The Harry Redknapp verdict’s now in on Newcastle United

Harry Redknapp has been talking about Newcastle United.

The former Spurs and West Ham manager, discussing Eddie Howe and his team now seventeen weeks into the new season.

Newcastle United playing Sunderland this weekend.

A 2pm kick-off on Sunday afternoon down on Wearside.

Newcastle United looking to make it two derby wins in a row, both of these away at Sunderland.

Eddie Howe and his team having easily won 3-0 in the FA Cup match against the Mackems back in January last year (2024).

It is over a decade now since Sunderland managed to win a derby match against Newcastle United, way back in October 2015.

Speaking ahead of the match, Harry Redknapp has called this fixture “one of the great rivalries in English football.”

We all know it is one of the great rivalries, but with Sunderland only playing 23 of the last 55 years in the English top tier, it is a rivalry that hasn’t always been one that regularly is played out on the pitch.

With Sunderland even dropping into the third tier at times, as we have seen in the last decade or so without a league derby, that makes Sunday’s meeting even more intense, due to the rarity. We saw this in the build up to 23 months ago before Newcastle United strolled to the 3-0 win in the FA Cup.

Harry Redknapp is expecting an “amazing” match and predicted it to end in a 2-2 draw.

Though he does also think at the same time that Newcastle United are now “beginning to find their best form”, which is backed up by the fact that Eddie Howe’s side have picked up three wins and a draw in the last four Premier League matches. Whilst on the other hand, Sunderland have only managed one win in their last six PL games, hammered 3-0 by Man City most recently, a team that Newcastle outperformed and deserved to win by more than the 2-1 scoreline three weeks ago.

Harry Redknapp predicts that the midfield battle could be key in this match, as he looks forward to Bruno up against Xhaka in the middle of the pitch.

My thoughts

I think this is a match that could end up as any one of the three possible outcomes and as Harry Redknapp says, the midfield battle could be pivotal.

Eddie Howe said after the draw against Leverkusen that Sandro Tonali had still not been one hundred per cent in that game due to getting over a recent illness. Hopefully another four days will put him right and he can be a huge factor in this game.

Bruno Guimaraes has been in great form and scoring goals, he will be going all out to lead Newcastle United to another win over Sunderland.

I think we all expect this match to be more difficult than that easy 3-0 victory last time against Sunderland, but at the same time, the Mackems haven’t suddenly turned into a team of world beaters. As evidenced by only one win in their last six Premier League matches, even in that one they went 2-0 down to out of form Bournemouth before fighting their way back into it.

Newcastle United have been creating a lot of great chances in recent matches, as well as hitting the woodwork an incredible number of times, including six times in just the last four games in all competitions.

If the Newcastle players improve their finishing and the fine margins turn in our favour, rather than the woodwork helping out the opposition, no reason why United can’t go and win this.