Jonjo Shelvey’s debut.
For a player of such obvious quality, a passer of incision and invention, it is puzzling that Jonjo Shelvey hasn’t found a settled home. At Liverpool he was given a chance to secure an enduring place, just as he was at his next home, Swansea City. Now carving out a notch at his third club, he began with aplomb, registering a “hockey-assist” by fizzing in the pass that Georginio Wijnaldum laid off on the edge of the box, allowing Perez to shoot and score. Shelvey would repeat the trick on the quarter hour mark, hitting a smashingly accurate cross-field pass, the ball spearing through as if struck by Paul Scholes in his prime, to Daryl Janmaat, who crossed for Wijnaldum to tap in for Newcastle’s second goal. Two sumptuous passes, two first half goals.
Jonjo Shelvey’s Newcastle debut by numbers: 91% pass accuracy 4 shots 3 tackles won 1 chance created Shelvey show pic.twitter.com/Py4MxyhpL2
— Squawka Football (@Squawka) January 16, 2016
A career path that began, at senior level, clad in the red of Liverpool, which then dawdled on to the white of Swansea, now enters a period of black and white on Tyneside. The arc appears – at least in terms of these teams’ final league positions over the last few seasons – to be trending downwards. Questions over his mentality linger, and he was involved in a touchy moment with Valencia in this match, checking the West Ham striker in the manner a hockey player might. At 23, it’s seems strange to talk about Shelvey using phrases like “last chance”, but one feels that he has to find a way to end his nomad existence. Inserted straight into the starting line up after his move, and having performed well in a raucous victory, he can’t ask for a better start at Newcastle.
