Nick Woltemade returns to his familiar role as Erling Haaland starts for hosts - Newcastle v Man City team news
Newcastle United are in action at the Etihad Stadium once again as they go toe-to-toe with Manchester City in the Premier League. Kick-off is at 8pm live on TNT Sports.
It's a monumental task that lies ahead for Eddie Howe and his team as the Magpies are still waiting for their first Premier League win at the Etihad Stadium.
Off the back of a 5000-mile round trip in midweek, an 8pm kick-off on a Saturday was probably the last thing the Newcastle squad needed, but here we are.
Eddie Howe has made a couple of tweaks to the side that battered Qarabag FK in Azerbaijan on Wednesday, but we'll be honest, confidence isn't high.
Nick Woltemade is back in his more recognisable role tonight
Nick Woltemade looks to be playing as the mains triker again after a few games playing in a deeper role, with the pace of Anthony Elanga and Anthony Gordon working down the wings.
We expected Jacob Murphy to be given the nod as he seems like Eddie Howe's preferred choice when he's expecting to be pinned back, but we appreciate him going with Elanga for that pace. Plus, his one goal for the club came against Man City a couple of weeks ago.
Joelinton is only fit enough to make the bench, so our hope of having him in the midfield to add a bit of bite didn't pan out. Hopefully, Jacob Ramsey and Joe Willock will do their job well supporting Sandro Tonali.
Just don't roll over and give up, and we'll stay friends
Sven Botman also misses out completely. Eddie Howe thought the Dutchman would have been at least in the squad today, but that hasn't happened. Instead, Howe has had to go with two goalkeepers on the bench along with three kids in Alex Murphy, Leo Shahar and Sean Neave, which again, just shows how paper-thin our squad is.
Erling Haaland has shaken off his knock, and he starts for Man City tonight along with Omar Marmoush, who absolutely loves a goal against Newcastle.
Our attitude going into this one is 'whatever happens, happens'. We have no expectations of anything positive; we just want the lads to show a bit of fight.
