While Newcastle may have beat Crystal Palace on Saturday, it was far from the perfect performance.
The Magpies started the game well, but Miguel Almiron’s winner didn’t come until the 83rd minute.
Steve Bruce made three changes to the team that lost to Burnley, one of which was a real shock. Florian Lejeune came in for Jetro Willems, with Paul Dummett playing as the left wing-back.
Before kick off, it looked like this could be an area of weakness for Newcastle. After about 20 minutes of action, it was very clear that this was the case.
Nobody had more space in the first half than Dummett. The 28-year-old was more advanced than he’d ever been in his career, tasked with being a creative outlet down the left. It’s a role that Willems has excelled in during Matt Ritchie’s absence.
But Dummett needs to stick to the day job. Despite having the freedom of St James’ Park on occasions, he was unable to provide any quality going forwards. His delivery was poor, wasting several opportunities to find a teammate.
Had Willems got this much space, you’d like to think he’d have been able to do more with it.
Newcastle were able to get the victory against Palace, but they still desperately missed the flying Dutchman.
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