two years on Miley. It shows that Howe feels that the academy graduate is mature beyond his years.
Lewis Miley was praised for a mature performance by Eddie Howe
In his pre-match press conference ahead of the game against Bradford on Wednesday, Eddie Howe spoke about Lewis Miley's performance on Sunday and the gaffer appeared to be happy with what he saw.
“We need that strength in midfield. You know, those opportunities aren’t going to be there, maybe as regularly as any player like so when you do get the opportunity, you got to try and grab it.
“I thought Lewi (Miley) played really well. I think he gave a mature performance. As I said earlier, it’s a tougher away ground – they play with a lot of high pressure.
“Every time Louis was receiving the ball, he had pressure from behind. He had to make quick and good decisions, and invariably he does with the ball.
“He’s a really good distributor, but otherwise a mature performance. Physically. I thought he looked really good. No fatigue in his game. He played 90 minutes. Thought he looked strong.”
Eddie Howe was slightly more critical of Joe Willock
Meanwhile, Howe's comments on Willock were a bit more critical, albeit framed in Eddie Howe's trademark positive way.
“Joe playing slightly higher up, probably a little bit disappointed he couldn’t influence it more for us in the attacking half.
“But again, the team didn’t really do that well enough in keeping sustained pressure around their box. So somethina for the team to reflect on, actually.”
It's expected that at least one of the Brazilians will be reinstated to the starting lineup on Wednesday night as Bruno Guimaraes won't want to sit on the bench for two games in a row.
