Aleksandr Mitrovic and Ayoze Perez need to start
In the past few weeks, the young partnership has been left on the substitutes bench, causing more than a few raised eyebrows. It comes as no surprise that Newcastle’s revival in this match coincided with the introduction of these two. Mitrovic was bought on 72 minutes in for Papiss Cisse who had a poor game, and 90 seconds after crossing the white line, the Serbian was celebrating an equaliser. Granted it was a tap in, but he good himself in a goalscoring position and offered much more than Cisse did.
His partner in crime (Perez) entered the fray on the hour mark for Siem De Jong and the Spaniard made a nuisance of himself on the Magpies’ counter-attacks. The duo also combined for the injury time winner. They caused a lot of damage together in 20 minutes and days like this could become more frequent if they get more game time.
https://youtu.be/E_MbuOYmM0c
Where has this Newcastle team spirit been?
You only need to cast your mind back two weeks. Newcastle went down 2-1 to Crystal Palace midway through the first-half, and from that point, their heads simply dropped and the end result was ugly from their point of view – losing 5-1. Many aspects of Newcastle’s game plan came into question in the aftermath, including the spirit among the playing group. Trailing 1-0 at halftime after showing little in the early stages, even the most optimistic Geordies would not have expected much in the second-half. However, Steve McClaren’s men looked like a different side after the interval and to grind out a result like that, the way they did, indicates that there is heart in this team. Whether it gets showcased on a more consistent basis remains to be seen.
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