Newcastle United facing crucial seven days - Joe Buck's festive preview - video Dailymotion

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Joe Buck previews a hugely important week coming up for Newcastle United. Eddie Howe's side face Leicester City and Ipswich Town in the Premier League with a Carabao Cup quarter-final against Brentford sandwiched in the middle.

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00:00So, Newcastle United are back in action this weekend when they host Leicester City at St

00:05James' Park and more than any other game this year, they really need a reaction. Of course,

00:10we saw how good they can be against Liverpool, Arsenal, Nottingham Forest in previous weeks

00:15but they need to do something after that game against Brentford on Saturday. I think it

00:19was the manner of defeat, especially that second-half performance, which will wrangle

00:22with a lot of fans. They were good in the first half, of course, a couple of mistakes

00:26led to goals for Brentford but then the second-half performance was borderline, almost unacceptable.

00:32Anyhow, it sort of questioned the team's desire to win, their willingness to win. I think that's

00:37been an issue for Newcastle all season, really. They know they can do it against the so-called

00:41bigger teams, especially at home, but it's those games against Brentford, against Pallisworth

00:45before, and like this week against Leicester, that they really have to step up and try and

00:49get something from. It's not going to be an easy game. Ruud van Nistelrooy's got Leicester

00:53more defensively sound. They've took four points from two games. Both have been at the

00:58King Power Stadium, so this will be his first game on the road. It'll be interesting to see

01:01how they deal with Newcastle and what plans they have. But we've seen a lot of teams frustrate

01:06Newcastle and get wins through that. Brighton did it very well, West Ham recently did it well,

01:11Pallisworth got a late equaliser, they probably should have won that game. So, yeah, anyhow,

01:16it's got a lot of things to question and find answers for. If they can do that, though,

01:21with Brentford to come in the Cup, just four days, five days after that, it's going to set

01:26up a really interesting week in the North East. If they can get two wins from them games and all

01:31of a sudden the whole season's flipped, they're through to the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup

01:35and they're back on track in the Premier League with the game against newly promoted Ipswich to

01:39come next weekend. So, yeah, anyhow, it's got a lot of answers to come up with before then,

01:44and the only thing he's got to really decide is whether Joe Willock, who missed the game against

01:48Brentford, whether he's fit enough to play this weekend. A hamstring injury, probably

01:54OK, you would think, but obviously the club will be desperate to make sure Willock doesn't get

01:58injured again. We all know his injury problems in the last season or so, so they'll be cautious

02:03over him. But other than that, anyhow, it's got a fairly full squad. Sven Botman's on the way back

02:08from his injury. Now, he's not expected to feature this weekend or probably until after the Christmas

02:13period, but he should be back available in January. So the injuries, unlike this time last

02:18year, are not really an excuse for Newcastle now. They've got to go and try and get results

02:21somehow. How he does that, we don't know. Will Sandro Tonali come back in to start 11? We assume

02:27Anthony Gordon will. They were both rested because of fatigue and cramp picked up at the end of the

02:31Liverpool game. They're likely to come back in on Saturday, but who drops out? Do they stick with

02:36the 4-3-3? Does he change it again? Does he go Joe Linton left wing, potentially? That worked

02:41against Forrest and Arsenal and Chelsea back early November. Is that the way he goes? There's lots

02:47of things for him to be, but I think the one thing is they just need a win this weekend. If the

02:50performance level isn't there, there is still some doubt, but as long as they get the win,

02:55no one will really care about performance because they do need to start getting these wins. We've

02:58seen the league is very tight right now for the European places, but eventually that will stretch

03:02out when Newcastle want to be in the top eight or nine when that eventually does happen. Because if

03:07they're not in with a shout of being in European places come January and after that, that's going

03:12to make for a really challenging end of the season, even if they go through in both clubs.

03:18It's the start of a really important week for Newcastle this week. I said with Leicester,

03:23Brentford and Ipswich to come. I could be doing this video in two weeks' time, so around Christmas

03:27it'll be a completely different picture. It could be all smiles. It could be all doom and gloom.

03:31Probably Newcastle will be somewhere in the middle, but right now they have to find the

03:35solution against Leicester City. What that solution is, only he'll know, but if they can do that and

03:41get a win against Brentford, suddenly things look all rosy.

Newcastle United facing crucial seven days - Joe Buck's festive preview

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