Eddie Howe has hit back at tactical criticism and denied suggestions his Newcastle team survived ‘an onslaught’ during their midweek win at Burnley.
The head coach took exception to the accusation of not having a plan B, as well as claims his side were made to suffer by the 19th-placed Clarets on Tuesday night.
Newcastle won 3-1 at Turf Moor after an end-to-end contest in which the hosts had 15 shots to the visitors’ 20, moving them to 13th in the table.
It was put to Howe on Friday that there had been an onslaught on Newcastle’s goal after they raced into a 2-0 lead inside seven minutes, to which he did not take kindly.
‘An onslaught? What? Against us? Have you seen the stats of the game?’ he replied, to which his inquisitor said he had seen the game with his eyes.
‘You must have been watching a different game, then. There was no onslaught. Yes, we had moments of course, (but) we had moments the other way. I would never describe it as that. If it was an onslaught, I’d give you my opinion and say, “Yes. I thought it was”.’
Howe was then asked if he needed to develop more of a plan B during games, given his faith in Newcastle’s 4-3-3 system.
‘That’s always a difficult one because if you have too many plan Bs, that means your plan A is flawed and your players are then thinking of what’s next rather than trying to deliver plan A to the best of their ability,’ he said.
‘We have loads of different ways of playing, but within the structure and the principles of what we believe in. I see countless managers asked the same questions on plan Bs and as I say, you have to be careful. We have a very strong plan for every situation. We just need to deliver it better.’
Howe, though, did concede that his midfield are struggling to control games, especially away from home. Burnley was their second Premier League victory on the road this season.
‘I don’t think we have had the control we would have liked in some games,’ he said. ‘Sometimes we have self inflicted problems on ourselves. Going back to Burnley, there was a period of about 10 to 15 minutes where we were turning the ball over too much and that gave them confidence and belief to come back into the game when it looked like we were going to take full control.
‘That is frustrating from our perspective. When you take a 2-0 goal lead after 10 minutes you expect, well I expected us, to take full control and consolidate in that moment. There are areas for us to look at and to focus on, to implement to make us stronger and better.
‘But I’ve watched loads of Burnley’s games this year and they have always been competitive at home, they’ve been in nearly every game. So while we didn’t win as strongly as maybe I would have wanted us to, we did win and it was a good performance.’
One of the key reasons for the issues in midfield has been a drop off in form of Sandro Tonali, who was exceptional last season and during the early part of this campaign.
Howe said: ‘The standards that he set last season are key – I thought he was absolutely magnificent and him returning to the team gave us almost a new signing, a new energy boost in there.
‘He built really good relationships with the players around him and was really effective in lots of different dimensions of the game. This season, for whatever reason, I don’t think he’s quite hit those levels that he did the season before. We’re working with him to get him back to those levels. I think we’ve seen games where he’s performed really well and, even within games, there’s been moments and periods where he’s been absolutely at his best, but it’s that consistency level for him, as it is for the team, that will be the thing we’re focused on.’
