· December 23 2024, 14:30
While Newcastle United's 4-0 win over Ipswich Town was a team effort spearheaded by an Alexander Isak hat-trick, there was another player who made the whole thing possible.
Perhaps spurred on by his past as a Norwich City player wanting to get one over on his old rivals, Ipswich, Jacob Murphy was a man on fire on Saturday.
Yes, Isak grabbed a hat-trick and all the headlines, but for us, it was Jacob Murphy who made the whole thing happen, and that's why he got our star man - that and possibly a bit of guilt for always hammering him when he's had a bad game.
While talking about Saturday's game on the most recent The Rest Is Football Podcast episode, Gary Lineker prompted Alan Shearer to talk about Newcastle's winger.
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Gary Lineker hailed Jacob Murphy as 'underrated'
Murphy has been in superb form for Newcastle lately and as a player who gets all the stick in the world when things go wrong, it's only fair that he gets all the praise when it goes right, so hearing Lineker and Shearer praising Murphy as much as they did was nice.
Lineker brought up Murphy in the chat about the game.
"I think we deserve a word for Jacob Murphy too. He's a little underrated. He puts in a shift every time, he certainly delivered yesterday. He caused some terrible problems down Ipswich's left-hand side."
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Shearer was impressed by Murphy's magic backheel on Saturday
Shearer was quick to agree about Murphy's work rate and touched on Eddie Howe's love of Murphy.
"He's been one of Eddie's go-to guys and he's never ever let him down. You could never ever question his attitude, he's got a great attitude, and he always works his socks off for the team.
"And he's been getting his rewards with goals and assists. He's having a great time of it at the minute, and he got his goal yesterday but for me, the most impressive thing was the little backheel for Isak's hat-trick which shows he's full of confidence."