Sven Botman found himself playing alongside a new defensive partner in the game against Fiorentina yesterday with Alex Murphy given his first start for Newcastle United.
Youngster Alex Murphy has impressed Eddie Howe since his arrival from Galway United last year, and as such has found himself used quite often in Newcastle‘s pre-season campaign, culminating in him starting the game against Fiorentina yesterday.
The young Irishman was even trusted by Eddie Howe to play out of position yesterday. Murphy is a left-back or left-sided centre-back owing to being predominantly left-footed but with Matt Targett at full-back and Sven Botman deployed in his favoured position at LCB, Murphy was tasked with playing RCB in the absence of Fabian Schar.
Murphy has been very impressive in pre-season for Newcastle
Murphy had another fantastic performance, adding his name to the list of youth players who look like they are ready for the first-team alongside Lewis Miley and Elliot Anderson.
Speaking to NUFC TV after the game, Sven Botman offered some encouragement to Murphy saying: “He’s progressing really well. I mean, he’s still really young and he’s training well. It’s important for him to just push every day and train hard and then his chances will come.”
What’s easy to forget here is that Sven Botman is only 23 himself, in defender terms he’s a baby, so with Botman and Murphy we have two defenders with many, many years left in them and still even room to improve, which is Botman’s case is a frightening prospect given his Rolls Royce status.
Newcastle’s future is looking solid with the players coming through
I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see Murphy’s name on the team-sheet once or twice throughout the season. Probably just on the bench, but he’ll be there making his presence felt. The 19-year-old plays with a maturity that suggests he’s been playing first-team football for years.
This pre-season has got me really excited for the future seeing players like Murphy, Miley and Ben Parkinson all coming through the ranks and looking like future first-team stars.
I’m sure we’ll see more youngsters staking their claim today as Newcastle take on Villarreal in the Sela Cup.
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