da supremo： Newcastle United set out in search of their first win of the Premier League campaign as they host Burnley at St. James’ Park.
da pinnacle： The Magpies and the Clarets face off in a gigantic match at the bottom of the table, with the two clubs separated by three points as it stands.
A win for Eddie Howe’s team will put them level on points with Sean Dyche’s side and on par with Norwich, who travel to Tottenham on Sunday.
Not good enough
One change the ex-Bournemouth boss must make for this clash is to brutally axe Javier Manquillo from the starting XI after his dire performance against the Canaries on Tuesday.
The £40k-per-week lightweight is simply not good enough and should be dropped from the team. Howe cannot afford to carry any passengers in what could be a physical battle against Burnley – with both teams fighting for their lives – and Manquillo may be exactly that.
He struggled badly against Norwich and the nature of his display was extremely worrying. As per SofaScore, he only won one duel (out of four) in 90 minutes on the pitch as he made one interception and failed to make a single block or tackle against Dean Smith’s side.
The Spaniard also completed just 60% of his passes and lost possession of the ball 20 times. This goes along with his 0% success rate in long ball attempts and dribbles, highlighting just how disappointing he was at right-back in the game.
In eight Premier League games this season, he has been dribbled past once and only created 0.3 chances per match for the Toon. He has a long pass accuracy of 15% and a cross accuracy of 40%, which shows how much he has struggled on the ball going forward from defence.
These statistics suggest that the ex-Liverpool dud has, quite simply, not been good enough and it could now be time for him to be axed from the side to give Jacob Murphy a chance to shine at right-back ahead of him.
The former Norwich man has, as per SofaScore, averaged 0.5 key passes per game and a long pass accuracy of 31%, whilst winning 57% of his duels in his 11 appearances (five starts). He could now be offered the opportunity to start this massive game at right-back, with Howe needing to axe Manquillo from the team.
AND in other news, PIF must seal dream NUFC move for “exceptional” 114-goal magician who Howe would love…