Eddie Howe met the media this morning ahead of Newcastle United’s trip to Goodison Park to take on relegation-threatened Everton tomorrow night, but reflected on Jacob Murphy’s performance on Sunday.
Speaking at the pre-match media briefing for the Everton game, Newcastle boss Eddie Howe took the time to look back at Sunday’s 6-1 thrashing of Tottenham to heap praise on Jacob Murphy.
The £12million signing from Norwich had arguably his best game in a black and white shirt since his 2017 switch, scoring two goals, one of which was an absolute worldie. Hugo Lloris still hasn’t seen it go past him – I’m not sure if he’s come out of the Newcastle dressing room yet.
Eddie Howe has always believed in Jacob Murphy
Howe wasn’t slightly shocked at his performance as he’s always felt that Murphy has the ability to be a star and he told the assembled press: “I’ve always thought Jacob had very special talents and abilities. He’s very quick and a very good one v one player. I’ve always preferred him on the right rather than the left and that consistency of selection has helped him.
“Delighted to see him get the two goals. The second goal was a special finish and he is capable of that, we see his finishing is at a high level, so it’s about getting himself in those positions as often as possible.”
I’m with Eddie Howe here, I always thought Jacob Murphy was a right winger and never understood why he was so often deployed on the left.
I think Murphy silenced a lot of fans at the weekend. He was deemed by many as not good enough, and it wasn’t unwarranted criticism. For the longest time he was largely ineffectual. Like Miguel Almiron of old, nobody could question his work-rate but his end product always let him down.
Murphy is keeping top-scorer Miguel Almiron out of the side
Now both of those players are fighting for one position and right now it’s hard to choose between them. Almiron is joint-top scorer at Newcastle this season, but Murphy has been so good in that right wing role in his absence that it’s not a given that Almiron should regain his place in the team.
It’s a brilliant problem for Eddie Howe to have and it seems that he’s now worked out Murphy’s ideal position.
There’s a feeling amongst the Newcastle staff that there’s a brilliant player in Jacob Murphy, he just lacks the self-belief, but we’re now starting to see his confidence grow and with it we’re seeing a much better player.
Add Jacob Murphy to the list of players transformed from unwanted to indispensible under Eddie Howe.
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