Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher spoke of his sympathy for Newcastle star Jacob Murphy during Wolverhampton Wanderers’ equaliser the other night.
The Magpies played out a 1-1 draw with Wolves at St. James’ Park on Saturday night, with Jamaal Lascelle’s and Ruben Neves both scoring second-half headers.
In the end it was probably a fair result with teams having decent chances.
But there has been some anger about the way Newcastle conceded to Neves.
Just before, Steve Bruce had substituted on Matt Ritchie, who had to pass on a message to Isaac Hayden and Murphy.
But it seemed only half the message got delivered as Jonjo Shelvey took a quick free-kick.
£12 million star Murphy (BBC Sport) was supposed to take up a right wing-back position, but stayed out on the left.
That meant Isaac Hayden had to cover as Wolves broke away.
The Englishman had to watch Adama Traore for potentially running in and was ultimately powerless to stop Neves’ header.
Carragher said in his analysis on Monday Night Football: “He’s (Hayden) basically a right-back in a back four. He should be a right-sided centre-back, and Newcastle should have this guy (Murphy) here (marking Traore).
“But it’s not his fault, he’s hasn’t been given the message.
“When they set up again (from kick-off), you see him now walking over. It’s not his fault!”
An embarrassing state of affairs
The Neves equaliser was so avoidable.
It really was a catalogue of errors, and it all stems from the poor communication from the bench.
Ritchie has not covered himself in glory, but Bruce should be ensuring such an important message reaches everyone involved when it comes to a tactical shift.
Wolves are obviously a very dangerous team on the counter, and it was no surprise to see them take advantage of the lack of defensive cover.
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