BREAKING NEWS: Alan Shearer on Newcastle’s £34m gem, Howe’s big call and two huge opportunities
Alan Shearer has been sharing his thoughts on Newcastle United as we come off the back of a brilliant win at Everton and head into back-to-back home games at St James’ Park.
Speaking to Gary Lineker and Micah Richards on the Rest Is Football podcast, our former No.9 praised our performance, energy and big response to last week’s defeat in Marseille, feeling this could be a turning point for the team after a tough start.
He also hailed “brilliant signing” Malick Thiaw, who looks one of the bargains of the summer at £34m, praised Nick Woltemade’s superb display and finish, and discussed Howe’s ‘big call’ to bring Aaron Ramsdale into the side.
Looking ahead, Shearer believes we now have a huge opportunity to get ourselves back into the top five picture, hoping we can use the momentum from this “great win” to take six points against Spurs and Burnley this week.
Discussing the 4-1 victory, Ramsdale’s selection, our German duo and Newcastle’s two home to come, Shearer said:
“That’s what Newcastle are all about, that performance. You are thinking, ‘when is it going to happen away from home’, especially going to Everton after their result on Monday night (1-0 at Man Utd).
“It was a great performance and great win there, after Marseille and losing that game in the way they did.
“He changed the goalkeeper, whether Pope was injured or being protected, I don’t know, but that was a big call putting Ramsdale in.
“It was much more like it, great energy, the big centre forward (Woltemade) was very good. He took his goal superbly well. A clever finish.
“And…he’s been a brilliant signing, Malick Thiaw, for Newcastle. He’s been superb. A couple of goals as well.
“So big performance, a big win and exactly what Newcastle needed with two home games coming up. They’ve got Spurs on Tuesday at home, and they’ve then got Burnley at home on Saturday. So big two games.
“If they would take six points from that, then you just never know again. They’d be back in the hunt for the top five. Hopefully this is the start of a big run for Newcastle in the league.”
Shearer also hailed the return of Lewis Hall and Tino Livramento, insisting the full-back duo make a “massive difference” to the balance to our side down either flank.
As for the home games ahead, we have an out of sorts Spurs side tomorrow and second bottom Burnley on Saturday, giving us a huge opportunity to close the gap on our European rivals and move up the table, with us currently 13th and four points behind Brighton in fifth.