Last season, Eddie Howe’s Newcastle United made light work of teams in the bottom half of the Premier League. Those routine victories played a huge role in securing an unlikely place in the Champions League.

Fast forward to this campaign and the picture looks very different. Points have been dropped against Leeds and Sunderland, while two unconvincing victories over Scott Parker’s Burnley have sparked debate about whether something has changed in the way Newcastle now approach games against supposedly lesser opposition.

Tuesday night’s trip to Turf Moor only fuelled those concerns. Despite racing into a 2–0 lead away from home, Newcastle spent long spells under pressure, seemingly content to absorb attacks rather than assert control. It wasn’t until Bruno Guimarães struck late on to make it 3–1 that the contest was finally put to bed, leaving many supporters questioning the tactical approach during that nervy second half.

However, Howe has strongly defended both the performance and his methods. The Newcastle boss rejected suggestions that the team were clinging on and pushed back firmly against claims that his tactical setup lacks flexibility.

Howe responds to Burnley criticism

Speaking to the Chronicle’s Lee Ryder, Howe was asked about the perceived absence of a “Plan B” and his use of substitutions during what was described as a Burnley onslaught as they chased an equaliser.

The suggestion clearly surprised the manager. When Ryder referred to a sustained spell of pressure from the Clarets, Howe quickly disagreed, questioning whether the same match had been watched at all.

“How can you call it an onslaught — against us?” Howe said. “Have you seen the stats of the game? You must have been watching something different. There was no onslaught.

The clip of Howe clashing with Lee Ryder…

My personal opinion is that I’d have preferred this question to be asked after the Man United defeat, when we had nothing to lose and plenty of fans would’ve liked to see the Plan B of Woltemade and Wissa on the pitch together — even… pic.twitter.com/iaznuztG7i

— Newcastle Updates (@nufcupdates9) January 2, 2026

“Of course there were moments for them, and moments for us too, but I would never describe it like that. If it had been an onslaught, I’d say so.”

Howe also addressed the ongoing debate around having a Plan B, explaining why he believes the concept is often misunderstood.

“A Plan B is always a difficult one,” he added. “If you have too many Plan Bs, it suggests your Plan A isn’t strong enough, and players start thinking about what comes next instead of fully committing to what they’re doing.

“We have lots of different ways of playing, but all within the same structure and principles. Managers get asked about Plan Bs all the time, but you have to be careful with it.

“We prepare thoroughly for every situation. The plan is there — we just have to execute it better. That’s the focus, and it’s on improving our performances week by week.”

Performances must improve in manic January

Starting with Sunday’s clash with Crystal Palace, we have nine huge games across spread out over all four major competitions, and four games in a row at home against Palace, Leeds, Bournemouth and Man City in league and cup.

The particularly brutal four game run to close the month, starting with PSV in the Champions League and followed by Aston Villa, PSG and Liverpool in particular stand out, as poor results there could set us back significantly for the rest of the season.

Whilst we’ll be backing Howe and the lads all the way, it would be very disheartening to see similar tactical approaches employed against these elite sides like what we’ve seen the gaffer roll out against Sunderland, Manchester United and Burnley in the last few weeks.

Individual magic from Lewis Hall, Bruno Guimaraes and Nick Woltemade will only go so far, meaning some much-improved team performances aren’t just wanted, but needed if we want to enjoy a positive January and get ourselves properly back into Champions League contention for the rest of the season.

A win against Crystal Palace, who are winless in their last six games in all competitions, would be the perfect place to start…