Jermaine Jenas has been speaking on the latest edition of Match of the Day 2 about Sunday’s Premier League games.
One of the matches he spent a bit of time on was Newcastle’s United’s 2-1 win over Burnley at Turf Moor to ease their relegation fears.
The Toon were trailing at half time thanks to a goal from Matej Vydra, and Steve Bruce responded in the second half by bringing Allan Saint-Maximin and Callum Wilson off the bench, with the Frenchman making an immediate impact.
First, he provided the assist for Jacob Murphy, who scored a brilliant goal to bring the Toon level and then Saint-Maximin took things into his own hands and scored a delightful solo goal to win the game for his side.
This led Jenas to discuss Saint-Maximin and how he and Wilson made a difference.
He said: “When these two [came] onto the pitch, it was a different ball game altogether.
“Saint-Maximin started getting [onto] the ball. You can see that Burnley back four thinking ‘we don’t want to get as tight as before’. Well, they were wrong to think that because this guy in this type of form, even if you get tight, he’s going to twist you in knots.
“If they had him all season maybe all this pressure on Steve Bruce wouldn’t be [there].”
Do you think Saint-Maximin should start next week?
Yes, he has to be involved from the start
No, use him as an impact player
TIF Thoughts on Saint-Maximin…
The Frenchman has only played in 18 of the Toon’s 31 league games this season due to illness and injury, with Newcastle only winning two games without the Frenchman.
However, with him in their side, they have won six league games this season, and he has scored three goals and provided four assists, and he was the inspiration behind this win on Sunday.
Hopefully, next week against West Ham United, Bruce decides to start Saint-Maximin rather than bring him off the bench.
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