Eddie Howe has admitted Newcastle United are heavily dependent on their out-of-possession intensity after watching Anthony Gordon underline a stark split between his European and domestic form. The 24-year-old scored four in last week’s 6-1 Champions League playoff win against Qarabag in Baku, taking his tally to 10 goals in nine matches in the competition, but he has managed only three in 21 Premier League appearances, two of which were penalties.
“I think teams are much more open in the Champions League,” Gordon said. “They all try to play proper football, it’s less transitional. The Premier League’s become much more physical than I’ve ever known. It’s so relentless, like basketball. It’s all about running and duels. The Champions League is more of an older style of football; in the Premier League there’s a lot more long throws. It’s a lot more set piece-based now.”
Howe’s side sit 11th in the Premier League, level on 36 points with Sunderland, and the manager has acknowledged their limitations. “We’re better out of possession,” he said. “Ultimately our preferred way of play is to go for the throat and try to control games with relentless pressing and really good physical performances.” Yet such tactics carry an inherent risk of burnout and can be exploited by technically superior opponents, as Barcelona demonstrated in September when Pedri controlled a 2-1 victory at St James’ Park.
Howe has evolved from his earlier admiration for Arsène Wenger’s Arsenal, instead modelling his approach on the high-pressing ideals of Andoni Iraola and Diego Simeone. A tactical experiment that saw Sandro Tonali deliberately kick the ball out for a throw-in during the opening Premier League match at Aston Villa was abandoned after the Italian and team-mates objected that it was “anti-football.” Meanwhile, forward Nick Woltemade, who scored five in his first eight games after joining from Stuttgart, has found the net only once in his past 17 appearances and has been repositioned from No 9 to a left-sided No 8.
Newcastle face Qarabag in the second leg at St James’ Park on Tuesday night before a potentially stiffer test when Everton visit on Saturday. Howe may need to find a more controlled, possession-based approach to complement their pressing intensity if they are to climb the table and compete for silverware.
