Newcastle United suffered a heartbreaking defeat to Everton in the Premier League on Saturday afternoon, a result that left manager Eddie Howe dissatisfied.
Meanwhile, Newcastle goalkeeper Nick Pope made a mistake in the first half that led to Everton’s goal. After the game, the Newcastle manager was asked about Pope, but he refused to comment on individual players, saying the team had a collective responsibility and had to defend better.
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Eddie Howe talks about Newcastle defeat
“It’s very frustrating,” he said (h/t Shields Gazette). “We worked hard to get back into the game twice. Everton are not easy opponents to score goals against, so we spent a lot of time chasing them.
“Then we undo it with avoidable mistakes. Especially the second mistake that hurt us mentally.
“From the start of the second half until the goal, we were dominant. But those lapses cost us.”
Howe drops hints about electing a pope
However, the Newcastle manager has hinted that he may consider making changes when it comes to team selection after players made mistakes. It will be interesting to see if Pope is left out for Newcastle’s upcoming games.
Howe said: “You can look at people who made mistakes, but you have to go back a little bit from there and think about why it happened and what the reasons were. Of course team selection is key for me. That’s my power that I have to make a change.”
The Magpies have now lost three consecutive league games at home, the first time this has happened since Eddie Howe took charge of the club in November 2021.
It will be interesting to see if Newcastle can bounce back strongly in the coming weeks. They are a quality team with quality players and should do better.
This season was expected to be a push towards qualifying for the Champions League, but things have not gone according to plan.
It has been a disappointing season for Newcastle and they want to finish as well as possible. In order for players to achieve good results, they must eliminate individual mistakes.
Newcastle currently sit 12th in the league table and it remains to be seen whether they will qualify for Europe next season.
