Tim Sherwood has accused Allan Saint-Maximin of posting a ‘lazy’ performance for Newcastle United against Liverpool this afternoon.
Newcastle suffered a 1-0 defeat by the Premier League title-challenging Reds, who temporarily moved top of the standings at the time of this victory.
The Magpies were fortunate to only concede the solitary goal throughout the 90 minutes in what was a relatively one-sided second 45 minutes.
Eddie Howe’s outfit didn’t really create enough at the other hand and the responsibility for that has to fall at United’s attacking outlets, like Saint-Maximin among others.
The French winger is a blinder on his day, but the former Nice attacker only managed 36 touches in 90 minutes against the Reds [WhoScored].
That illustrates how he didn’t see enough of the ball and Sherwood, speaking to Optus Sport, claims that laziness played its part in this sluggish performance from Saint-Maximin who, according to the pundit, frustrated the home support inside St James’s Park.
Sherwood told Optus Sport: “If it goes in behind, there’s no room [for Newcastle]. The crowd are getting frustrated because Saint-Maximin is getting lazy. They call it lazy.”
This is where the 25-year-old desperately needs to improve.
Everybody who follows English football knows what a pest the Newcastle sensation can be to opposition defences.
But you could argue that he doesn’t turn up often enough against the big boys, the Premier League’s elite.
And yes, those teams are likely to have the sort of better personnel to combat Saint-Maximin, but that isn’t an excuse because even against worse teams than Liverpool, Saint-Maximin is prone to drifting in and out of games.
Next season, assuming he stays at Newcastle, he needs to be far more consistent because five goals in 32 Premier League appearances this season isn’t a true reflection on his capabilities.
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