Rare extended periods on the training pitches are not yielding an improvement in results after a relentless schedule finally eased.
Howe again based his team selection on what he had seen during the week as he named Newcastle‘s youngest starting XI in a Premier League game since 2005 with an average age of 24 years 191 days.
Although captain Bruno Guimaraes would have started if he was fit enough after recovering from illness and injury, it was still striking that not a single member of Howe’s leadership group lined up from the off after Nick Pope, Dan Burn, Trippier and Jacob Murphy were named among the substitutes.
A whopping £124m worth of forwards in Nick Woltemade and Yoane Wissa also had to make do with places on the bench.
William Osula once again justified that call with his second goal in two games, but Newcastle are an increasingly blunt side lacking aggression, quality and ideas.
They are also leaky at the back – and that is a dangerous combination for all the wrong reasons.
It said it all that even after Newcastle equalised through Osula midway through the second half, Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola told his players “not to panic” from the touchline.
He knew there was still time for another twist as Truffert hooked the ball into the roof of the net late on.
Truffert was one of a series of smart signings Bournemouth made last summer as the club rebuilt superbly following the sales of Dean Huijsen, Milos Kerkez, Illia Zabarnyi and others.
Newcastle, by contrast, are still reeling from a poor window.
Not only are Newcastle failing to see much of a return from a £100m-plus net recruitment drive that Howe was heavily involved in.
Newcastle are still searching for a lasting solution after striker Alexander Isak pushed to join Liverpool last summer.
Over the course of a draining season, Howe has pivoted from Woltemade to Wissa to Anthony Gordon and now Osula, who came mightily close to joining Eintracht Frankfurt on deadline day last September.
It sums up Howe’s desperate search for a lasting formula as his future comes under increasing scrutiny.
“It’s disappointing when you are not delivering for your supporters,” he said.
“That is the ultimate disappointment when you feel you are letting people down who come here and support us.
“If they are critical of us, we have to accept that as that’s the game we are in.”
