Eddie Howe’s comments after Newcastle United’s 4-0 humiliation at the hands of Leicester City have created a wave of concern from some Newcastle fans.
Howe, who took over Newcastle last month following the departure of unpopular manager Steve Bruce, has generated comparison’s to the former Manchester United centre back after he refused to heavily criticise his team’s performance.
In his post match press conference and as quoted by Sky Sports, the former Bournemouth manager said that he didn’t feel the scoreline reflected the outcome of the game.
This sentiment did not sit too well with a number of Newcastle fans, who adamantly disagreed with his assessment of the game, resulting in some comparing this line of reasoning to what the club had seen before under Bruce.
Imagine if bruce had said this ?????
— Adam (@Adam95539795) December 12, 2021
Eddie please don’t turn into Bruce
— ??? (@NUFC_LEW) December 12, 2021
He’s been reading the Steve Bruce book of excuses
— The E Wing Paddock (@speedypete68) December 13, 2021
While the scoreline may have been slightly embellished, at least according to the expected goals metric, it by no means indicates that Newcastle were close to winning the game.
Indeed if we take a look at the xG figures for the game, we can see that Newcastle generated less less than 1.00 xG while The Foxes created more than 2.00 xG.
Leicester (2.18) 4-0 (0.61) Newcastle
— The xG Philosophy (@xGPhilosophy) December 12, 2021
Whatever the case, Leicester are a good team and under any circumstances Newcastle would have been hard-pressed to get any points from the game.
However, the erratic Leicester City that has been displayed this year would have been The Magpies best chance if getting some more points before Christmas, with games against three of the big six in consecutive fixtures before a clash with Everton on December 30th.
With the team rooted to the bottom of the table, it might not be a very merry Christmas for Newcastle. But, Christmas miracles do happen sometimes.