The official reason Sven Botman was withdrawn for Newcastle United against Bournemouth
Sven Botman was withdrawn at half-time as Newcastle United were beaten 4-1 by AFC Bournemouth at St James’ Park on Saturday.
Justin Kluivert scored a hat-trick and Milos Kerkez wrapped up the points for Bournemouth in stoppage time after Bruno Guimaraes’ first-half equaliser.
With Newcastle trailing 2-1 at the break, Eddie Howe opted to withdrawn Sven Botman in place of Fabian Schar. Schar was a doubt for The Magpies ahead of the match after missing the 3-0 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers due to illness.
And things went from bad to worse for Newcastle in the second half as Kluivert and Kerkez scored late on to end the hosts’ nine-game winning run. Jacob Murphy was also withdrawn in the second half after going down feeling his calf.
Botman has also only recently returned from a serious ACL injury but Howe insisted that both changes in the match were tactical rather than injury related.
“Tactical for Sven just felt needed at that moment with the way the game was going and actual right footer on the side,” Howe told The Gazette. “Jacob, just to try and change the momentum of the game.
“You can use fatigue [as a reason], but then when we made the changes, I don't think our performance improved, which is, of course, frustrating.
Howe added: “It was difficult to change the team. We've just won nine in a row.
“I'll beat myself up over that but I think that's a difficult one for me personally to think about rotating the team in this moment.
“Even then, with our substitutions, I don't think they had a positive impact either. So yeah, Bournemouth were better than us.”