How Eddie Howe used Erik ten Hag comments as motivation to beat Man Utd

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How Eddie Howe used Erik ten Hag comments as motivation to beat Man Utd

Newcastle United manager Eddie Howe used comments from Manchester United counterpart Erik ten Hag as part of his team talk prior to the Magpies' 2-0 victory against the Red Devils last season.

A stellar season saw Newcastle achieve an unlikely top-four Premier League finish to return to the Champions League two decades after their last venture in Europe's elite club competition.

Along the way, Newcastle reignited an old rivalry with Man Utd. The two sides played out a feisty 0-0 draw at Old Trafford early in the campaign, before the Red Devils prevailed 2-0 in the Carabao Cup final in February.

They then met at St James' Park at the start of April with both teams looking to strengthen their top-four hopes.

Amazon Prime will release a documentary later this month entitled 'We Are Newcastle United' chronicling the club's 2022/23 season, and have posted a clip on social media of Howe's stirring team talk prior to their most recent meeting with Man Utd.

"My final message today, I'm going to do something that I rarely do. But I felt upon hearing the comments, I needed to relay it to you," Howe said.

He then read aloud Ten Hag's comments about Newcastle ahead of the match: "They have the lowest ball in play time in the league, and are quite successful at slowing the game down. It's an annoying team to play against, so we have to find a way to play against them. So it is up to us that we get the speed in the game, and we are also dependent on the refereeing as well."

Howe put his notes back down and finished: "If they want a quick game, coming here, let's f***ing give it to them. Let's blow them away with our running, let's be intense in every action we do, let's make it a quick game. Let's go."