Newcastle United’s icy dressing room debrief saw no punches pulled as Benton inquest awaits
The Newcastle boss Eddie Howe told his players it was far from acceptable against Manchester City
Eddie Howe is believed to have pulled no punches in the dressing room with his Newcastle United players during and after the 4-0 thrashing against Manchester City.
After United went in 3-0 down at the break following Omar Marmoush’s 14-minute hat-trick, the head coach quickly told his stars it was not up to scratch and made a point in taking off Kieran Trippier and Joe Willock before warning others they would follow if things did not improve.
That proved to be the case as Bruno Guimaraes and Anthony Gordon came off before the end as Newcastle struggled to make an impact. Howe praised only youngster Lewis Miley after the game and told reporters that his changes were nothing to do with injuries.
In his press conference after the game Howe delivered a more diluted version of what he told the players while none of the team stopped to talk to media while leaving the ground with even the usually media friendly Dan Burn opting against interview duties.
The squad will go through aspects of the game once again this week at Benton. If replays of the goals are showed to the players, it could be a hard watch with the likes of Fabian Schar and skipper Bruno Guimaraes spotted barely even trotting back for the opening strikes from Marmoush.
As the Egyptian was about to lift the ball over Martin Dubravka, Schar was in the opposing half of the field. Howe said after the game: “I expected us to be really competitive, but I don’t think we were.
