Sky Sports presenter Joe Thomlinson has been speaking on the Football Daily YouTube channel about how Newcastle United should not be looking to sign Eden Hazard.
Newcastle are in need of some added creativity to help take some of the burden off of Allan Saint-Maximin, as the winger has created 3.61 shot-creating actions per 90 minutes – while the next closest player to have started a league game is Joelinton with 2.81 (FBRef).
Do Newcastle need another striker?
Yes!
No!
However, links suggesting that they are looking to move for Real Madrid’s Eden Hazard may not exactly be what they are looking for, as he’s not been able to string a lot of games together since moving to La Liga given the number of injuries he’s picked up. Meanwhile, he finds himself at the wrong side of 30, so Eddie Howe may be better off going for someone younger and more reliable for years to come.
Thomlinson doesn’t think that Hazard would be a good signing for Newcastle.
“For me, if I was Newcastle, Hazard would be the bottom of my list of players I’ll be focusing on.”
TIF Thoughts on Eden Hazard being linked to Newcastle United…
Since Hazard joined Real Madrid, he’s failed to start as many as 15 games in a league season, while his best attacking output was last campaign when he managed to score three and register just two assists, so it appears that if he can’t do it over in La Liga, there may well be little hope of him replicating the scintillating goalscoring form he had at Chelsea.
Something else that would be very worrying is that it’s not just his scoring ability which is decreasing rapidly, but also his ability and willingness to dribble at – as well as past – defenders, with his attempted and successful dribbles decreasing season upon season since leaving the Premier League (FBRef), so it would surely be way too big of a risk for Newcastle to bring in someone like Hazard to their relegation battle.
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