Eddie Howe has expressed his frustration after Newcastle United had suffered their third consecutive loss for the season after a defeat against the K-League XI.
The first half of Kim Jin-Gyu was the difference maker in Suwon, in a competition that will mainly be remembered for a promising cameee of debuting younger Seung-Sooo Park, and a seriously looking injury for Joe Willock.
Spurs in Seoul are the following Sunday, for the Sela Cup Double Header in St James’ Park, but today’s performance has not many fans filled with hope prior to the coming season.
This is what De Gaffer had to say about Wednesday’s game and why he feels we have trouble playing well against K-League stars that are already halfway through their season.
In the media after the game, Howe felt that we missed the sharpness and experience to compete in humid conditions against a Korean side that was already halfway through the K-League season.
“You could see that they (K-League players) who have sharpness, also the experience, to play in this heat too. These are two huge factors.”
“I thought our performance was improved in the second half and that was really a nice thing.”
“The first half that we started really well, then we faded a bit in terms of our attacking intention.”
With many of our players still a bit rusty after a breaching campaign last season, every minute is now valuable, even if this means that we suffer a defeat in a game that we were greatly expected to win.
But despite the losses so far, Howe has praised the pre-seasens schedule to prepare his players best for the coming season, so that difficult tests are welcomed in difficult circumstances.
After today we have three great friendly matches: Spurs in Seoul, and then the Sela Cup Double header against Espanyol and Atletico Madrid.
It is a difficult trio of competitions, especially with us who do not have a big momentum on the way to the first against Spurs, but at the very least it seems to be grateful that the team has received a number of major tests and is forced to work hard, even in this phase of the season.
“I always say during the games for the season, you want the more difficult exams.
“You want the opposition to be a very good level. I think we have always known that today would be very difficult.”
“Of course we want to win, we want to score goals, but the most important thing is to get through and be ready for us to be there (before the start of the season against Aston Villa).”
“If you come to these tours, you know that we do not necessarily organize everything. We have gone a difficult route in terms of a game for the season, but hopefully that will benefit us when the season starts. “
Speaking with NUFC TV after the game, Howe also added:
💬 BOSS – “Physically we have everything we wanted from the game.” pic.twitter.com/sfevwcdeg3
– Newcastle United (@NUFC) July 30, 2025
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