The problem is how can other teams produce so many players so regularly and blood them successfully? We’re clogging the Longstaff horse to try and get someone to spunk £20m on him.
I was thinking the same at the weekend. We are struggling without Shelvey in the middle, not that we are world beaters with him but he brings a lot more than the other options.
Its the Newcastle way mate, fans and managers. Don't bother with young players, they're all ****. Until they come back to haunt us and then its the clubs fault. Obviously. You know how many games Sean started in 2019-20? 20 games if you include the 6 FA Cup fixtures. You know how many games Sean started in 2020-21? 20 games if you include the 1 FA Cup fixture and 4 EFL fixtures. Obviously had a serious injury in that time, so largely a bit part player playing just over a third of the PL games. I'd say we've probably just about seen enough now to judge him somewhat. He certainly needs to improve. You know how many fixtures Matty has started for NUFC? 13 games. Woodman? 4 games. Welcome to the wonderful world of assessing players as per NUFC fans. "****e"
Would this be the same Matty Longstaff who has 2 of the 3 games available? Only having played a combined total of 131mins in a side already struggling when he arrived? Aye massively struggling in the SPL... Howay man give the lad a chance to settle and get a few games under his belt. Glass even said that he intended to use the recent international break to get them integrated a bit better and they'd done little team set up training due to Euro fixtures. Fair enough if at the end of the season he's struggled but this is exactly the snap judgements which are not working for us as a club. Woodman the same. Ignore two stellar seasons at Swansea, one bad game against Man U, and he's ****e. It was nice to see Darlow show at Leeds that no matter who is behind that defence, the keeping job is a poisoned chalice at present. We could easily have conceded 6 if Leeds could hit the target, and none of them would have been Darlows fault.
Lol seems only yesterday that Man U were about to bid £50m for Sean and then Matty appeared and looked even better! WTF happened to them?
I actually like Longstaff and still have high hopes that he will turn into an important player for us. I actually thought he was more suited to a more forward midfield role as he has a good shot on him and a reasonable eye for goal. However I think Willock should have that role as he is more dynamic. Longstaff is not the aggressive tackling midfielder or expansive passer but picks the ball up well, lays it off and always offers support. Would like to see him become the key to us not hoofing it forward and conceding possession. I actually think that the main problem is that our midfield is so unbalanced. We miss a good defensive midfielder and a good expansive passer. If we had those I think both Longstaff and Willock could flourish. Its no surprise that our best season in the last 10 years came when we had Cabaye and Tiote paired in those roles in midfield. I would like to see us try the following in the next game: Darlow/Woodman Manquillo Lascelles Fernandez Dummett Schar Longstaff Almiron Willock St Maximin Joelinton (if we have to - but hopefully Wilson is fit) Then play 4-2-3-1
I don’t like to be harsh on players. Honest! He’s not a defensive midfielder. So I can rule out that. So he needs to bring assists and goals to the table. This is where the story goes downhill. He hardly gets either. So what exactly does he bring to the table?
