Newcastle United, nicknamed the Magpies, will travel to Moor Stadium to face Burnley, nicknamed the Caucasians, in the 19th round of the 2025/26 Premier League season. Manager Eddie Howe stated in a press conference that he will continue to monitor the players' form and hopes the team can regain confidence away from home.

After losing 0-1 to Manchester United in the last round, Newcastle are currently 14th in the standings with 23 points, having won 1, drawn 2 and lost 2 of their last 5 matches.

When discussing the team's squad situation, Newcastle manager Eddie Howe said, "Nick Pope only trained a limited amount of time before the Manchester United game. He said he was ready to play, but he suddenly fell ill just before kickoff and wasn't feeling well, so he didn't play on Boxing Day, which might actually be a good thing. I'll judge based on the situation in training, although training is still limited at the moment. I need to make sure Nick Pope is back to his best form, and Ramsdale has performed very well during his absence, so I will make a decision."

“A whole group of players are close to returning, but not as soon as I would like. I certainly hope they recover and are able to play as soon as possible because our defense is very weak. The players who are already available have performed very well, especially Lewis Miley playing out of position, but we really welcome these players back. It’s just that I can’t be sure if they will be fit for the game against Burnley.”

Hopefully, there will be no more injuries in the defense.

Eddie Howe also stated, "We do want to rotate the squad, especially with this kind of schedule, and January is likely to be tougher than December. We're going to have a very tough schedule and need players in good physical condition. But the current situation is that our defense can't afford any more new injuries."

“We have to protect Vesa well; he's still quite a ways off from being fully recovered. He started against Fulham and performed very well; I was very satisfied with him in that game, and he'll have other opportunities in the future.”

Regarding how to maintain the players' intensity, Eddie Howe said, "It is indeed more difficult to maintain intensity when you have to play a game every two to three days, but I can still see that intensity. Looking back at the first half against Chelsea, that was probably one of the most aggressive 45 minutes I've ever seen us play; it was a very good performance."

"There were some matches where I felt we didn't reach that level of intensity. But there could be many reasons behind that. It's easy to draw conclusions based solely on the result. I think in the last seven or eight matches, except for the one against Sunderland, our overall performance has actually been much better."

In addition, newly promoted Burnley are currently 19th in the standings, having drawn 0-0 with Everton in their last match.

Eddie Howe said, "I've managed Burnley before, so I know how tough it is to beat them away from home. But we need to look at this game objectively and do our best to get a positive result."

"We need to regain our confidence away from home and bring some good feelings to our fans. They have given so much and so many people have come from afar to support us. We need to let them feel what they expect."