Eddie Howe insists that Newcastle United’s motivation isn’t to prove Erik ten Hag wrong after the Manchester United manager described them as efficient time-wasters last season. However, the Magpies boss has doubled down on his stance that such suggestions are false, which he used as motivation against United last season.
Ahead of February’s Carabao Cup final, Ten Hag labelled Newcastle ‘annoying’ for draining the tempo out of games with time management.
“The referees want to play effective time. [Newcastle] have the lowest in the league, and they are quite successful with it. So, it’s up to us to get speed in the game,” Ten Hag said.
United won 2-0 at Wembley Stadium, lifting their first piece of silverware since 2017 at the first time of asking under the Dutchman.
But Howe ensured to exact vengeance when the two sides met in the Premier League at St. James’ Park in April.
Before Newcastle’s 2-0 triumph, Howe showed his players Ten Hag’s comments and instructed them to blow the Red Devils away on Tyneside.
A behind-the-scenes Amazon documentary showed him rallying: “If they want a quick game, let’s f**king give it to them. Let’s blow them away with our running. Let’s be intense with every action we do. Let’s make it a quick game.”
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The two sides resume their rivalry on Wednesday night at Old Trafford in an attractive Carabao Cup fourth-round tie.
On Tuesday, Howe claimed there were no grudges among his ranks about Ten Hag’s view on his playstyle in the build-up to last season’s final.
But he doubled down on his defence, branding the talk of Newcastle being time-wasters as false in an explanation of how he wants his side to play.
“We feel we’re a high energy, high tempo team. We want the ball in play. We want quick games,” Howe explained.
“We want to try and entertain so there’s no part of us that goes into the game in a negative frame of mind. A lot was made of our game management last year, and I felt it was falsely reported.
