On current form does Elliot Anderson deserve to play ahead of Bruno Guimaraes? | OneFootball

Like many other Newcastle United supporters, I have been massively impressed with our restructuring of the academy and the under 21s.

Which includes a stated intention to try and bring in and play young exciting players, who can and will contribute to an upward path of improvement and success at first team level.

Eagerly anticipating the game against Manchester City on Saturday evening, I reviewed the stats from last season’s final 10 games and the pre season stats, plus our opening game against Aston Villa.

These stats pointing to our prize asset Bruno Guimaraes being very near the bottom of the NUFC pile.

Saturday’s performance confirmed that while home grown Phil Foden turned in a brilliant performance, Bruno Guimaraes was sadly at the bottom of the pile, with a performance which was ineffective, got caught many times out of position, lost the ball in crucial positions by being caught in possession, also failed to produce any positive passes or assists for our forwards.

Considering how he finished off last season, this is a troubling trend.

We know he has the skill and desire but producing the goods is a paramount requirement, which is not happening at the moment.

So is it time to promote Elliot Anderson, who was spellbinding on the pre-season tour matches, not only with goals, his all round play was exemplary.

This would give Bruno Guimaraes time to reflect and improve his performance.

Having just purchased a bevy of supremely talented young players , we need to integrate them into the team, ensuring the levels of expectation are met or even surpassed.

We cannot leave young home grown stars, or bought in future stars, on the bench if our present first team stars are not performing.

It does no harm to stand someone down to work to regain their form, if the team is not achieving its potential on a match by match basis.

Eddie Howe can and must make the tough decisions, no team can afford a performance like our first half against Manchester City which was woeful.