Newcastle United are back in Champions League action tomorrow night, taking on Bayer Leverkusen in Wednesday’s 8pm kick-off.
We’ll be looking to bounce back from that 2-1 defeat at Marseille last time out, and will need to if we wish to get back into the top eight of the league phase this week, having dropped to 11th after losing in France last month.
After arriving in Germany with the rest of the squad earlier today, Eddie Howe has been speaking to the media from the BayArena about team selection and our preparations for the game.
And his message was clear; he won’t be fielding a weak side tomorrow to save key players for Sunday’s derby at Sunderland, insisting we are “ready” for both tests and will see a “strong” Newcastle line-up against Leverkusen:
“It has been an intense week, finished the game on Saturday, and immediately prepare for the next one. Having to cram a lot of work into a short period of time. We are excited by this one, looking forward to the challenge, a tough game for us.”
“I think we will pick a team that will be strong tomorrow and strong on Sunday.
“We have a few injuries to our backline which has been there for a few games now, we don’t necessarily have the depth at the moment, but we come here with a strong squad and we are ready for both games this week.
“The best thing to keep players fit and fresh is to keep playing football. Unless rest is specifically designed for the individual, I don’t think rest at this stage of the season is productive.
“The best way to keep players fit and fresh is to keep playing football. Even if we do rotate players, they are still part of the group and a 20-30 minute cameo can do them good.”
The boss also discussed Yoane Wissa, with our £55m summer signing back in contention after making his first appearance in a black and white shirt during Saturday’s 2-1 win over Burnley.
Howe insists the 29-year-old “looks positive”, is in great spirits and “will only get better” as we build him back up while having a limited training time within this hectic schedule:
“He looks positive, body language is very good. He’s been boosted by coming on the pitch, ready to take on minutes.
“The challenge we have now is limited training times between games which we have to get right.
“He showed the qualities he had in those twenty minutes, and he will only get better.”