BBC Newcastle pundit John Anderson has hailed Newcastle youngster Sean Longstaff as the “standout performer” in his side’s 3-1 win over Doncaster Rovers in the EFL Trophy game on Tuesday night.
Newcastle travelled to South Yorkshire for their first game in this season’s competition and will be looking to go further than last season when they bombed out in the group stage.
Anderson said that the young side “Will take an awful lot of confidence from this. Sean Longstaff was the stand-out performer.”
He was quoted by BBC Newcastle commentator Matthew Raisbeck on his personal Twitter page.
FT Doncaster Rovers 1-3 #NUFC u21s – a victory for Ben Dawson’s team in their first #EFLTrophy group match. @bbcnewcastle’s John Anderson: “They’ll take an awful lot of confidence from this. Sean Longstaff was the stand-out performer.” pic.twitter.com/nWCV7prsPz
— Matthew Raisbeck (@raisbeck10) September 4, 2018
OPINION
There’s a growing feeling that Longstaff is going to be a real talent for Newcastle in the future. He has made one senior appearance, last season in the EFL Cup defeat to Nottingham Forest, but he’s still a way off the first team. That brings up a question that wasn’t addressed over the summer. Would he be better off with the Newcastle reserves or would he be better served going out on loan and getting regular game-time in a competitive league? We think he absolutely would and that’s something that we hope that Newcastle think about in January. He spent last season on loan at Blackpool where he impressed massively, scoring nine goals and registering six assists in 45 games. We’re not sure why Benitez thought it would be better for him to stay at Newcastle this season but it seems that it’s going to hamper rather than develop him. However, it doesn’t look like it’s affected his performances so far – as Anderson said last night, he was the standout player in a really impressive team performance.