How Eddie Howe tightened up Newcastle United’s defence in the Premier League

Last season, Newcastle United’s defence was solid, but nothing to write home about. In the 2025/26 campaign, however, Eddie Howe’s men have had one of the strongest backlines in the Premier League.

What has changed from last season? How have the Toon developed such a strong defensive acumen? We’ll examine this today – we will also look at whether Newcastle can land a spot in the European places at the end of the season.

Arrival of Malick Thiaw at Newcastle

Malick Thiaw wasn’t part of Newcastle’s starting XI at the beginning of the season, but a string of strong performances have given him the right to demand a spot in the Mags’ first team.

Newcastle lacked pace at the back before Thiaw arrived at St. James’ Park – Dan Burn and Fabian Schar are both aging defenders and Sven Botman isn’t known for his quickness. As such, Thiaw was an ideal player to bring in – he allows Newcastle to press high up the pitch and disrupt teams when they attempt to build out from the back.

This may be an indirect contribution from Thiaw, but it is nontheless important. He adds a new element to Newcastle defensively that makes them much harder for opposing teams to predict how they might line up.

On top of this, Newcastle have one of the tallest squads on average in the Premier League. At 6ft 4, Thiaw only adds to this. Again, this is another indirect contribution that has brought dividends to the team – Newcastle have won the fourth-most aerial duels in the Premier League this season.

Defensive contributions from midfield

Last season, Howe made the decision to swap the positions of Sandro Tonali and Bruno Guimaraes. Tonali had been playing the free role in central midfield, while Guimares functioned as a holding player. Now that they have swapped, they are both playing to their strengths much more effectively.

In particular, while not a natural defender, Tonali has done a fantastic job at the base of midfield. His quickness allows him to catch up to any defenders who might try to run past – he’s also very strong on the ball, making it difficult to win aerial and ground battles against him.

Furthermore, credit must be given to Joelinton, whose indefatigable work rate makes it very difficult for teams to create anything in the centre of the park.

Can Newcastle finish in the top seven?

Don’t let Newcastle’s slow start to the season fool you – they are still a very dangerous team for any club to play against. In particular, their high press has become ferocious – even the likes of Barcelona had problems with it early on in their Champions League encounter.

They were hampered by a disastrous summer transfer window, but Newcastle have nonetheless managed to put a strong – not to mention cohesive – squad together.

If Newcastle fail to make the top seven this season, it will not be the fault of their defence. Their main problems lies in their inability to score goals – they are the joint-second lowest scorers in the division with just six goals so far.

When compared with their defensive record, it is night and day. Newcastle have let five goals in over the course of the 2025/26 season thus far – only title challengers Arsenal have let in fewer than this.

Will a sturdy defence be enough at the end of the season? They scored two goals in their last game against Nottingham Forest – it was only the second time they had scored more than one goal in a match this season. Despite this, with Nick Woltemade beginning to find form on Tyneside, we would expect the pieces to fall into place soon enough at St. James’ Park.