Looking at this Newcastle United team v Nottingham Forest.
Eddie Howe’s side aiming to follow up that 3-1 victory over Brighton.
United having eight days between matches, while won 3-1 at Chelsea in the Premier League on Monday, then lost 4-0 at Villa on Thursday night in the Europa League.
As a reminder, this was the Newcastle team v Brighton:
Pope, Miley, Thiaw, Botman, Burn, Bruno, Tonali, Joelinton, Willock, Jacob Murphy, Osula
In his pre-match press conference on Friday, Eddie Howe confirmed that as well as Lewis Miley now ruled out for the rest of the season due to a fractured fibula in training, Tino Livramento and Fabian Schar are very unlikely to be seen again in these remaining matches. Emil Krafth having a long time ago been ruled out of playing again in this 2025/26 season.
Taking all of that into consideration…
This is my predicted Newcastle United team v Nottingham Forest:
Pope, Trippier, Thiaw, Botman, Burn, Bruno, Tonali, Joelinton, Willock, Jacob Murphy, Osula
If the above ends up as the reality, it would mean just one change for Eddie Howe compared to the team that started against Brighton.
Kieran Trippier an enforced change for Lewis Miley at right-back.
A lot of people will be expecting the likes of Lewis Hall and Anthony Gordon to come back into the team, the latter having had just over a week to get fully fit after returning as an unused sub against Brighton.
No doubt as well that most of you would pick a different starting eleven to the one I predict above.
However, I think Eddie Howe will look today to continue with a team today that he feels has got things back on track the last couple of matches.
With Bruno finally back in the starting eleven, Newcastle played well at Arsenal and deserved at least a draw on that performance.
Eddie Howe rewarded that starting eleven by making only one change for the Brighton match, Jacob Ramsey a little unlucky but Joelinton back available after suspension.
Today at the City Ground I think more of the same. Minimal change.
Eddie Howe can point to the fact that after having developed a habit of conceding a couple of goals in each Premier League match (against Sunderland, Palace and Bournemouth), just the one goal conceded against both Arsenal and Brighton.
At the other end of the pitch, last weekend was the first time United had scored three or more goals in a league match since the 4-3 win over Leeds four months ago.
Others may be thinking Hall left-back, Gordon right wing and either Barnes or Elanga on the right.
However, I believe Eddie Howe will be wanting to reward players for their performances and be believing Dan Burn has played a key role in helping Newcastle to concede only once in each of these last two games AND scored against Brighton. With Jacob Murphy, he was decent against Brighton and outstanding on the opening goal when setting up William Osula. Then Joe Willock did pretty well on the other side and often benefits massively once having a bit of a run in the team.
Then up front, I don’t even see it as a possibility that Eddie Howe would consider making a change, William Osula having scored in three of the last four matches and I would be amazed if he isn’t given the chance to make that four in five.