Eddie Howe has been talking ahead of Newcastle United taking on Sunderland
United preparing for their 51st match of the season.
A return to Premier League action as Newcastle United look to make it three league victories in a row.
United hoping to follow up that excellent win over Man U at St James’ Park and the away one at Chelsea.
Ninth placed Newcastle looking to further close the gap on those above them.
Eddie Howe speaking at his Newcastle United pre-match press conference ahead of facing Sunderland:
“Sunderland have had a good season. The jump from Championship to the Premier League is big.
“We know how tough the game was against them earlier in the season.
“We need to use that experience of the first game, the emotions we felt afterwards. We are focused on delivering a really good performance.
“We need to perform.
“The positives of this game for us can be huge, for the fans, for the city. We need to make sure our preparation for this game is as good as we can be to make sure we help the players.
“The focus for us is to try and win the game. For us, we have to try and recover physically and mentally.
“The players will be ready for this game. We have eight massive games to go.
“We have a bit of work to do, psychologically, with the players off the back of what was a really strange game [against Barcelona] to digest and review.
“I think the players will hopefully have learned from a lot of similar games this season, in the respect of we’ve had a crazy group of games where we’ve had to leave one game very quickly and focus on the next. That’s a skill, I think, to be able to park it and move onto the next one.
“We have to do that really quickly and effectively because the game will be on us before we know it. It’s a 12 o’clock kick-off, a very quick turnaround. There’s a bit of work to do today and tomorrow with the players.”
Eddie Howe on Barcelona in midweek:
“I know we lost 7-2 but for the first half we were more than a match for Barcelona, it was a very even game.
“Our bravery in and out of possession was excellent but of course we need to learn from the second half.
“The individual errors we made can’t happen again.”
Eddie Howe on Lewis Hall receiving an England call-up (as well as Burn, Gordon, Ramsdale and Livramento):
“He has had a really good last few weeks, his performances have been excellent. Against Barcelona, he was playing one of the best players in the world.
“I thought he was really good going forward, he’ll only get better through experiences like that.”
Eddie Howe on injury and availability in the squad:
“We will wait and see on Sandro Tonali [for the Sunderland match].
“It is maybe not as bad as first feared as he was coming off the pitch [against Barcelona].
“We will see how he is today and then make a decision closer to the game.
“Lewis Miley will be hopefully after the internationals.
“Fingers crossed it will be the same with Bruno and also for Fabian Schar.”