Howe’s Newcastle have shown European swagger but may need stylistic switch

St James’ Park has become a theatre of two faces this season. On Champions League nights, Anthony Gordon glides across the turf like a man who has memorised every blade of grass, his nine continental appearances already yielding ten goals. Yet when the Premier League circus rolls into Tyneside, the same 24-year-old – shunted between left wing and a makeshift centre-forward role – has managed only three league goals, two from the spot. Gordon’s Jekyll-and-Hyde split is the perfect cipher for Eddie Howe’s Newcastle: irresistible on foreign soil, oddly blunt at home.

The numbers tell the story. Newcastle are second only to Bournemouth in the division’s athleticism index, but sit 11th in the table, level on 36 points with neighbours Sunderland. Their preferred recipe – suffocating press, relentless running, chaos by design – has proved devastating against opponents who dare to play. Qarabag discovered as much in Baku last week, Gordon plundering four goals as the Azerbaijani champions were lured into Howe’s pressing trap. Yet domestic foes have wised up: cede possession, sit deep, watch Newcastle run themselves into cul-de-sacs.

“We’re better out of possession,” Howe conceded, a rare public admission that his side’s strengths are rooted in what they do without the ball. The corollary is sobering: when the press is bypassed, Newcastle look short of ideas. Barcelona’s 2-1 victory in September was a masterclass from Pedri, the Catalan conductor unpicking the frenzy with a metronome’s calm.

Howe has not stood still. The manager who once idolised Arsène Wenger’s silk has spent recent summers in Spain, apprenticing himself to the high priests of intensity: Andoni Iraola at Rayo Vallecano and Diego Simeone at Atlético Madrid. He even trialled Simeone’s ploy of deliberately launching the ball into touch from kick-off, only for Sandro Tonali and others to reject the tactic as “anti-football”.

The search for balance continues. Nick Woltemade, signed from Stuttgart, offers velvet touch and improvisational link play, but lacks the pace and press that Howe demands from his forwards. After five goals in eight games, the German has one in his last 17 and has been repurposed from No 9 to No 10 to a left-sided No 8. “Nick plays better between the lines than stretching the lines,” Howe noted, labelling him a midfielder in the manager’s ideal 4-3-3.

That tweak hints at a broader dilemma. A style predicated on perpetual motion carries a heavy tax: fatigue, injury risk, autumnal burnout. If Newcastle truly covet the game’s glittering prizes, a more measured, tempo-controlling approach feels imperative. Whether Howe, the evangelist of the press, can reinvent himself once more is the question that will define the next chapter on Tyneside.

First, there is the small matter of seeing out progression against Qarabag on Tuesday, Gordon likely to spearhead the attack again. Then comes Everton on Saturday, a fixture that could expose the same old fault lines. European swagger or domestic struggle: the split personality endures.