Gary Neville has claimed that Aston Villa duo, Matty Cash and Lucas Digne, were causing Newcastle United ‘real problems’ for periods of their Premier League clash on Sunday, as he told Sky Sports.
Newcastle secured a 1-0 win against Villa, with Neville claiming that Ryan Fraser and Allan Saint-Maximin started to ‘cheat a little’ by not tracking back during periods of the second half.
In the end, it didn’t prove to be costly for the Magpies, who watched Kieran Trippier, before his injury, score his second free-kick in black and white colours.
There was a talking point regarding Ollie Watkins offside goal in the second half, but despite that, the home team did pretty well to showcase guty defending not seen at St James’ Park for many years.
Villa didn’t have much to shout about yesterday, as Neville picked out the two players who did briefly cause issues.
“I think this is a big, big day (for Newcastle),” said Neville. “Those last ten minutes felt big.
“I thought they were in a little trouble at the start of the second half. I thought Cash down the right and Digne down the left from fullback for Villa were causing them real problems.
“I don’t know why Saint-Maximin and Fraser started to cheat a little bit. And not go back with them.
“I think ultimately the big moment in the game was the offside. I didn’t think it was offside when I first saw it. But sometimes those lines do prove us wrong.”
Villa deserved nothing from the game, even if there are some cries regarding Watkins offside goal.
It was the worst performance under Steven Gerrard and signs that things need to change.
These same abject performances are what resulted in Dean Smith getting the sack.
In truth, the Villa fans won’t take too kindly to such performances anymore because a fan favourite in Smith has already been sacked, and if the same is being displayed under a different manager, then it’s obvious that it’s the players that are the problem.
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