Eddie Howe to make huge selection call on Tuesday as Newcastle United travel to Turf Moor to take on Burnley
Newcastle United travel to Burnley on Tuesday night for a 7:30 pm kick-off at Turf Moor, live on Sky Sports.
The Magpies are hoping to end the year with a rare away win, and against relegation-threatened Burnley, the expectation that Newcastle come away with three points is extremely high.
Newcastle still have just one Premier League away win to their name this season, and the situation is getting desperate.
Eddie Howe is starting to come under pressure from supporters, although it's still believed that his job is safe in terms of what the board are thinking, but another defeat on the road to lowly Burnley may start to move the needle.
Nick Pope is likely to return to the lineup on Tuesday
Since coming into the side to replace the injured and poorly-performing Nick Pope, Aaron Ramsdale hasn't kept a clean sheet, and now with Pope back in contention, the big question is whether Eddie Howe feels he's fit enough to return to the starting lineup to face his old club.
Speaking after the Manchester United defeat, Eddie Howe spoke about how Pope only just missed out on playing at Old Trafford, which suggests he's likely to start on Tuesday.
"Nick had really limited training time for (the Manchester United) game. He declared himself fit and then was subsequently ill right before kick-off and wasn't feeling great - so it was probably fortunate that he wasn't playing (on Boxing Day).
"I'll take a view from the training that I see, although it's been limited so far. I need to see that Nick's back to his very best - and Aaron (Ramsdale)'s played well in his absence, so I'll make a call."
The goalkeeper situation isn't looking as strong as we thought it was at the start of the campaign
Given Ramsdale's inability to keep a clean sheet and Pope having completely lost the plot before his injury, we're not even sure what we want to happen in terms of who to put between the sticks.
Ramsdale has been let down by those in front of him at times, but there were definitely a couple of goals that went past him that we'd expect Pope to have stopped.
It definitely feels like we might be going back in for James Trafford in the summer.
