Newcastle United have released some pitchside footage from Sunday’s win which saw Allan Saint-Maximin in awe of Miguel Almiron’s piece of skill.
The Magpies have now made it five home wins in a row and this moved them 12 points clear of the bottom three and just three points off the top 10, all while their top goalscorer Callum Wilson has been out injured.
Does Almiron have a future at Newcastle?
Yes!
No!
Saint-Maximin has become their talisman in Wilson’s absence with five goals and three assists in the league, but Sunday was another frustrating display from the winger, who managed just 28 touches, three successful dribbles and was dispossessed five times – the most out of any Newcastle player (FBRef).
However, his silky skills were still to be on show as he made an interesting pass to Almiron in the corner when Newcastle were on the attack, only for the Paraguayan international to upstage Saint-Maximin with a delightful nutmeg (6:54) on Harvey Barnes that left his Newcastle teammate stunned, running away with his hand on his head.
TIF Thoughts on Saint-Maximin and Almiron…
Former record signing Almiron has not had the best of times under Eddie Howe with just seven league starts, however, he does now appear to be coming into favour under the manager a lot more, and with Ryan Fraser set for another scan on his hamstring injury, Almiron could be handed a prolonged run in the team.
It’s now a run of nine games without a goal for Saint-Maximin, which has led to reports suggesting that Newcastle could look to move on from the winger if a good enough offer was received.
However, he’s the only player to have attempted more than 65 dribbles, while also carrying the ball into the opposition’s box 47 times – 31 times more than the next closest player, so it would be an almighty void for them to fill in the summer and get someone in of that same ability to get a side like Newcastle up the pitch effectively.
In other news: Newcastle supporters will surely be excited over what Paqueta has done on Twitter – opinion