Newcastle United ended their away misery with a resounding 4-1 win at Goodison Park on Saturday.
Despite the strong attacking performance, most of the Fantasy talk has been about the Magpies’ goalkeeping position. Was this a changing of the guard between posts?
HOW ABOUT PAUS INJURY + RAMSDALE DISPLAY
Eddie Howe had the ‘Nick Pope (£5.2m) v Aaron Ramsdale (£4.8m)’ debate was made easier for him by the former suffering a groin injury.
The under-fire Pope missed the match against Everton entirely, with Ramsdale making his Magpies league debut instead.
Howe wouldn’t care whether Pope would have started had he been fit.
“Nice try! That’s something I need to know.
“Nick, we’re disappointed to lose him. We can’t afford to lose a player. He picked up an injury just before the end of training. I didn’t mention the squad yesterday. So we just trained as normal and he was, I think, just wrong-footed on a shot and just felt something in his groin. More after training than at that moment.”
“I hope he won’t be away for long. We need him back. He will undergo a scan in the coming days to assess the damage.” – Eddie Howe on whether Nick Pope would have started if he hadn’t been injured
As for Ramsdale’s debut, it went smoothly enough. His distribution is definitely his strongest suit, and Newcastle played to that strength, attempting more passes (31) and making more successful passes (21) than Pope has made in any game this season.
As for his skill with his hands, he was not overly tested. Only two shots on target, one of them Kiernan Dewsbury Hall‘s (£4.9m) has brilliantly found solace.
“Aaron today, I think, showed his qualities with the ball at his feet. He distributed the ball very well. He wasn’t necessarily overworked in terms of shots, but what he did have to deal with, I thought he did well.” – Eddie Howe on Aaron Ramsdale
Was also missed Sven Botman (£4.9 million), who has a nagging back problem. Howe said he is “going to see a specialist” to determine the extent of the problem.
MORE ROTATION COMES FROM HOW?
Howe isn’t always fond of rotation (remember how he pounded his players into the ground in 2023/24), but seems more willing to cut and change this season.
He made six changes from the midweek defeat in Marseilles, of which Ramsdale was the pope. As for the other five, four of the incoming players – Lewis Hall (£5.2 million), Anthony Elanga (£6.6 million), Lewis Miley (£4.4 million) and Nick Woltemade (£7.4m) – produced at least one attacking return.
Miley and Hall both delivered crosses that were consistently brilliant Malick Thiaw (£4.9 million) went home, with Miley and Woltemade both finding the net. Elanga put the German on edge for his beautifully lobbed attack.
Harvey Barnes (£6.3 million) and Jacob Ramsey (£5.3m), sharing left wing duties, had great chances to score other goals.
Howe was pleased with the impact of his newer players.
“We made changes because I didn’t want to have any fatigue on the pitch. I didn’t want to have that feeling that I had after the Brentford game, the West Ham game, where I felt like we were tired and lethargic.”
“So with that in mind I think we have to trust and use the squad – and they have repaid that trust.” –Eddie Howe
So there is a good chance that we will see some adjustments in Gameweek 14. Sandro Tonali (£5.4 million) will definitely come back, while the chances of that happening are very high Fabian Schar (£5.3m) comes back and Then Burns (£5.1m) moves to left-back as Hall receives careful treatment following his recent sacking. Hall had “a bit of a cramp” when he was substituted in stoppage time.
Anthony Gordon (£7.2 million) and Jacob Murphy (£6.1m) could also be back on the flanks.
Thiaw currently seems to be the safest route to the back line. The newly fit-again Hall and Tino Livramento (£4.9m) have been hugely influential in Newcastle’s last two league results, but Thiaw, with his set-piece threat and occasional DefCon return, looks the better Fantasy bet.
IDRISSA A MISS?
Was it just a case of Idrissa Gana Gueye (£5.4m) be a miss? He might not have two set-piece headers or one Jordan Pickford Foul (£5.5m) for Miley’s attack.
But replacement Irogbunam team (£4.9m) must share the blame for Newcastle’s second and third goals, which were aided by his poor touch or lack of power. During the break he was hooked.
Gueye will also miss Gameweek 14 and 15 and may go to the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) after that. Can David Moyes find a solution, Iroegbunam or otherwise, to adequately fill that void? One possibility is that Dewsbury-Hall drops deeper, so it will be interesting to monitor its results if that happens.
He suffered no ill effects on Saturday. Moyes brought Charlie Alcaraz (£5.2m) for Iroegbunam at half-time against Newcastle, but that didn’t bother Dewsbury-Hall, who was still more of an ‘8/10’ than a ‘6’.
Indeed, Dewsbury-Hall stepped up to score Everton’s second-half goal. That was one of three game-high shots he had.
At the back, Michael Keane (£4.6 million) and James Tarkowski (£5.4m) had the consolation of DefCon/assist points. Defensive contributions and attacking results are always possible with these two, but the bread and butter of clean sheets may be a bigger concern with Gueye out, despite the heroics at Old Trafford.
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