Newcastle 'evolving' - but must add goals to clean sheets

It felt like a mental test as much as a physical one.

How would Newcastle United cope with the voyage to Bournemouth's Vitality Stadium - less than 72 hours after suffering a 2-1 defeat against Barcelona?

Navigating such challenges certainly stretched Newcastle during the club's previous foray in the Champions League in 2023.

Indeed, after losing against Borussia Dortmund, a drained, injury-hit side were beaten by Bournemouth just a few days later.

Fast forward a couple of years and, this time, much-changed Newcastle left the south coast with a point.

But this goalless draw threw up an unusual quandary.

On one hand, resilient Newcastle have now kept three clean sheets in a row on the road in the Premier League this season.

However, on the other, the blunt black-and-whites have also failed to score in any of those games against Bournemouth, Leeds United and Aston Villa.

"We're evolving and changing as an attacking force," Howe told Match of the Day.

Understandably so.

Alexander Isak sat out the opening weeks of the campaign, but the striker did not complete his British-record move to Liverpool until deadline day and replacements Yoane Wissa and Nick Woltemade are going to need time to fill the void for differing reasons.

Wissa is a proven Premier League player, but the former Brentford forward is set to be out with a knee injury until after the next international break in October while record signing Woltemade is adjusting to the physicality of the top flight following his £69m move from Stuttgart.

Though Woltemade got off the mark on his debut, against Wolves, there was a recognition behind the scenes that the German will understandably need an adaptation period.

There were a couple of glimpses of Woltemade's tidy link-up play against Bournemouth and, at one point, the new arrival wriggled away from Marcos Senesi down the right only to see his cross easily claimed by Petrovic.

Woltemade also had a penalty appeal waved away in the second half after he had his shirt pulled by Bafode Diakite.

But this was an afternoon where Newcastle, as an attacking force, struggled to fire.

Newcastle actually had more touches (18) inside the opposition box than Bournemouth (16), but Djordje Petrovic ultimately had just one save to make - and that was in the opening stages when he kept out Jacob Murphy's close-range shot.

The game was finely poised when both sides made double attacking changes midway through the second half - Howe threw on Anthony Elanga and Harvey Barnes - but it was Bournemouth who were pushing for a winner late on.

Howe was the first to recognise that Newcastle "didn't get our attacking game going" as he reflected on his side not having a shot in the second half.

"It's not good," he said "You want to create chances and clear cut chances."

Yet Howe will at least take encouragement from his side keeping another clean sheet in the Premier League.

No other team in the top-flight have had more shutouts than Newcastle (four) this season.

In fact, only champions Liverpool have scored against Newcastle in the league in the opening weeks of the campaign.

Newcastle, in the process, have become the first side to stop Bournemouth from finding the back of the net in the top-flight in 2025-26, limiting the hosts to just a couple of shots on target on Sunday.

Such was the visitors' defensive effort, centre-back Dan Burn, alone, made 11 clearances.

"It's something we have worked a lot on," the towering defender told Sky Sports. "The majority of us have played with each other for a long time so we have got a good team there. That's something to build on."

When Newcastle inevitably needed their goalkeeper to step up, in the opening and closing minutes of the game, Nick Pope was there to do so.

Pope kept out Tyler Adams' effort with his foot in the opening stages and the veteran went on to parry substitute Justin Kluivert's well-struck free-kick in stoppage time.

These were saves that helped Newcastle secure what could prove a valuable point.

Pope was one of the few survivors from Newcastle's midweek loss against Barcelona as Howe made seven changes.

Howe has not, historically, chopped and changed to such an extent, but the Newcastle head coach recognised he needed to freshen up his side given the intensity relentless Bournemouth play with.

A couple of those tweaks were enforced - Fabian Schar was sidelined after taking a blow to the head while Anthony Gordon was banned - but Howe took the rare step of rotating key players, too, such as captain Bruno Guimaraes.

Malick Thiaw was handed his full debut. Sven Botman and Joe Willock came back into the team. Lewis Hall and fellow youngster Lewis Miley made their first league starts since February.

Jacob Murphy and Woltemade, who linked up for what proved to be a decisive goal against Wolves last week, also lined up from the off.

It felt like a sign of things to come.

Post-European fixtures against Nottingham Forest, Fulham, Brentford, Everton, bitter rivals Sunderland, Aston Villa and Liverpool all await before the league phase of the Champions League concludes in January.

And the whole squad is going to be needed as Burn knows only too well.

"We've invested well in the summer and we've spent a lot of money," he said. "We should use those players and it's probably a lesson we've learned from the previous campaign in the Champions League."