Why Newcastle United’s Matt Ritchie is right to criticise his performances

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The Scotland winger is yet to replicate his influential displays for Bournemouth on Tyneside.

Newcastle United winger Matt Ritchie admits he is disappointed with his goal return so far this season, the Chronicle reports, but you will not find too many Magpies fans bemoaning his performances.

The Scotland international was a surprise arrival at St James’ Park in the summer, dropping down a division after an impressive debut Premier League campaign with Bournemouth, and he has since made the right wing spot his own under Rafa Benitez.

Ritchie’s work ethic and dangerous deliveries from wide areas have provided six goals in the Championship this season, while his all-action display in the recent 3-1 win against Nottingham Forest was arguably his best in a black and white shirt.

However, that has not stopped the 27-year-old finding faults in his game with his deflected free-kick against Philippe Montanier’s side only his fourth league strike of the campaign.

“I’ve been beating myself up a bit about the amount of goals I’ve scored,” he told the club’s official website in quotes reported by the Chronicle. “I would like to score a few more and hopefully that will give me the confidence to do so.

“It was a little bit lucky but felt I needed a bit of luck and the team as well. We haven’t had many things fall for us in the last few weeks so it was nice to get on the score sheet in whatever way.”

Nonetheless, Ritchie has already cemented his fan favourite status at St James’ Park. A traditionally old-school winger, the former Portsmouth youngster does not possess the maverick skill set of Hatem Ben Arfa or Laurent Robert but his reliability and hard work more than compensates.

However, it must be pointed out that during Bournemouth’s run to the title in 2014/15, Ritchie scored or assisted 32 goals in 46 Championship games.

A similar tally appears far beyond him this time around and Newcastle boss Benitez could be forgiven for demanding more in front of goal in the weeks to come.

As it stands, Ritchie is the joint second highest scorer in the Magpies’ squad this season although still 15 adrift of runaway Golden Boot leader Dwight Gayle.

Therefore, with Aleksandar Mitrovic and Ayoze Perez continuing to toil in front of goal, players like Ritchie need to step up to the plate to compensate for any drop in form for the hitherto remarkable Gayle.