Despite what Eddie Howe said to the press after Newcastle United’s defeat to West Ham United, he must have been seething behind closed doors.
Eddie Howe was outthought by Julen Lopetegui, and his Newcastle side were outplayed at St James’ Park by West Ham.
Tomas Soucek opened the scoring for West Ham early on in the game, before Aaron Wan-Bissaka wrapped the match up with his second-half strike.
Soucek’s goal was his 30th in the Premier League for the club – no Hammers midfielder has scored more non-penalty goals since the league’s inception in 1992.
Whilst Newcastle caused us problems in the first-half, they were incredibly impotent during the second-half.
They seemed to be completely out of ideas of how to hurt us.
If anything, West Ham should have won by more goals in the end.
And now all eyes are on Howe, and questions are being asked regarding whether he’s the right man to guide Newcastle on to the next level.
Soucek’s observation about Newcastle will hurt Eddie Howe
The Czech Republic international played a crucial role in our victory at St James’ Park on Monday night.
It was actually a fairly easy victory for the Hammers in the end, and if you had told me that would be the case before the game I would have laughed at you.
And now Soucek has lifted the lid on a potential reason for his side’s success.
The 29-year-old spoke to reporters after the game, and made a damning claim about the Newcastle players, as quoted by The Athletic.
The Hammers midfielder said, “I noticed in the first few minutes that the Newcastle players didn’t know how to stop us.“
That really is a damning statement from Soucek.
Surely the Newcastle players would have studied videos of how we play and what threats we pose?
Or did they simply turn up expecting to roll us over? If so, Eddie Howe will be absolutely furious, and rightly so.
More to the point though, the Newcastle fans will be really concerned that Howe is overseeing a culture whereby complacency is even a thing.
West Ham beat Newcastle comfortably on Monday night, and now Eddie Howe must be under real pressure following the comments from Soucek.
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