Newcastle United warmed up for Gameweek 7 in convincing fashion with a thumping 4-0 win in Belgium on Wednesday.

Assessing the match from a Fantasy perspective, here are our latest Scout Notes.

RESULTTeamOpponentResultGoalsAssistsNewcastle UnitedUSG (a)4-0 winWoltemade, Gordon pens x2, BarnesTonali, Elanga, OsulaSELECTION/ROTATIONTeamNo. of starting XI changes made from GW6Players who kept their places (mins played)Mins for other playersNewcastle United2Pope (90), Thiaw (90), Botman (90), Burn (90), Tonali (90), Gordon (90), Guimaraes (73), Woltemade (73), Joelinton (59)Trippier (83), Elanga (73), Miley (31), Hall (17), Osula (17), Barnes (17), Schar (7)GORDON ON PENS

The big talking point from Wednesday was Anthony Gordon‘s (£7.4m) two goals from the penalty spot.

There had been some debate over who would succeed Alexander Isak (£10.6m) and Callum Wilson (£5.9m) as first-choice taker at Newcastle following their summer exits.

Gordon had been third in line while those two were at the club, scoring three of his four spot-kicks for the Magpies before midweek.

But with Nick Woltemade (£7.1m) arriving, there was a thought that the German striker would assume responsibility.

Not so, with Gordon taking and scoring two – both excellent, confident penalties – in Belgium.

“I think that Anthony’s been practising them a lot. He’s been working very hard on his routine. You can see that he’s very focused. I was really pleased with how we took the two penalties and I think when you see someone as dedicated as he’s been towards that, yeah, I had no hesitation in giving him that role.” – Eddie Howe on Anthony Gordon’s penalties

Woltemade was visibly miffed at his teammate hogging the duties but Eddie Howe had no issue with that.

“No, I love it. I think the best strikers that I’ve seen and worked with want to score and even if there is a directive, they don’t care. They still want to score and they want they want that responsibility because that’s what they live to do. So, I’ve got no issue with that at all.” – Eddie Howe on whether Nick Woltemade wanting penalties was a problem

LIVRAMENTO + WISSA UPDATES

In case you missed our early team news round-up, we finally have a timeline on Tino Livramento (£5.1m), who picked up a knee injury in Gameweek 6.

Howe provided the latest after full-time on Wednesday.

“From yesterday, Tino we think will be roughly around six to eight weeks, which is probably positive from where we were after the game, thinking it might be months.

“We’re probably looking, not this international break but maybe the next one, he could be back. It’s certainly more positive than we initially feared.” – Eddie Howe on Tino Livramento, speaking on Wednesday

There was also an update from Howe on Yoane Wissa (£7.4m), who, like Jacob Ramsey (£5.3m), remains out until after the October international break.

“I think we’re still on track for where we were, which is after this international break coming up.

“He hasn’t trained on the grass yet, so we haven’t seen him as part of any team training. At the moment, that’s the schedule, but we’ll wait and see.” – Eddie Howe on Yoane Wissa

Fabian Schar (£5.4m) returned from a head injury as a substitute last night.

BURN AT LEFT-BACK AGAIN

With Livramento out, Kieran Trippier (£5.0m) came back into the side as one of two starting XI changes. Anthony Elanga (£6.9m) for Jacob Murphy (£6.2m) was the other.

Trippier has a clearer run at right-back with Livramento out, even though he may not start every match between now and Gameweek 12.

Howe has a wealth of options at the back, indeed.

Dan Burn (£5.0m) lined up at left-back for the second game running, as he used to do between 2022 and 2024. Malick Thiaw (£4.9m) and Sven Botman (£4.9m) were meanwhile very good again at centre-half, with Schar coming on late in the game.

All four of those centre-halves finished the match, with Lewis Hall (£5.4m) also on the field! A wealth of options for Howe at the back, then, and more week-to-week uncertainty than we’ve seen in the past in Newcastle’s defence.

“I think this is the best we’ve seen of Sven since his injury. Very, very pleased with the three games that he’s had because that’s a big physical ask for him.

“Today, I thought he was outstanding and I think himself and Malick at the heart of the defence used the ball really well and I think that was a big part of how we controlled the game. So yeah, very pleased.” – Eddie Howe

ATTACKING SWAGGER RETURNS – BUT DOES HOWE ROTATE THIS WEEKEND?

Howe has been more willing to rotate this season, perhaps learning lessons from 2023/24 when his Newcastle side were run into the ground by the midweek European commitments.

The Bournemouth match in Gameweek 5 was a good example, when Bruno Guimaraes (£6.5m) and Joelinton (£5.9m) were benched.

The hope for Gameweek 7, at least for those targeting Newcastle assets, is that it’s a Wednesday-Sunday turnaround this week, rather than the Thursday-Sunday schedule of Gameweek 5.

Howe could afford to take Joelinton, Bruno, Woltemade, Trippier and Elanga off early in Belgium, too.

Gordon has now started three games in a row, just as a caveat, and lasted 90 minutes last night. At least he had the three-match domestic ban earlier in the season to rest up!

The Newcastle boss may be keen to build on the momentum from last night’s attacking display, too, with it being the best offensive performance of the season to date.

The Elanga-Woltemade-Gordon frontline really clicked, admittedly against limited opposition, with Elanga probably having his best Newcastle game to date. The winger won the Magpies’ first penalty.

Woltemade’s instinctive flicked goal was his only shot of the game but his link-up play really does seem to benefit the players outside of him.

“A lot of times, he’s the pass before the wingers received the ball and so almost their involvement is reliant on his ability to play that pass. So I think you saw the two Anthonys get a lot of ball because of him.” – Eddie Howe on Nick Woltemade

While Newcastle conceded 17 shots to their hosts, over half were from outside the box and not one scored more than 0.10 xG:

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