Eddie Howe's NUFC 2022/23 - Great Pressing & Best Defense

Hello guys, welcome to my new tactic.

Upon someone's request, I worked hard to try to emulate Eddie Howe's 4-3-3 at Newcastle.

Howe's Newcastle

The British coach quickly turned Newcastle into a title contender and at the end of the season, Newcastle finished 4th, ahead of Manchester City, Arsenal and Manchester Utd.

The Magpies's fans have been waiting 20 years for this day (the last time with the club legend, Alan Shearer).

Under Howe, the Magpies are simply better in all phases of the game. They can defend well and attack well. They have a great goalkeeper, solid defenders, technical midfielders, quick wingers and powerful strikers. They are simply better for everything.

And more importantly, they can work as a team under clear tactics. Newcastle play out from the back but play simple. The final objective of building up is giving time and space for one of the players at the back and playing long in behind simply.

They can defend well. It does not mean they can only defend the goal, but they can win the ball by their intense pressing.

The FM23 Tactics

In Fm 23, in my save with Fiorentina, I tried to create Howe's 4-3-3 starting with a balanced mentality, but I saw that our attacking was not working well, so I tried to switch to an attacking mentality and things seemed to work much better. The team instructions are as follows:

In Possession:
width: fairly wide, play out of defence, overlap left and right, pass into space,
passing directness shorter, higher tempo, mixed crosses, work the ball into box, play for set pieces, be more disciplined.

In Transition:
counter-press, counter, distribute to full backs, take short kicks.

Out of Possession:
Higher defensive line, High Press, trigger press slightly more often (can switch it to more often), step up more, trap outside, stop crosses).

In the video you can find also the player instructions and roles.

Tactic Variations

Besides, I created another 4-3-3 version (called v.3) which is slightly different for the mentality and style and a 4-4-2 version. There are 3 variations in the pack to choose from.

Howe plays a 4-3-3 at Newcastle now, but at the beginning he played a 4-4-2 (or 4-4-1-1), I used the 4-4-2 against some stronger teams or when I was struggling and being overwhelmed by some opponents. I tried not to change tactic before the 2nd half.

Hope my tactics work for you too.

A hug from your Arrigo Sacchi.