Eddie Howe ‘doesn’t believe’ what Pep Guardiola has said ahead of Newcastle United v Man City

Newcastle United boss Eddie Howe expects Pep Guardiola to name his “best” Manchester City team for Wednesday’s Carabao Cup tie, despite the Spainard threatening to make wholesale changes.

Speaking after the 2-0 Premier League victory over Nottingham Forest on Saturday, Guardiola insisted he won’t “waste one percent of energy” on the League Cup because of injuries and his side’s busy schedule, which, like the Magpies, involves Premier League and Champions League matches next week.

Guardiola said: “We’ll see how many players we’ll have available. It will be good for Jack [Grealish] to take minutes, and of course some players have a lot of minutes, they are not going to play against Newcastle. That’s for sure.

“Carabao Cup is perfect when you are in the beginning of the season because the games at the beginning of the season you have all the squad, deep squad, for the guys that don’t play regularly, they have to play the minutes. That’s perfect.

“But we have a lot of injuries, I’m not going to waste one percent of energy for Carabao Cup, like Kyle Walker for example, like Ruben [Dias], who have played 90 minutes for the national team, 90 minutes, because they are exhausted already. And we cannot lose it.

“That’s why we’re going to play with the guys who need it, maybe from the Academy, maybe if my back is getting better, [I can play] maybe a few minutes. We’ll see.”

Despite Guardiola’s comments, opposite number Howe, speaking to the media ahead of the game on Tuesday, doesn’t believe it.

Howe said: “I haven’t seen them [comments] so you’re telling me about those comments but I don’t believe that for a second because Pep is a manager who has won so much and he hasn’t done that without giving everything to every moment to try and achieve that success.

“I’ve no doubt we will see the best [strongest] Manchester City tomorrow.”

Howe is also expected to make changes but has reiterated his desire to take the competition seriously having reached the final last season.

After Man City, the Magpies face Burnley and West Ham in the Premier League while also hosting Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League.

“Yeah I think we will use the squad,” said Howe. “I say think because it’s not finalised in my brain what we’re going to do yet. I need to assess everybody physically first from the game we’ve just had. There have been players carrying certain things so we’ll need to manage them but we do have players who are really keen to play.

“I think I have to utilise the squad, especially with what we have coming up, not just at the weekend but midweek next week. As I’ve many times, we want the players to enter the pitch in the best physical condition to showcase their skills.”

Howe added: “We’ve got the ultimate test coming up so a totally different tie to last year but we will give it every importance and try as hard as we can to progress because we want to try and compete in every competition. We’re certainly not dismissing it as anything other than the important game.”