Eddie Howe names ‘underrated’ Newcastle United player that he loves
Joe Buck
2 minutes
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Eddie Howe has lavished praise onto one of the ‘underrated’ members of his Newcastle United squad.
Unlike last season where injury issues plagued his squad, Howe has been afforded the opportunity to rotate his teams this season and made five changes to his starting lineup ahead of their Carabao Cup win over Chelsea in midweek. He then made a further three ahead of yesterday’s visit of Arsenal as Dan Burn, Bruno Guimaraes and Tino Livramento came back into the team.
Livramento’s inclusion in the starting XI on Saturday came at the expense of Emil Krafth. Krafth enjoyed a very good night at St James’ Park on Wednesday, but had to settle for a place on the bench against the Gunners.
Despite being a squad player for much of his time on Tyneside, Krafth has become an important part of Howe’s squad and has been a dependable starter when called upon and the Magpies’ head coach was keen to praise ‘Krafu’: “Krafu maybe originated from some of our players in the squad and maybe one of the coaches as well adopted many nicknames for Krafty.” Howe said.
“He’s such an unassuming, brilliant professional, very hard working and so dependable. When you meet him, you see that solid character and also a very, very good player. Probably very underrated by the outside world.
“Internally we love him, we all see his qualities. He can play multiple positions for us and this year he’s been brilliant at centre-half and at full-back. I always say it’s really important to have players like that.”
