Eddie Howe’s Champions League chasing Newcastle United are taking the fun out of football according to Mark Lawrenson.
The former Match Of The Day pundit has taken aim at Newcastle for the way they have played this season. He is not happy that some Toon players are staying down for prolonged periods while Howe speaks to his players.
The comment comes after Arsenal did the same thing on Sunday during their 2-2 draw with Liverpool at Anfield. It infuriated Lawrenson, who claims Newcastle are the worst culprits for it.
“That’s crept into football and, for me, it takes some of the fun away from it,” he said.
“All of a sudden, teams now realise and I’ll tell you who the worst are, I think, is Newcastle. Newcastle do it all the time now.”
So the Magpies are already taking the fun out of football in what is just their first full season since the change of ownership…
Don Hutchison has to laugh at Mark Lawrenson’s Newcastle dig
Howe’s side have played brilliantly this season, and have really upset the apple cart at the top of the table. With nine games to go, it looks like we have a genuine chance of qualifying for the Champions League.
While we thrive and others struggle, our performances are angering plenty of pundits. Lawrenson is the latest, and his opinion has received a response from Toon fan and former Scotland midfielder Don Hutchison.
In response to an article about Lawrenson’s comments, he wrote on Twitter: “Hahahahahahahahahahhahahahahaahhahahaa.”
Hutchison has pretty much summed up what every Newcastle supporter thinks of Lawrenson’s comments.
To play devil’s advocate, Howe’s side are somewhat guilty of what Lawrenson is accusing them of. We are not denying that Newcastle have done it this season – there have been a couple of occasions when Nick Pope has mysteriously gone down, then moments later Howe is giving a team-talk on the touchline.
While what the former Liverpool defender alludes to is a problem in the game, it is not exclusively a Newcastle thing. It is something that has existed in football for a long time.
But apparently now it’s awful because Newcastle are doing it – the team that also seemingly invented timewasting. You would think that no side had ever done it before the way some people have criticised the Magpies this season.
Erik ten Hag is a major culprit, and he got an earful from Howe when the two met at St James’ Park recently.
All Newcastle can do is continue getting results said. As Howe said, we are not here to be popular, we are here to compete.
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