Newcastle United boss Eddie Howe had some big choices to make for his starting eleven against Aston Villa on Saturday with arguably the biggest call being who to choose between Anthony Gordon and Harvey Barnes.
Newcastle have recruited very well this summer and along with the improvement in several players, Eddie Howe has given himself a mammoth task to pick his strongest side.
One choice Howe made on Saturday was to go with Anthony Gordon over new £39million signing Harvey Barnes down the left wing.
Eddie Howe had a tough call to make between Gordon and Barnes
This decision came after the Sela Cup weekend which saw both players play extremely well but saw Gordon spurn a couple of golden chances while Barnes netted twice in his game. With that in mind, I was expecting Barnes to get the nod.
However, Eddie Howe opted for Anthony Gordon to start against Aston Villa on Saturday and the Under 21 European Championship Player of the Tournament had a fantastic game assisting two goals for the side before being replaced by Harvey Barnes.
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Then super-sub Barnes went on to grab a goal and an assist just to add to Howe’s dilemma.
Speaking after the game, the Newcastle boss shed some light on his thinking behind starting Gordon over Barnes saying (via The Chronicle): “It was a difficult choice between him and Anthony. The time that Harvey has been with us has been short. His time will come and he’ll get loads of football this year, but Anthony has been here from pretty much day one of pre-season and he’s been excellent too.
“It was great to see Anthony assist the first goal, then Harvey comes on and his pace gave them a real problem in the second half. I was really pleased to see him score too.”
Anthony Gordon had said at the end of the last season that he was determined to work on his fitness and train extremely hard over the summer, he also felt that playing in the U21 Euros would help him massively towards his goals.
Newcastle now have two of the best young English wingers in the EPL
He was absolutely right as Gordon had an outstanding tournament with England Under 21s and came back to Newcastle sharper than ever. His performances in pre-season were the first glimpses of what he is truly capable of and Saturday was another fine example.
In Gordon and Barnes Newcastle have two amazing wingers, both of whom should be right at the forefront of Gareth Southgate‘s mind for future England squads.
I think Eddie Howe has managed to get himself into a position where he can’t actually make the wrong call between the two as either will do an excellent job.