Newcastle United’s Joe Willock has been raving about his ‘amazing’ teammate, Kieran Trippier, when speaking to The Chronicle.
There’s a lot for Willock and his teammates to be happy about this season. Newcastle sit in third place in the Premier League, with the joint-best defence in the league along with Arsenal.
The 23-year-old has found the back of the net in the Magpies’ last two league matches. The winner in a 1-0 victory at home against Chelsea and one of four goals, in a 4-1 thumping of Southampton.
It was the goal at St Mary’s that Willock talked about to the north-east outlet, it was all thanks to Trippier’s exceptional pass that Willock was able to break through and tuck the ball away.
Here’s what the midfielder had to say on the goal, as well as Trippier’s influence: “It was an amazing pass at Southampton and he’s an amazing player. I am just happy I can share the pitch with him.
“He is such an influence, he’s not only an amazing player but an amazing leader. We have a lot of leaders like that at the club and I feel that is a big strong reason why we’re so high up.”
TIF’s view on Willock’s comments…
We believe that there’s clearly a great team spirit in the Newcastle squad and the way Willock talks about Trippier, that’s certainly an example of it.
Willock has two goals and two assists to his name this season. However, he’s offered so much more than that, he’s in the top 2% for touches inside the penalty box and the top 6% for non-expected goals and assists in comparison to other midfielders (FBref).
This demonstrates that the midfielder is an attacking threat for Newcastle when he’s on the pitch. Furthermore, he’s an effective keeper of the ball, with a 86% pass accuracy for the Toon, per Sofascore.
Whilst he hasn’t yet reached the goal tally heights of the 2020/21 campaign. Willock is proving to be an important player for Newcastle from midfield with his attacking intent and his retention of the ball.
And despite the likes of Bruno Guimaraes is taking a lot of the praise since his arrival, it is apparent the experience of Trippier is being noted alongside his quality on the ball.