Owen Hargreaves says ‘I wouldn’t have played for a month’ if he defended in the manner that Sandro Tonali did during Newcastle United’s 3-1 defeat at Brighton and Hove Albion on Saturday at the Amex Stadium.
Eddie Howe’s Newcastle were punished by an Evan Ferguson hat-trick, with his first strike littered with costly errors from the Champions League side.
From Nick Pope to Sandro Tonali, they were all at fault, including the former AC Milan midfielder swiping at thin air when trying to clear the ball, before standing still and not closing the ball down once it fell loose, which then resulted in teenager Ferguson opening the scoring.
Former Manchester United midfielder Hargreaves stated if he had done that under Sir Alex Ferguson, then it wouldn’t have sat well with the legendary coach, as he told Premier League Productions (02/09/23 at 6:30 pm).
Ever since Newcastle’s 5-1 win over Aston Villa on the opening day of the new season, it has quickly been followed up by three defeats on the bounce – Callum Wilson has probably been the only shining light, but Alan Shearer thinks he will be ‘really angry’ with his manager.
The Magpies are probably glad that the international break has now come about, but they certainly haven’t helped themselves, with Alan Shearer and Owen Hargreaves sharing their thoughts.
“From Newcastle’s point of view, there were so many errors leading up to the goal there,” said Shearer.
“There is the first one, it has got to go. It’s so sloppy from Nick Pope. Then it’s Trippier diving in. Then, another mistake from Tonali and it was lazy on his part not to close it down, then another big error from Nick Pope. What’s that? Four errors leading up to the goal?”
Hargreaves added about Tonali: “I know what Sir Alex would have said to me. I wouldn’t have played for a month if I did that.
“It’s quite simple really, you have to make clean contact – just clear your lines.”
Welcome to the Premier League, Sandro Tonali
On the opening day of the new season, everything was rosy for Tonali as he, not only helped his new side beat Aston Villa 5-1, but he also got on the scoresheet himself.
But, since then, he has been introduced to the cut-throat nature of the Premier League and the tough task that is facing this rapidly-improved Newcastle side.
When club football returns after the international break, it’s a small matter of the Champions League for Newcastle, with Tonali set to face off against his old club, AC Milan.
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