Eddie Howe was accused of bending the rules as Newcastle United struggled to adapt to Man United’s changes at Old Trafford.

Ruben Amorim is without Bryan Mbeumo, Amad Diallo, and Noussair Mazraoui, thanks to AFCON, but even so, supporters were expecting the manager to remain stubborn with his formations.

That will quickly put to bed as the Red Devils changed to a back-four, completely catching the visitors by surprise on Friday, 26 December, and the panic was evident from Howe and his staff.

Gianluigi Donnarumma and Man City were accused of cheating against Leeds United, with the goalkeeper appearing to feign injury, and the Magpies did the same with Aaron Ramsdale in the 10th minute.

Aaron Ramsdale accused of feigning injury vs Man United

With the goalkeeper down and receiving treatment, Lewis Hall was trusted to spread a message from his manager to the rest of his teammates, and Gary Neville had a feeling that it was entirely planned.

Speaking live on Sky Sports (26 December, 8:09pm), in a rather disappointed tone, Neville said: “I’m going to be a little bit cynical… I might be proven completely wrong, but I think Eddie Howe‘s told Lewis Hall to tell Aaron Ramsdale to go down.

“I think there’s a message going out, and they’re changing off the back of what Man United have done. Look at what Hall is doing. I think Howe has told them to stop the game.

“It might be cynical, but Hall has turned into a coach all of a sudden… Get the goalkeeper down, and change things up a bit. Look, it’s all alright all of a sudden.”

Mike Dean wants to eradicate fake injuries in football

Mike Dean has already expressed his frustrations with goalkeepers going down with injuries, with referees left with no other decision but to stop the game due to their importance to the team.

Speaking on The Overlap, he named it as the “one rule you’d change to make football better,” as phrased by Jamie Carragher, and it was a very simple answer for the former referee.

With Nick Pope returning from injury, it was played off very coolly as the former Arsenal man got back to his feet, and his replacement sat back on the bench, almost as if nothing had ever happened.

Not only does this frustrate the footballers, breaking up their momentum at an important stage of the game, but it does nothing for the supporters, who have paid and travelled for the game.

Only 10 minutes had gone by, so waiting until the half-time break was not an option, and passing around a note was probably too little to understand the changes. But the way they did it should be stopped.