It was a vital win for Newcastle United on Saturday. Not a vintage display, but three points of real importance to kickstart our season.
Nick Woltemade has grabbed the headlines and deservedly so for a superb all round display and winning goal. However, Eddie Howe has been quick to praise a few other key men from the 1-0 victory, also explaining Joelinton’s substitution just after the hour mark.
Top class Tonali huge for Toon – Howe
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Sandro Tonali continues to be an enormous presence at the base of our midfield three, with Howe eager to point out why the Italian was so vital to our win and strong start to the season from a defensive point of view.
The boss has hailed his ability to put out fires on transition, not only praising his endurance to cover so much ground, but his reading of the game, athleticism and speed:
> _“I thought he covered every blade today. He was putting out a lot of fires on transition for us, and I think he’s done that superbly well.”_
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> _“Sometimes, it’s not necessarily a quality that registers immediately but the number of times that he reads the game and where the ball is going to drop and he’s there first, then you realise that it’s a massive skill of his.”_
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> _“With his athleticism and his speed, defensively he’s one of the one of the reasons why he’s been so strong.”_
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> _“Then, on the other side of the game, his use of the ball and creativity is massive for us. He nearly scored a great goal….I thought it was a great performance.”_
Howe on “excellent” Jacob Murphy
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Having found himself behind new singing Anthony Elanga at the start of the campaign, Murphy was perhaps a surprise inclusion in today’s starting XI and turned out to be an unsung hero while others grabbed most of the plaudits.
The gaffer’s faith in the winger was rewarded with an inspired performance, with Murphy providing the crucial assist for Woltemade’s winner, putting his biggest weapon to good use as his cross created the only goal of the game:
> _“Yeah Murph was excellent: last season he was a goal creator, a very very good crosser of the ball._
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> _“We saw that, so a great start to the season for him.”_
On Joelinton’s comeback from injury
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Having been forced off prematurely against Liverpool, and subsequently missing out on both international duty and the trip to Elland Road, Saturday saw Joelinton immediately return to the starting XI.
He didn’t play the full 90 minutes, however, with Howe admitting that it was always the plan to give him just over an hour to manage his return and protect him ahead of Thursday’s clash with Barcelona:
> _“It was vital that I did take him off for his wellbeing really._
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> _“We would like to keep him fit: I was advised 60-70 minutes, so thankfully that worked and he was able to get through.”_
On keeping focused after the Isak saga
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Today’s game was the first game following on from Isak’s official departure for Liverpool, which cast a black cloud over the club all summer.
But we look to have put all that behind us, and today’s performance perhaps proved it.
> _“I think we needed that clarity. We always knew that the window shutting we would have that. We’re delighted we can move on as a team and try and win games.”_