Newcastle United will travel to Merseyside tomorrow for their New Year’s Day Premier League clash with Liverpool at Anfield and Eddie Howe will be looking for a way to break down Jurgen Klopp’s side.
Newcastle United will undoubtedly be hopeful that a new year will bring new energy to the squad after a difficult month of fixtures that has seen the club crash out of the Champions League, Carabao Cup and struggle for points in the Premier League.
Their first game of 2024 comes on the first day of the year at one of the most challenging places to pick up points this season so far, however, Howe must go into the game with confidence and a fresh outlook on how his team can compete with Liverpool, who are currently at the top of the top-flight table.
In terms of injuries, Newcastle will be without Jacob Murphy, Nick Pope, Harvey Barnes, Jamaal Lascelles, Joe Willock and Elliot Anderson, with the Magpies manager admitting that the side will need to be “near-perfect” to beat Liverpool tomorrow.
Howe told the media earlier this week:
“I think, for us, we need to be near-perfect in this game. I think this is a really tough game for us. They’ve performed really well at home especially, they’re consistent, a really good team. So for us, the challenge is that we need to re-find our best form and we need to be mentally very strong.”
How could Newcastle line-up against Liverpool?
We predict that Howe will make just two changes to his starting eleven that lost to Nottingham Forest on Boxing Day, but will maintain a 4-3-3 formation.
We expect to see no changes to the defensive set up with Martin Dubravka retain his spot alongside Sven Botman, Dan Burn, Fabian Schar and Kieran Trippier who make up the Newcastle back four.
In midfield we predict there will be just one change to the centre of the pitch set-up with Joelinton returning to the starting line-up alongside Bruno Guimaraes and Lewis Miley.
In the attacking threat we expect to see one more change with Callum Wilson replacing Alexander Isak in the centre-forward role, whilst Anthony Gordon and Miguel Almiron will hopefully make their mark on the wider flanks.
With that being said, due to injuries, Howe won’t be able to rotate as much as he would probably like to but the starting eleven we have predicted offer experience and valuable assets all over the pitch that have the potential to trouble Liverpool tomorrow.
