Newcastle United travel away to face Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League today as they look to bounce back from successive defeats.
The Magpies lost to Chelsea and Everton, both by a 1-0 scoreline, prior to the international break and now have the opportunity to get back to winning ways in the top-flight.
Eddie Howe may look to change up his team in order to avoid a third defeat in a row and one change he will be able to make is the return of Jonjo Shelvey, with the midfielder back in training after dealing with an illness.
Ahead of the match, the head coach spoke about his options in the middle of the park, saying: “Midfield has been a key area for us. We’ve had a really good mixture of technical & physical quality. If we decide to play with three, I need to pick which three & it’s a difficult choice but nice one to have.”
Should Shelvey start?
Yes
No
Unleash him
Howe must now unleash Shelvey in midfield against Tottenham as he is a crucial player for the Toon and will be key to their chances of picking up all three points.
The ex-Liverpool man was absent against Chelsea and Everton as both games ended in defeat for the Magpies. They missed his guile in the number eight role, with the club’s form before those losses highlighting his influence.
Prior to those games, he was one of only two outfield players – along with Fabian Schar – to play every single minute of the exceptional nine-game unbeaten run in the Premier League.
The £70k-per-week gem averaged an impressive SofaScore rating of 7.01 across those nine matches. This shows that he was consistently delivering quality performances to help the team on the pitch, as he played a key role in the unbeaten stretch.
Issac Hayden dubbed him a “Rolls Royce” of a player last month and Matt Ritchie once claimed that he “could play for Barcelona”, which illustrates how highly he is rated by his peers.
His displays on the pitch have been deserving of praise as he has averaged a SofaScore rating of 6.91 in the top-flight this term – a score only Allan Saint-Maximin can better out of the players who have been at the club since the summer.
His passing will be important to Howe’s side against Tottenham if Antonio Conte’s side look to dominate the match as he has the ability to hit long balls on the counter-attack.
He has completed 61% of his long passing this term, making 4.9 per game, and can use his quality on the ball to set the likes of Ryan Fraser and Saint-Maximin away in space if Spurs press up high and leave space in behind. This is why Howe must unleash him from the start today.
AND in other news, Howe must finally unleash “breathtaking” £93k-p/w Newcastle gem, he’s what they need…