Newcastle United

Newcastle United: Sky Sports man likens Nick Pope to Champions League winner

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Image for Newcastle United: Sky Sports man likens Nick Pope to Champions League winner

Sky Sports presenter Joe Thomlinson has been speaking on the Football Daily YouTube channel about Newcastle United’s Nick Pope and how he reminds him of Thibaut Courtois.

Prior to Newcastle’s game against Crystal Palace, Pope was handed the club’s Player of the Month award for August.

The award will have come as no surprise given how well he’s played, especially during the 0-0 draw away to Brighton & Hove Albion.

On Saturday, he was once again in top form, pulling off stunning saves from Jean-Philippe Mateta and Odsonne Edouard, which helped the Magpies hold on for a point against Palace, but even before that game, Thomlinson was full of praise for Pope.

Thomlinson even went as far as to compare Pope to Champions League winner and the player of the match during last season’s final, Courtois.

He said: “I still think that Nick Pope is one of the best ‘keepers in the league, particularly in shot-stopping. I think I said on stream last night, he really reminds me of a BTEC Thibaut Courtois in goal, like, he’s just so big and seems to stop everything.”

Has Pope been Newcastle's best summer signing?

Yes!

Yes!

No!

No!

TIF Thoughts on Pope’s performances…

At the time, it looked like a good deal for Newcastle by signing an England international for just £10m, but now Pope is pulling off stunning saves and winning Newcastle points in the process, it’s looking even better business.

The stats also back up how well Pope is performing this season, as he currently ranks first for number of saves made, second for save percentage and first for clean sheet percentage, having kept one in 50% of his games (as per FBref).

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How well do you remember Newcastle's January transfer window? An easy one to start with: where did Newcastle sign Bruno Guimaraes from?

While some fans may well have questioned the signing in the summer when Newcastle already had an established No 1 in the form of the now-departed Martin Dubravka, given how good Pope has been during the early stages of his Newcastle career, nobody will be doing so now.

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