Eddie Howe drops four Newcastle United players v Burnley - confirmed team news
Eddie Howe has made four changes to his Newcastle United starting XI v Burnley.
Yoane Wissa makes his first Premier League start for Newcastle United against Burnley this evening (kick-off 7:30pm).
Wissa joined from Brentford for £55million on September 1 but had to wait three months before making his debut due to a knee injury sustained on international duty with DR Congo.
The 29-year-old made his first appearance as a substitute in the reverse fixture against the Clarets, which ended in a 2-1 win for United, and now makes his second start in total after starting and scoring in the 2-1 Carabao Cup win over Fulham earlier this month.
Eddie Howe makes four changes to Newcastle United starting XI v Burnley
Wissa is one of four changes from the 1-0 Boxing Day defeat away to Manchester United, replacing £69m club-record Nick Woltemade in attack.
Joelinton and Harvey Barnes are recalled in place of Jacob Ramsey and Jacob Murphy, while Howe has decided to bring back Nick Pope in between the sticks in favour of Aaron Ramsdale.
Newcastle United XI: Nick Pope, Lewis Hall, Fabian Schar, Joelinton, Sandro Tonali, Yoane Wissa, Anthony Gordon, Harvey Barnes, Malick Thiaw, Bruno Guimaraes (c), Lewis Miley. Substitutes: Aaron Ramsdale, Jacob Murphy, Nick Woltemade, Joe Willock, Alex Murphy, Jacob Ramsey, Leo Shahar, Sean Neave, Sam Alabi.
Nick Pope recalled ahead of Aaron Ramsdale
Pope had started every Premier League game for Newcastle this season before picking up a groin injury in training that ruled him out for seven matches. He was back available for the visit to Old Trafford but kept faith with Ramsdale.
And Howe was glad he made that call after revealing Pope had been suffering from illness whilst watching on from the bench. Should the 33-year-old be back to full health in time to face the Clarets, then Howe has a big decision to make.
Pope had come under scrutiny prior to his injury following a series of high profile mistakes against West Ham United, Brentford and Marseille but Ramsdale too has struggled to really impress with a save percentage of 47.37%, compared to Pope’s 75%.
Asked about the decision he faces, Howe said: “Nick had really limited training time for the Manchester United game. He declared himself fit and then was subsequently ill right before kick-off and wasn't feeling great, so probably fortunately he wasn't playing today. But we'll see.
“I'll take a sort of view from the training that I see. Although it's been limited so far, I need to see that Nick's back to his very best and Aaron's played well in his absence, so I'll make a call.”