Newcastle United might have faced inferior opponents, but their comfortable passage through to the fourth round of the Carabao Cup underlined the strength of Eddie Howe’s side.
But in Nick Woltemade and Yoane Wissa, Newcastle have welcomed talented and contrasting strikers equipped to deal with the pressures of leading the line on Tyneside and into the Champions League, United having lost their opener against Barcelona and now in need of results.
However, they also have William Osula, who has gone from strength to strength under Howe’s wing and bagged himself a brace against Bradford City on Wednesday evening.
William Osula’s Carabao Cup display
Osula came within a whisker of leaving Newcastle this summer, with Eintracht Frankfurt over in Germany actually tabling a formal £30m offer for the Danish forward.
Sources such as Sky Sports’ Keith Downie have confirmed that the bid had been slapped on the table and then withdrawn on deadline day. Some within the Toon hierarchy may be kicking themselves for not having accepted the offer sooner, but Howe may well be content with the 22-year-old Dane having stayed put, with three goals scored already in 2025/26.
It wasn’t a perfect display against Bradford in the Carabao Cup, but Osula certainly demonstrated a degree of improvement after languishing on the periphery last year, also netting off the bench in the Premier League during the 3-2 defeat by Liverpool in August.
Praised for his complete performance and for “slowly but surely” making the necessary improvements to his game, Osula is a valuable asset as United look to challenge across multiple fronts this term.
However, he wasn’t the only one to catch the eye on Wednesday, with Malick Thiaw putting in another statement showing after his summer transfer. The centre-back has some thick internal competition, but there might come a point when Howe marks him as one of the first names on the team sheet.
Malick Thiaw’s start to life at Newcastle
Newcastle welcome Arsenal to St. James’ Park in the Premier League on Sunday afternoon, and that’s going to be a tough test indeed for Howe’s side.
It was a bold call to field so many of his finest players, though that is a declaration of the manager’s respect for the Carabao Cup and his desire to successfully defend the crown that was so emphatically claimed last season.
Thiaw helped carry Newcastle through, and he may well have underscored his claim for another starting berth at the weekend, with fans taking to online circles after the win and voicing their excitement at a future Thiaw and Sven Botman partnership.
As per FBref, the German defender, who joined from AC Milan for £35m in August, ranks among the top 7% of defenders across Europe’s top five leagues over the past year for pass completion and the top 16% for progressive passes per 90.
He is not only crisp in possession, but eager to make things happen and progress the play upfield.
And, against Bradford, the 24-year-old proved himself worthy of a place in Howe’s starting line-up for the biggest occasions, energetic and secure in the defensive phases and crisp and creative on the ball.
There’s a certain no-nonsense style to the right-footed defender, who also carries a technical command that stretches above the capacity of most other positional peers competing in the Premier League and across Europe.
Thiaw, while still integrating into Howe’s squad and indeed the Premier League,
He’s been hailed as a “monster in the air” by journalist Martino Puccio for his efforts in Italy with AC Milan, but also “one of the most talented centre-backs in Germany” by talent scout Jacek Kulig.
While Fabian Schar and Dan Burn have been pillars of strength for Newcastle over the past several Howe-led years, it’s clear that in Botman and Thiaw, the tactician has a more dynamic and stable central partnership, and that’s something which could bear dividends in the long run as Newcastle look to build on their recent successes and reach even loftier heights in the coming years.
It would be premature to label Thiaw as undroppable already, but he’s certainly on his way to nailing down a starting spot on the big occasion, and it’s unlikely that many of a Toon persuasion would be dismayed if he were to be named in the rearguard when Arsenal come calling at the weekend.
Reared in Germany and then developed in Serie A, Thiaw has only started once in the top flight thus far, playing most of the recent goalless draw against Bournemouth and receiving a 7/10 match rating from the Chronicle Live after winning four duels, making six clearances and four interceptions, data sourced via Sofascore.
It might have been an even more generous rating, but for a yellow card which prompted Howe to make a change in the dying embers.
In any case, Thiaw is the real deal, and fans can start to get excited about his potential in the Premier League.
Osula did himself no harm in his quest for success at Newcastle, scoring twice against Bradford, but Thiaw’s display was more telling: this is a player tailor-made for a star role in Howe’s team.
Leave a Reply