Newcastle United are preparing for a huge Carabao Cup encounter at St James’ Park tonight.
Eddie Howe’s Magpies host treble-winning Manchester City in the biggest tie of the third round.
As is often the case in the early stages of domestic cup competition, we could see changes from both sides.
Both Newcastle and City are fighting on four fronts this season, so Howe and Guardiola need to manage their squads.
One exciting change Howe could make in the Magpies starting XI involves Tino Livramento coming in for his full debut.
Newcastle signed the 20-year-old from Southampton this summer in a deal reportedly worth £30million.
Livramento has made two appearances so far for the Magpies, both off the bench in the Premier League.
His latest outing saw him replace Kieran Trippier in the second half of the 8-0 drubbing of Sheffield United.
He gave a good account of himself, getting forward well for Newcastle and also putting in several good challenges at the other end.
Livramento was deemed “one of the best young players in his position in the country” when he joined Southampton in 2021.
Obviously we’ve all seen how good the player is, as he was in the Premier League last term.
Livramento did well in the top flight despite playing for a struggling Saints side that finished bottom of the table.
He has very much kicked on over the past few years, and now he’ll hope to properly kick off his Newcastle career.
Admittedly, Livramento couldn’t have asked for a tougher opponent, but he’ll no doubt relish the challenge.