Lewis Miley came on in the 37th minute of Newcastle United’s defeat at Luton Town.
Eddie Howe has explained why he took Lewis Miley off after 37 minutes of Newcastle United’s 1-0 loss against Luton Town.
Andros Townsend, a former Magpies winger, opened the goal in the 25th minute, and the Hatters threatened to run amok, with Ross Barkley and Elijah Adebayo nearly soon doubling their lead.
In an attempt to regain control, Howe switched formations and introduced Alexander Isak as a No.10. Unfortunately for Miley, he was the one who was sacrificed.
Despite his young age, the 17-year-old has played a lot of football recently. Indeed, the midfielder from Stanley has started eight of the last nine games, something Howe was aware of.
When asked if removing Miley was a difficult decision, Howe responded, “Not really to be honest because controlling his minutes is something I wanted to do anyway.”
“There was no problem because it wasn’t based on his performance; it was based on a tactical decision.” We want to limit his playing time because he is so young.Of course, I’ll talk to him. It wasn’t anything I planned to do; it was more of an instinctual decision in the time since I felt we weren’t doing well in the game and needed to adjust.”
Howe then pondered on his team’s terrible first-half performance, which he thought cost them the game. United’s defeat at Kenilworth Road was their fourth in a row in the league.
Newcastle has only won on the road once this season, a record-breaking 8-0 victory at Sheffield United in September.
“Very disappointed with the performance today,” Howe said to NewcastleWorld. “I thought first-half especially we weren’t where we needed to be.”We knew this was going to be a difficult game, and we knew the entire day would be challenging because of the game and how Luton play – they’re a great team. As well as the game’s emotion.
“And I don’t think we dealt with that well.”
Newcastle return to action on Boxing Day, hosting Nottingham Forest at St James’ Park. Howe’s men, on the other hand, have won eight of their nine home matches in 2023-24.
