COMMENTARY
Rafa Benitez opted to give Newcastle United midfielder Sean Longstaff his first Premier League start in the 2-1 defeat to Chelsea on Saturday, and had some Magpies supporters debating his performance. The home-grown talent tasted his first bit of top-flight senior football against Liverpool when he was brought on as a substitute recently and showed a glimpse of his potential. Yet against Chelsea Longstaff had more than enough minutes to make a name for himself, and some Magpies fans were convinced. It wasn’t an amazing display by any account as you feel it may be too much to ask of the home-grown talent to be starting Premier League games, and it was a difficult task to impress against the Blues. This is especially the case when you consider that last season he was playing League One, and while he was excelled in the division, the fact he started against Chelsea appeared to be more of a reflection of Benitez’s lack of options. However he did make the most of his latest display even if some fans below got carried away as while Isaac Hayden has struggled, Longstaff is not 500x better than the 23-year-old at this stage.
This Is Futbol has rounded up some of the best tweets below:
https://twitter.com/Lee18_92Johnson/status/1084168108926009344
Good debut for Longstaff. Great experience for the lad and he hasn’t hid. #nufc
— Newyorkmagpie (@newyorkmagpie) January 12, 2019
https://twitter.com/CameronFin1992/status/1084167828515835905
Battling display by #nufc but our MOTM goes to young Sean Longstaff who, thrown in at the deep end, looked the calmest player on the pitch. Sprayed some fantastic passes and never stopped running.
— NUFC360 (@NUFC360) January 12, 2019
Sean Longstaff looks like a Premier League player to me, we need to look after him !!!! #NUFC
— Kevin WI ?? ??????? (@Kev_1985_) January 12, 2019
We look up for it. Longstaff has done really well tonight so far. He’s mint in footy manager too! Lejeune looks solid too after being out for so long. If Clark’s man marking wasn’t atrocious it would be 0-0 still and we have looked threatening at times. Howay!!! #NUFC
— Canadian Mag (@tynesidetalk) January 12, 2019
Longstaff looks 500x better than Hayden already
— HatTrickNUFC (@HatTrickNUFC) January 12, 2019
Lejeune playing like he was never gone and Longstaff looks like he’s been doing this for ages. #Positives #nufc
— NUFC360 (@NUFC360) January 12, 2019
https://twitter.com/Adrian____29/status/1084152844150886400