Eddie Howe wants more of the same as Newcastle prepare for their Carabao Cup quarter-final clash with Brentford on the back of a Premier League demolition of Leicester.
The Magpies bounced back from their 4-2 league defeat by the Bees last weekend with a 4-0 thrashing of Ruud van Nistelrooy’s Foxes, and will now have the chance to gain revenge on Brentford when they meet at St James’ Park on Wednesday.
Defeat at the Gtech Community Stadium, which came three days after a thrilling 3-3 draw with leaders Liverpool, summed up Newcastle’s inconsistency and increased the criticism coming their way.
Asked how big Saturday’s win was in the circumstances, head coach Howe said: “Yes, it’s a big win. It’s a big win for a lot of reasons, but I think this week with two home games and the importance of both games, to start well gives us a massive lift.
“It was important we responded to the Brentford performance in the right way – I thought we did. Right from the start of the game, I thought we looked engaged, mentally switched-on, able to give a really good athletic performance and technical performance.
“I thought we had a bit of everything today, good attacking, good defending. I think there were a lot of positive responses to the disappointment of last week.”
It was Jacob Murphy who supplied the finish to a brilliantly worked corner to open the scoring and, after Bruno Guimaraes and Alexander had extended the lead, the winger netted his second, with all four goals coming inside the middle 30 minutes of a game dominated from start to finish by the hosts.
Jacob Murphy at the double! ✌️ pic.twitter.com/ovt3TOy9v7
— Newcastle United (@NUFC) December 14, 2024
Asked about two-goal Murphy’s contribution, Howe said: “He’s a really valuable player because wherever you put him or whatever you ask him to do, he does it to the best of his ability.”
A fifth booking of the campaign for midfielder Joelinton was a minor disappointment for Howe, who confirmed after the game that first-choice goalkeeper Nick Pope will be out of action for a month with a knee injury.
He said: “He saw the specialist and the feedback is that he’s going to be out for around a month, so bad timing for us and for Nick because there are a lot of games in that four-week period.”
Opposite number Van Nistelrooy has his own goalkeeping issues as he awaits news of the extent of the groin problem which forced Mads Hermansen off at half-time, although he was refusing to be too downcast after suffering his first defeat in charge.
Van Nistelrooy said: “From defeat, you’re always going to learn more. We also spoke about the thin margins in the Premier League, where everything has to be right to get results.
“We managed to do so in two home games. Today in the set-up, what we said before the game, in the structure on the ball, things have to improve.
“It was better in the second half, you could see some spells of what we wanted, but it was too little too late.”
