‘We will come good’ – Eddie Howe confident Newcastle will return to ‘devastating’ best ahead of Union Saint-Gilloise clash

By Howe’s admission the Magpies have had a “mixed” start to the season, winning two, drawing three and losing three of their opening eight games in all competitions.

They have struggled to score goals, failing to net once in three away games and only bagging four in six Premier League outings.

“We have been working on a lot of subtle tweaks,” Newcastle head coach Howe told TNT Sports ahead of Wednesday’s match.

“Nothing (is) drastically changing because I don’t think we need to. Our general performances have been strong. It’s about working on little things to improve our attacking play.

“I back our attacking players, we have some outstanding players in those areas and I know we will come good.”

Newcastle are coming off a crushing home loss to Arsenal that saw them concede deep into injury-time to lose 2-1.

Howe believes the quick turnaround from that defeat on Sunday is what his side needs as they aim to “kickstart” their season.

“That was a painful ending,” Howe said about the loss to the Gunners.

“We gave so much to the game physically, it was a really tough physical Premier League game.

“The ending was such that you are really keen to play again as quickly as possible, which is why I think this game is a good one for us. But it’s only good if we perform.

“It’s very much like our Premier League form, we can’t wait too long to get into our best rhythm otherwise the opportunities will get slimmer and slimmer for us.

“We recognise the importance to kickstart our confidence and our flow because when we are at our best we are a devastating team to play against. We can be fluent and do a bit of everything. It’s not quite been there but hopefully nights like this can kickstart us.”

One positive for Newcastle has been the form of club-record signing Nick Woltemade.

The striker has impressed with two goals in three Premier League starts after signing from Stuttgart late in the summer transfer window.

“I think he has done really well,” said Howe. “It’s very difficult to do that without a pre-season, and playing one style of football to another in a couple of days is very difficult, but also transferring leagues.

“We know the Premier League is so quick and different, there is a physical demand placed on Nick which maybe wasn’t there in the German league. He is adjusting to that and he has done really well.

“He has picked up things quickly and scored two important goals for us but we know there is a lot more to come as well.”

Newcastle might not have as many wins as they would have wanted so far this season, but they are coming off a summer of change.

Striker Alexander Isak left in a mega-money move to Liverpool and was replaced by Woltemade and Yoane Wissa, who is yet to play due to injury.

Jacob Ramsey also joined from Aston Villa but has only featured twice due to injury, while Anthony Elanga signed from Nottingham Forest.

Despite the struggles to score away from home, midfielder Joelinton says the “feeling is good”.

“We know we need to improve our game. We haven’t scored away from home yet, but we are trying and I hope tomorrow we can start,” Joelinton said.

“We know our quality, we have a great group, experienced players, and we want to turn it around as quickly as possible.”

“We have two players missing in Jacob Ramsey and Wissa but I think so far Nick is doing good and Elanga and they have helped us, it’s up to us to help on the pitch to make them comfortable so they can play their best game.

“Every next game is the most important and every game we play we want to win and play good football and tomorrow we have another opportunity to do that and we are positive and ready for the game.”

TNT Sports is available across all major TV platforms, offering a line-up of up to four TV channels (TNT Sports 1, TNT Sports 2, TNT Sports 3, TNT Sports 4), and up to six digital or red-button channels (TNT Sports 5 to 10), and TNT Sports Ultimate plus TNT Sports Box Office HD.