Newcastle United boss Eddie Howe may be looking to trim his squad in January after leaving a handful of first-team players out of the Carabao Cup clash with Bournemouth on Tuesday. The Magpies progressed to the quarter-final of the competition after seeing off their Premier League counterparts after an Adam Smith own goal in the second-half.
Howe went full strength at St James' Park, naming all five players who recently featured at the World Cup in his starting XI. As such, a number of first-team stars who have impressed in recent weeks were either benched or dropped from the squad entirely.
The likes of Elliot Anderson, Loris Karius, Ryan Fraser and Jamal Lewis all failed to make the bench, leaving question marks over their immediate future with the club ahead of the winter transfer window. Speaking after the game, Howe admitted some absences were injury-related, while others were dropped despite being fully fit.
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“Elliot is working back to fitness,” Howe admitted. “He’s had a couple of niggles behind the scenes so he’s doing some fitness work at the moment to make sure he’s fully fit. The other two guys [Fraser and Karius] were fine.”
Karius made his Newcastle debut in Saudi Arabia earlier this month and was initially thought to be in contention to start on Tuesday evening. The goalkeeper's short-term deal on Tyneside ends soon and talk of an extension is now up in the air.
Fraser hasn't featured in a competitive game since October and Chronicle Live understands the winger is attracting interest from clubs down south. Anderson is a player who could be loaned out in January after struggling for consistent game time since the start of the season.
Howe was pleased to have some key stars back in the fold for the cup clash, praising the returning quintet of World Cup stars for their willingness to play despite recently returning from Qatar. "I spoke to all the international lads, basically had a discussion (along the lines of) ‘do you want to play, do you feel able to play?’,” said Howe.
“All of them were desperate to come back and be part of this game, which was a great thing for me, a real sign of their mentality and professionalism. My team then reflected that – and the fact we wanted to progress. We knew today, against a Premier League team, we had to be very good.”
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