Newcastle United rescued a point against Wolverhampton Wanderers with a late goal, but the performance of Sean Longstaff will have Eddie Howe worried ahead of Wednesday’s Premier League meeting with Liverpool.
The 24-year-old started at the heart of the midfield in Bruno Guimaraes’ absence and struggled with the pace of the game. He played for the full 90 minutes and more but barely laid a glove on Wolves with only one tackle and zero interceptions at Molineux.
Longstaff only completed 78.2% of his passes, which was the worse percentage of all the Newcastle players who started the game, but he’ll have to start against Liverpool because Guimaraes and Jonjo Shelvey won’t make it.
Howe revealed ahead of the midweek fixture that Guimaraes and Shelvey are still injured and won’t be back in time, so it’s likely to be the same three of Longstaff, Joelinton and Joe Willock.
He said of Bruno: “He’s very positive, in good spirits and desperate to get back and be involved. He’s a big player for us and we have to get him back as soon as possible.”
Liverpool are coming off the back of a 9-0 win over Bournemouth, so Longstaff can’t afford to be as sloppy in possession. He needs to turn over the ball more too, otherwise the Reds could run riot with Jordan Henderson, Fabinho and Fabio Carvalho.
In other news, journalists say Chris Wood ‘lacked impact’ against Wolves
