Newcastle United journalist Liam Kennedy has given his thoughts on Allan Saint-Maximin and the role he can have between now the end of the season.
The Frenchman has arguably been Newcastle United’s best player this season, a little bit of a bright spark in a campaign that has at times been very tough for the club as they faced a perilous task to stay away from the relegation zone.
The 25-year-old is leading the team in dribbles per game with 4.3, more than triple that of his nearest competitor, leads them in shots per game, is joint-third for key passes and has bagged five goals and three assists in the league (via WhoScored), however following his recent injury he has found it very difficult to get his starting place back in the team as they had put together a pretty decent run without him.
Speaking on the latest edition of NUFC Matters (33:43) though, Kennedy, despite taking some issues with how he has conducted himself off the pitch, feels that he will still have a major role to play between now and the end of the season, and that fans might be slightly too harsh on him because of one particular aspect of his game:
“I think this break is going to be perfect for him. I think he’s going to come back and I still think he’ll have a big part to play between now and the end of the season.
“He has obviously got a social media team working for him, he’s put these things out, I think that’s a bit flaky. I think he needs to just get on with his football, not worry about or have his social media team worrying about what people are saying about him online.
““He probably does a bit too much of that at times. But you take the rough with the smooth. He’s made a lot of people smile, a lot of people laugh for the type of things he’s done online. So he’s just being him, I wouldn’t change.
“I think he’s a massive asset of this football club. I think he’s a massive asset to this team. And I think a lot of people are too easy to forget that because he might give the ball away every so often.”
TIF Thoughts on Liam Kennedy’s comments about Allan Saint-Maximin at Newcastle United…
Will Saint-Maximin reach ten goals by the end of the season?
Yes
No
Whilst Newcastle United are in a pretty promising position when it comes to staying in the league, they are still not mathematically safe, and a player that has had the impact that Saint-Maximin had had throughout the season shouldn’t be simply ignored between now and the end of the campaign.
As Kennedy hints at, this current break that the Premier League sides are on could well be a saving grace for him to get up to full fitness ready for the final push towards the end of the season, where you would imagine that he will be given the chance to strut his stuff once again.
Not just to help Newcastle United get through this season, but also so that he can put himself in a position to prove that he can be part of the team next season if Newcastle stay up so the club don’t have to spend their vast wealth on a replacement for him.
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