Eddie Howe swerves question over whether Newcastle United have a goalkeeper problem
We're sure there won't be too many Newcastle United fans making a strong defence of Nick Pope being the club's No 1 next season after another clanger on Saturday.
Nick Pope failed to deal with a long-range Dwight McNeil effort yesterday, parrying the ball back into the path of the onrushing Everton striker Beto, and the former England goalkeeper stumbled as he tried to recover, but Beto got to the ball first and cancelled out Newcastle's equaliser less than two minutes after Jacob Ramsey restored parity.
It was far from Pope's only costly mistake this season, and there was a time when there were serious questions being asked about his place in the team, which conveniently coincided with an injury layoff.
Fortunately for Pope, Aaron Ramsdale didn't prove to be a great deal better as the on-loan keeper has managed just one clean sheet in 15 attempts.
James Trafford must really be wondering 'what if?' now
After missing out on James Trafford in the summer and his place at Manchester City now in doubt, a third attempt to sign the young England keeper seems like a good idea. Although when asked about Newcastle's goalkeeper problem after the game yesterday, Eddie Howe avoided the question.
“I think it's difficult for me to comment on any one player or position.
“Collectively, we have to defend our goal better. That's everyone across the board. That's me taking responsibility for that first and filtering that down to the players.”
Eddie Howe avoiding the question felt like a red flag to us
If we were to read between the lines there, we'd suggest that Howe is having a serious think about what the future looks like between the posts for Newcastle.
Usually, Howe will leap to the defence of his players, but the fact that he tried to avoid the issue here suggests that his confidence in Pope is waning. And why wouldn't it be?
The number of points basic goalkeeping errors have cost us this season is shocking.
Of course, in the interest of balance, we have to acknowledge that he has made some top-class saves that have rescued points for us, too. We're sure Howe will take that into consideration too, but when you add the errors to his inability to kick a ball, we can't help but lean towards bringing in a new No 1 next season.
