Eddie Howe defends 'electric' Newcastle United player after woeful performance in Champions League on Tuesday night
Eddie Howe gave some much-needed game time to a couple of fringe players on Tuesday night as the Magpies took on Qarabag in the home leg of the Champions League play-off.
With a 6-1 lead going into the game, Eddie Howe was able to make a couple of tweaks to his Newcastle United side and gave a full debut to Alex Murphy and started Will Osula as the main striker.
Murphy took his opportunity well, putting in a solid performance under the lights at St James' Park, but things didn't go as well for Will Osula.
The Danish Under-21 striker missed a couple of big chances on the night to get his name on the scoresheet and failed to have any meaningful impact, having the second fewest touches of any Newcastle player, behind Leo Shahar, who only came on the field on 86 minutes.
Eddie Howe made some good excuses for Will Osula's less-than-stellar display on Tuesday night
Will Osula's Newcastle future looks shaky after he almost moved to Germany in the summer, but Eddie Howe leapt to the 22-year-old's defence in his press conference after the game.
“I think the challenge and the difficulty for Will is that he's one of another small group of players who have probably suffered from an injury and then hasn't had the training time that he would need to get back to his very, very best.
“When Will's at his best, he's electric, he's so quick, strong, powerful. He's got all the tool, but he's had a very serious injury. He's been out for 13 weeks with an ankle problem.
“He's come back, he's had very limited training time because of the number of games we've had. we've had to have him available.
“I think then you see tonight that he's probably not at his absolute best and we need to try and help him get there, and I think he will.
“But as I said, he's not alone. There's a couple of other players in that position that we need to try and help get to their very best level.”
Eddie Howe's excuses probably won't be enough to save Osula's Newcastle career
There is a case to be made for match sharpness here, for sure. Osula has missed a lot of football through injury and hasn't had a lot of game time since his recovery. Training time has also been notoriously limited this season.
However, this is hardly an isolated incident. I've made excuses for Will Osula since he joined the club, as I want to believe there's a good player there, while others have been adamant since day one that he doesn't have what it takes.
He's got a lot to prove, and only a short time in which to do it; otherwise, we're likely to see him heading elsewhere in the summer.
