I asked Eddie Howe why Newcastle United are struggling to score goals - here's what he said

Newcastle drew 1-1 at Crystal Palace on Saturday in a game where they failed to register a shot at goal. The opener came when Marc Guehi deflected home Anthony Gordon’s low cross before Daniel Munoz equalised in the 94th minute.

“It was a strange performance from us with the ball because I thought there was a lot of good in the first two thirds but nothing in the final third,” Howe told NewcastleWorld. “A lot of set plays and opportunities to potentially get ahead on something but we look a little bit low on confidence.

“It could be [a confidence thing]. In football confidence is very fragile and is something we have to protect at all costs. I said earlier, I back the players because we know they have the ability and we've got to try and get them in their best form.

“That's always a delicate thing as well, you want them in form at the same time and we haven't had that this season.”

Newcastle lost Alexander Isak to injury just 22 minutes in. Rather than call on recognised strikers Callum Wilson or Will Osula from the bench, Howe introduced Harvey Barnes and moved Gordon from the right hand side of the attack to the centre.

Wilson came on for Gordon in the 75th minute while Osula remained an unused substitute.

“Of course losing Alex [Isak] was a huge blow to that and again it meant we were without a recognised striker which is very difficult, though I thought Anthony did well. I thought the team performed pretty well in the first two thirds but just really lacked a cutting edge up front.

“It was a difficult one with Callum today, obviously he’s had minimal training time and we’ve got to be really careful we don’t push him too early and lose him. I didn’t feel bringing him on at that stage with the minutes left in the game was something I could do.

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“The plan pre-game was 20 to 30 minutes as it was against West Ham. I decided to put Anthony up there who has done a really good job when he has gone up there for us previously and I thought he did well today. The lack of goalscoring opportunities aren’t on him, it’s one the team and we need to do better.”

Newcastle have managed just 14 goals in their opening 13 Premier League matches, ranking them as the fourth lowest scorers in the division. Compare that to last season when Howe’s side scored 85 times, bettered only by Manchester City, Arsenal, Liverpool.

Why the drop off? Howe replied: “It is a difficult one to answer because we haven’t changed, I wouldn’t say anything because you’re always trying to evolve and improve, but we certainly haven’t changed our attacking philosophy in any way.

“It’s a difficult one for me to give you a clear direct answer for. It is something we are, of course, aware of and will continue to work and improve. I back the players, I know we have players who can score goals and create, I’ve got no issue with the quality of players we have.

He added: “We're always asking the players to shoot, there is no ban on shooting. Of course, it's got to be in the right areas and it's a difficult one because teams that I've managed traditionally, I don't want to kill myself [by saying this], score goals - we've always been a very attacking, front-foot team so nothing has changed in terms of the preparation from that perspective.

“We're just going through a phase at the moment where we're struggling, but I think we'll come out of that.”