Matt Le Tissier has been gushing over Matt Ritchie for his performance in the 3-0 loss to West Ham at St James’ Park on Saturday, but the Sky Sports pundit claimed that the Scotland international was “devastated” by Rafa Benitez’s decision to take him off early in the second-half.
Ritchie was one of the Magpies’ best players in the game, but he was replaced by Christian Atsu in the 54th minute.
Southampton legend Le Tissier was just as shocked as Ritchie was by Benitez’s tactics as he believes that the ex-Bournemouth winger was one of the best players on the park.
“Really odd substitution, Jeff,” said Le Tissier during Sky Sports’ Super Soccer Saturday this weekend.
“Matt Ritchie has been brought off and he’s been excellent today. His delivery into the box has caused all sorts of problems. And he is not a happy boy to be coming off this pitch.
“Absolutely devastated to be substituted so early in the game.”
OPINION
Ritchie has played well for Newcastle this season and it was certainly a weird decision by Benitez to take the flying Scotsman off while the score was 1-0. West Ham doubled their lead shortly after Ritchie was taken off as Atsu went on to have minimal impact. Atsu has been a flop for the Magpies since they signed him permanently last year. Ritchie is without doubt a better play and he is worth keeping on the pitch because his set-pieces can cause so many problems. It was set-pieces that helped the Magpies win against Burnley last week, so Benitez needs to be playing to his side’s strengths in order to get a result. At the end of the day, Newcastle didn’t deserve much from Saturday. West Ham were the better team and Benitez’s top players failed to perform well enough. Keeping Ritchie on for longer might have made a difference but now we will never know.