Sam Allardyce makes ‘magnificent’ Newcastle United claim ahead of Leeds United clash

Three points at Elland Road would go a long way to securing Champions League football at Newcastle United next season.

And with that in mind, Leeds United boss Sam Allardyce believes Eddie Howe has done a transformative job on Tyneside.

The former Magpies’ manager will sit in the home dugout for the first time as Leeds boss, but has taken the time in his pre-match programme notes to praise the ‘magnificent’ job Eddie Howe has done, taking a team facing relegation a little over 12 months ago, into the top flight top four.

“I think Eddie has done a magnificent job since his appointment, pulling Newcastle away from relegation last season, to now being top four contenders,” said Allardyce.

“They have a good blend of experience and young players and have kept the positive momentum they have generated from the end of the last campaign, going throughout this season.

“We know they will arrive here wanting to bounce back from their home defeat at Arsenal last time out.

“However, we also go into the game with the belief from last weekend that we can get a positive result.”

Allardyce was also complimentary towards head coach Howe in his pre-match press conference, leaping to his defence when it comes to recent criticism from the likes of Jurgen Klopp and Erik ten Hag.

He said: “He was quizzed on the subject ahead of facing Eddie Howe’s side but responded: “Who doesn’t do it? Who complained?”

“He [Klopp] time-wastes, he [Ten Hag] time-wastes as well. They all time-waste [in the] last five minutes when they’re winning 2-1, don’t be daft. That’s rubbish.”

He added: “We’ve been talking about whether ball-in-play can be improved but the game is ferocious and quick enough as it is. Players are fatiguing [quicker] and injuries and resources are more strained than ever before.

“If you speed the game up even more and increase the level of time they’re on the pitch, you’re going to get more injuries and more crippling injuries that you’ve ever got because it’s never been as quick as it is now.

“With it being so quick, recovery time becomes of the essence, and because there are so many games there is no recovery time.

“Because there’s no recovery time, you get more injuries and you ultimately end up getting more and more chronic injuries which may limit a player’s career to a lot shorter than it should be, but we can’t do anything about that because the players ask for so much money and we have to try and increase our profits and increase our turnover to fund the players that are so expensive to bring into Premier League football.”