‘Can’t argue’: Tim Sherwood makes comparison between benched Newcastle ace and Bruno Guimaraes

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Sven Botman didn’t feature for Newcastle United on Saturday and Tim Sherwood believes that the defender can’t complain about being left out.

The Magpies hosted newly-promoted Nottingham Forest at St James’ Park on Saturday afternoon and were dominant in a 2-0 victory.

Fabian Schar’s thunderbolt opened the scoring before Callum Wilson deftly flicked home number two, giving Newcastle the perfect start.

Clean sheet, striker on the scoresheet and a rocking home crowd? It doesn’t get much better in terms of opening day wins.

Sven Botman didn’t feature for Newcastle United

Some were surprised when the Newcastle starting lineup was announced though, because new signing Botman wasn’t in the XI.

Newcastle spent months chasing Botman, going all the way back to the January transfer window.

The Magpies finally got their man this summer, paying a cool £35million to bring the Dutchman to England.

Yet come 2pm on Saturday, Howe had decided to leave Botman on the bench.

Goalscorer Schar ended up partnering Dan Burn in the heart of Newcastle’s defence, with the duo keeping a clean sheet in front of Nick Pope.

It looks like Botman will now have to be patient as he seeks to break into the Newcastle team with Tim Sherwood striking comparison to Bruno Guimaraes.

Sherwood told Sky Sports Soccer Saturday (06/08, 5:13pm) that Botman ‘can’t argue’ with being left on the bench by Howe on Saturday afternoon.

Sherwood noted that Howe similarly kept Bruno Guimaraes out of the Newcastle side at first and brought him into the team slowly.

The former Tottenham and Aston Villa boss suggested that Howe just knows the right time to put new players into his side and believes Botman will get his chance at some point, but he will just have to wait for now as Schar and Burn impress.

“Botman didn’t play but he can’t argue,” said Sherwood. “Eddie never played Bruno Guimaraes and he’s a crowd favourite now. When he first came in there, Jonjo Shelvey was keeping him out of the side because the midfield were doing very well, but he picks the right time to put them in and Botman will get his chance,” he added.