Newcastle United latest news: Sandro Tonali’s performances have been slammed by one former Italy international.
Former Italian international Antonio Cassano has slammed Sandro Tonali’s performances for his national team, just weeks out from a crunch international period for the Azzurri.
Italy face Northern Ireland next month in a World Cup play-off semi-final in Bergamo, with the winner of that advancing to the final to take on either Wales or Bosnia and Herzegovina. Italy finished second in their World Cup qualifying group behind Norway and thus had to settle for a place in the play-offs to qualify for this summer’s World Cup.
The 2006 World Cup winners have not qualified for either of the last two World Cups, with their last appearance at the showpiece event coming back in 2014 where they were drawn in a group alongside Uruguay, Costa Rica and England. This time around, Tonali will be one of Gennaro Gattuso’s key players as they look to end that run.
However, Tonali has come in for some criticism for his performances at international level.
In an interview withIl Messaggero, former Real Madrid, Roma and Parma midfielder Cassano criticised Tonali, telling the midfielder he should ‘do athletics’ instead of football: “It's poor, but I'm convinced that Gattuso, with his ideas, will keep things on track and we'll get to the World Cup.
“The only champion is Donnarumma. Pio Esposito? He's twenty years old and we consider him a rookie: Totti and I made our debuts at seventeen.
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“Tonali plays in the Premier League and never gets it. He runs and runs... he should do athletics. He and Barella are poor. Barella used to run, but now he doesn't anymore. We need quality. I like Vergara.”
Sandro Tonali’s Newcastle United role and future
At club level, Tonali has been thrust into the spotlight in recent weeks. First, reports over a potential move away from St James’ Park on deadline day earlier this month threw his long-term future in the north east into doubt.
His agent, Giuseppe Riso, though, quickly shot down those reports, describing them as ‘nonsense’. “We never had any conversation with Arsenal,” Riso claimed. “Newcastle were never gonna let Tonali leave in January. There’s absolutely nothing into it. We didn’t even talk about it.”
“It’s not even being discussed now,” Riso said on Tonali’s valuation. “We will see around March about Sandro’s valuation but only if Newcastle decide to open doors. He’s completely focused on Newcastle United’s season now, it’s nonsense topic”.
As all of that noise rumbled on in the background, Tonali’s importance to Eddie Howe’s first-team grew significantly following Bruno Guimaraes’ lengthy injury lay-off. The Brazilian will be sidelined until after the aforementioned international break at the end of next month with Tonali now assuming the role of leader of the midfield.
He responded to that responsibility in the perfect way with two match winning goals, his first strikes of the campaign, against Aston Villa last weekend in the FA Cup before putting in a very good shift away in Azerbaijan. Tonali will have to replicate those performances not just this weekend against Manchester City, but repeatedly over the next few weeks if the Magpies are able to overcome this tricky period without their captain.
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