Newcastle United will head to west London for their Premier League clash with Brentford at the Gtech Community Stadium this afternoon, following their comfortable victory on Wednesday night.
The Magpies have been in fine form over their last two fixtures and look to be back to their best in front of goal, with seven scored in less than a week, and Eddie Howe will be hoping that his squad can continue to dominate their opponents when they meet with Thomas Frank's side today.
In terms of injuries, Emil Krafth and Miguel Almiron remain unavailable for selection, and despite the thrashing delivered against West Ham United, the Newcastle boss is prepared to make changes to rotate his team to keep them fresh during the quick turnaround of fixtures.
Howe took to his pre-match press conference to hint that he has no problem with making tweaks to his starting XI for their second game in London this week, so there could well be some rotation in store for the Toon against the Bees.
How could Newcastle line up vs Brentford?
Nick Pope (GK), Kieran Trippier (RB), Fabian Schar (CB), Sven Botman (CB), Dan Burn (LB), Joe Willock (CM), Bruno Guimaraes (CM), Joelinton (CM), Anthony Gordon (RW), Alexander Isak (ST), Allan Saint-Maximin (LW)
Football FanCast predicts that Howe will make three changes to the team that beat West Ham, maintaining his successful 4-3-3 formation.
We expect to see an unchanged defensive setup with Sven Botman and Fabian Schar retaining their centre-back partnership, whilst Dan Burn and Kieran Trippier occupy the wider positions.
The first change we predict will be in the highly competitive midfield three, with Joe Willock replacing Sean Longstaff in the centre of the pitch alongside Brazilian duo Bruno Guimaraes and Joelinton.
£80k-per-week ace Willock – hailed "immense" by Rio Ferdinand – has been incredibly influential over the last few weeks with two assists and one goal scored in his last four games, so it would be a no-brainer to include him in the starting XI to add fresh legs and a boost to the attacking threat.
The second and third changes we expect to see are found in the front three, with the in-form Alexander Isak replacing Callum Wilson in the striker role and January signing Anthony Gordon coming in for Jacob Murphy on the right, with only Allan Saint-Maximin retaining his spot in the final third.
With that being said, subtle tweaks and rotation could pay off massively for the Newcastle boss if they can snatch all three points from Brentford this afternoon, and will give him the opportunity to keep his players fresh to ensure their Champions League qualifying dreams are still alive as we go deeper into the run-in.