Predicted Newcastle team v Spurs – One change | OneFootball

Looking at the Newcastle team v Spurs.

Eddie Howe and his players hoping to continue the levels of their five excellent wins and performances against Leicester, Brentford, Ipswich, Aston Villa and Man U.

Five victories and sixteen goals scored, just the one conceded.

A win today would ensure that United are as a minimum top five in the Premier League after this weekend, potentially top four if the Chelsea match at Palace also went the right way.

What can we expect the Newcastle team v Spurs to be?

As a starting point, this was the Newcastle team v Man U:

Dubravka, Trippier, Schar, Burn, Hall, Tonali, Bruno, Joelinton, Murphy, Isak, Gordon

Fabian Schar is suspended for this one (and the cup match at Arsenal) but on Friday morning Eddie Howe reported no new injuries after the Man U match.

Callum Wilson, Nick Pope, Emil Krafth and Jamaal Lascelles won’t be in contention to start on Saturday.

However, Eddie Howe says that Sven Botman is now at the stage of his recovery where he could be considered for the first team matchday squad, with even the possibility of competing to be in the starting eleven in these upcoming matches.

Anyway, my take on all of this, my best guesstimate of the Newcastle team v Spurs is:

Dubravka, Trippier, Kelly, Burn, Hall, Tonali, Bruno, Joelinton, Murphy, Isak, Gordon

The team have been playing so well, Eddie Howe has been making minimal changes. The odd recent change has been due to suspension or injury/illness.

I think it will be more of the same here.

The big question of course, is who comes in for the suspended Fabian Schar?

Spurs haven’t been in great form but I would be amazed if Sven Botman came into the starting eleven for such a big game, after over nine months out. My guess is that we will see him get some minutes off the bench in one or both of these Spurs and Arsenal matches, then the likely plan for a first return start against Bromley a week on Sunday.

Emil Krafth would have been a contender to replace Schar, but having been out injured for some time and yet to return so far, I can’t see past Lloyd Kelly coming in to play right centre-back. Maybe not ideal playing two left-footed central defenders but there again, nobody usually says too much when a team has two right-footed centre-backs. Kelly hasn’t pulled up any trees so far but hasn’t had the benefit of a run of games, he played well in the cup win over Chelsea I thought, when playing in the middle with Schar.

I think for most fans, the only other possible position where there might be some debate, is at right-back. Livramento missed Villa through illness and then came off the bench for Trippier at Man U. I think Eddie Howe will stick with Trippier, especially with no Schar in the team and almost certainly two left-footed central defenders, the 34 year old’s experience, organisation and leadership will hopefully help with the change in the middle of defence.

Saturday 4 January – Tottenham v Newcastle (12.30pm) TNT Sports

Tuesday 7 January – Arsenal v Newcastle (8pm) Sky Sports and ITV1 and ITVX

Sunday 12 January – Newcastle v Bromley (3pm) BBC iPlayer (FA Cup)

Wednesday 15 January – Newcastle v Wolves (7.30pm) TNT Sports

Saturday 18 January – Newcastle v Bournemouth (12.30pm) TNT Sports

Saturday 25 January – Southampton v Newcastle (3pm)

Saturday 1 February – Newcastle v Fulham (3pm)

Wednesday 5 February – Newcastle v Arsenal (8pm) Sky Sports