Newcastle United manager Eddie Howe has constantly been denied the luxury of using his full squad this season.
Sandro Tonali’s ban from football and an unrelenting injury crisis has simply made that impossible for Newcastle during a campaign in which they’ve had to play far more games than before.
Qualification for the Champions League brought an added burden onto Howe’s squad, as well as their attempts to make it into the latter rounds of both domestic cup competitions.
As such, players have consistently buckled during an unrelenting injury crisis.
Whether you think that is enough to blame Newcastle’s relative struggles in the Premier League this season is a personal choice. Still, the sheer numbers of absences Howe has had to contend with cannot be ignored within the context of Newcastle’s failure to string together much consistency.
Still, it would be equally as foolish to suggest these are problems only impacting Newcastle these days.
Such is the relentless schedule in elite football these days, a number of other teams have been dealing with similar issues.
Wolves boss Gary O’Neil was particularly keen to point that out.
Gary O’Neil now makes claim about Newcastle squad
Speaking after his team were beaten 1-0 by Arsenal on Saturday night, O’Neil in fact suggested Wolves were the club most impacted by injuries limiting an already small squad.
While he did say both Newcastle and Aston Villa had “issues”, he believes Wolves have been the biggest victims of it.
“I can’t imagine there’s another team in the country that’s as short as we are,” he said (via Nathan Judah on X, formerly Twitter).
“Villa and Newcastle have issues but their starting squad is 24 or 26…ours is 19.”
Injuries are frustrating – but clubs need to get on with it
There is little doubt that injuries have proven hugely frustrating for a number of teams this season.
Still, they have been a part of the game since it was invented and criticising the schedule does not appear to be doing much to change it.
That doesn’t mean managers need to shut up and accept it but to suggest injuries are the only reasons for their problems feel somewhat lazy.
Newcastle have had it bad this season but they could still finish strongly. It’s about overcoming adversity.
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