Three Newcastle United stars have come in for praise after Saturday’s win at Tottenham Hotspur.
Newcastle United have been told they possess the best midfield trio in the Premier League – with one eye-catching exception.
The Magpies continued a remarkable run of form by recovering from conceding an early goal to claim a 2-1 win at Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday lunchtime as Eddie Howe’s side boosted their chances of returning to European competition with a big three points in North London. The win means United have now won their last five Premier League fixtures and are unbeaten in any competition since they fell to a 4-2 defeat at Brentford just under a month ago.
The upturn in form means Newcastle are now just one point adrift of the top four and BBC Sport pundit Danny Murphy has credited midfield trio Sandro Tonali, Joelinton and Bruno Guimaraes as the inspiration behind the ‘great resurgence’ in form in recent weeks. A slight change in United’s tactical setup has led to Italy international Tonali playing in a deeper role as Magpies manager Howe found a solution to his midfield conundrum after utilising several different combinations in the middle of the park. The result has been a major upturn in results and performances – and former Liverpool and Spurs midfielder Danny Murphy made a bold claim about all three players and revealing he has been impressed with what he has witnessed from the trio over the last month.
Speaking on BBC Match of the Day, he said: “Eddie Howe has tweaked it recently and they’ve got Tonali sitting and the other two, Bruno and Joelinton, running forward. (They) compliment each other really well and I think they are the main reason why Newcastle have had this great resurgence recently. They’re physically great, they have gone energy, but technically they are really good as well and have the composure to dictate and control games, especially in the first-half. They take risks, they go high, they did it at Old Trafford, they were close together, it was great.
He continued: “In recent weeks, that three are as good as anything in the Premier League, probably other than the Liverpool three. This is what I’m taking about, out of possession is what I’m talking about. If you’ve got three midfielders that are first, second and third (in a list of distance ran during the game), you’ve got a hell of a chance of winning football matches. They’ve just got to keep going now.”
