Newcastle United started the season with Anthony Gordon up front - now he’s keeping the club’s £139million strike force out of the position.
The 24-year-old has played his best football throughout his career as a winger and Newcastle had never won a Premier League match in which he had led the line from the start.
The transfer saga surrounding Alexander Isak saw Gordon step up and start the season as a striker for Newcastle. At the time, the narrative was that the Magpies didn’t have a striker.
Now after £124million worth of new attacking additions, the narrative has changed - just not in the way you would have expected.
The Gazette has launched a new WhatsApp NUFC channel to bring the latest news, analysis and team & injury updates directly to your phone.Simply click this linkto join our NUFC WhatsApp channel.
Now Gordon is viewed by Howe as a ‘viable’ striker option and arguably the side’s current first-choice striker following Yoane Wissa’s latest injury and Nick Woltemade’s role change.
Some supporters would still insist Gordon shouldn’t be starting up front and isn’t a striker, while others have started to warm to the idea - particularly after his four goals against Qarabag in the Champions League.
Gordon, who went over a year without a Premier League goal from open play, has an open play goal and an assist in each of his last two league outings as a striker. Added to his four goals in Baku, the England international is in a solid recent run of form.
Although there has been plenty of discourse around Gordon preferring to play on the left wing rather than the right, it’s leading the line as a No. 9 where he currently enjoys playing his football.
“You know, I’m always confident,” he said. “I always back myself. I love playing number nine. I’ve said it a lot.
“The perspective of me playing that position earlier on was that it wasn’t working, which I didn’t believe or think was true.
“I was playing really well, I just wasn’t getting the goals. To me, as a striker, that’s kind of important! Thankfully recently I’ve been playing well and getting the end product to go with it. I do like playing in the position.”
Eddie Howe on Anthony Gordon
Newcastle head coach Eddie Howe has also doubled down on Gordon being used a striker in his side.
“I think every player has a preference on sides and positions,” Howe said. “And you sort of listen to that, because you want the player to play, ideally, where he's most comfortable.
“But I think given another preference [other than left wing or right wing], he'd probably prefer to play down the middle and lead the line, because I think that's what most players naturally would want to do, because you've got a lot more freedom in terms of your movement and where you can run.
“I think Ant's got some really good qualities in that position, none more so than his pressing intensity, but also his tactical understanding of when to do it, how to do it. I think it's at the very highest level.
“I think you could see the other day a couple of our goals came from his regains, and that's not by luck, that's by his really good judgment and where he puts himself. And then for the first goal that he scores, it's a brilliant piece of centre-forward play. It comes in short, spins, and it's a ruthless finish. So I was delighted with his performance.”
Continue Reading