Ladies and Gentlemen, Newcastle could be playing Four-Four-f***ing-Two! Eddie Howe is relishing chance to start strikers Alexander Isak and Callum Wilson together at Brentford… but insists his approach is much more nuanced than Mike Bassett

Eddie Howe could be ready to unleash Alexander Isak and Callum Wilson for only the second time this season – but says his 4-4-2 is more nuanced than that of Mike Bassett.

Newcastle need a win at Brentford today to be guaranteed of finishing in the European places, and they must then hope Manchester United lose in the FA Cup final.

To achieve that, Howe is pondering whether to use two strikers, with Wilson set to return from illness for the trip to west London. 

He paired Wilson and Isak together at Burnley earlier this month and both were on target in a 4-1 win.

And Howe was asked if there was still a place in the modern game for the formation used by fictional England boss Mike Bassett in the hit movie.

‘I’ll make one thing clear, it’s not a Mike Bassett 4-4-2 we play!’ he said. ‘I can’t believe I’m saying that… it’s a little bit more complex than that.

‘But having those two players, with the attributes they have, they can play together, definitely.’

How big a blow has it been not having them both available for large parts of the season?

‘Along with a lot of things, it has been one of the main factors to impact on the season,’ said Howe. ‘Go back to the season before, I was dovetailing them in and out together. It was a brilliant option to have. As soon as one looked fatigued I could replace them.

‘The competition between them was healthy and it seemed to drive them both on. When you only have one of them available, that competition goes. It can have a detrimental effect. One of them has then had to stay on the pitch when they’re not at their physical best. I would have loved the option to play them together more, but every manager would have those tales to tell.’

Meanwhile, Howe was asked if the club’s Saudi owners retained the ambition to be the No1 club in the world, as they have previously declared.

‘The ambition is there, but you have to work within the reality,’ he said. ‘And the reality is we are not the No.1 club off the pitch yet in terms of income, or the No.1 club in lots of areas. So for us to get there takes a lot of hard work.

‘But they are very serious about it. I have seen no indication otherwise. The issue is, in other sports (golf, boxing) you can possibly invest whatever you want. Here you certainly can’t and I think that is the thing, and that is a talking point for everyone connected with football at the moment.

‘Everyone wants to grow the club quickly, but I don’t think you can look at it as a race. 

‘The club will progress at the rate it can within the rules. I understand everyone wants success yesterday. My job sometimes is to control that and give a truer picture of what is happening at the football club.

‘Yes, we are trying to grow it, but the players and staff have done incredibly well in the time I have been here. Our progress rate has been really quick in my opinion, and everyone has done incredibly well, so I understand the demand for more, but you have to reflect that we’ve done OK so far.’