Anthony Gordon was the only Newcastle United player to start the game for England last night as they fell to a 1-0 defeat to Japan at Wembley.
It was far from a great game to watch, as is often the case for England friendlies. Made even more difficult given the messy tactics Thomas Tuchel employed on the night.
The German went without a recognised striker after Harry Kane picked up a knock before the game. Instead, there seemed to be a sort of front four who had no idea where they were supposed to be at any given time.
Anthony Gordon was deployed down the left flank, and I personally thought he played well given what he had in front of him, but the national media were not so kind.
We wouldn’t expect to see any high ratings for the England players last night, but we certainly feel Gordon’s ratings were unfair.
BBC Sport dished out a 5/10 for Gordon, saying: “Put in another energetic performance with lots of hard work but not many moments to threaten the Japan defence.”
The Guardian were even harsher, giving the winger a 4/10 and saying: “Struggled with positioning in messy front four. Has not dislodged Marcus Rashford.”
The worst came from The Sun, which only gave Gordon a 3/10 and also backed Marcus Rashford for the starting berth at the World Cup: “His final ball wasn’t good enough on the night, and Karou Mitoma comprehensively outshone him from the opposition. Marcus Rashford looked really good against Uruguay and was a constant threat, so that position in Tuchel’s XI may have just got a whole lot closer.”
We will concede that Gordon’s final ball wasn’t great last night, but we go back to what we said up top. With no striker ahead of him, he had nobody to aim for.
Every time he got into a good position, he was forced to stop and come back inside because there was nobody in the box. It’s no wonder that at a certain point he started taking speculative shots.
We’ve no doubt that Anthony Gordon will be heading across the Atlantic this summer, but only Tuchel will know right now if he’s going to start ahead of Rashford.