Nick Woltemade could continue in midfield against Man City at the weekend after Eddie Howe drops big Anthony Gordon hint
Newcastle United’s Anthony Gordon and Yoane Wissa
Newcastle United boss Eddie Howe says he has no qualms in Anthony Gordon continuing in the No 9 role as the Magpies look to resume their Premier League programme.
After a two-game break from top-flight action, with wins over Aston Villa in the FA Cup and Qarabag in the Champions League play-offs, Newcastle return to the Prem with a clash against Man City on Saturday night.
With Gordon netting four times against the Azerbaijan outfit, he has arguably leapfrogged Nick Woltemade and Yoane Wissa in the pecking order to start as United’s central striker. Woltemade has been used in a deeper midfield role the last two games while Wissa has missed out through injury, and will be assessed when Howe and his staff return to the training ground.
It leaves Gordon in pole position to line up in the central role against City at the weekend and after his European exploits the challenge is now to improve his divisional tally. Gordon actually has one less in the Premier League than the four he grabbed in Baku but his overall total for the season in all competitions is 14.
Howe said: “He has been really good in that position. Looking back to the Liverpool game when I thought he was excellent, he scored that night and he showed me he wanted to play there which is really important.
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“He has got the qualities to play there. His pressing there was incredible. And he has given himself the platform to build off the back work and high pressing.
“There are going to be a lot of opportunities for him to counter-attack with, opportunities for us. He has taken the four goals and he will get the headlines naturally but he I thought his all round game was really strong.”
For all the talk of Qarabag being played down as substandard opponents, Howe does not see it that way. He has respect for Qarabag and feels the win brings much-needed confidence to the group.
Speaking after the morale-boosting win, Howe said: “My hope is it reaffirms our belief that we can be an outstanding team. We can be a match for anyone. We have always maintained this season that we can be. It is, of course, about finding this level as consistently as we can.
“You can see the intense focus was there for us from very early in the game. If you have quality in that kind of area. It was a really useful time for us to produce a display like that. We have to just tell ourselves we can be a top team.”
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