Some Newcastle United fans on social media were divided over the performance of midfielder Sean Longstaff during the 3-1 loss courtesy of Nottingham Forest on Wednesday.
One Magpies fan took to Twitter to share that they thought the 20-year-old midfielder was just dreadful in his latest display while another stated that in their opinion the youngster had made an excellent debut for the club against Forest.
Longstaff was making his first appearance for the Magpies’ senior team in a competitive game after featuring for the club in pre-season.
However it seems Magpies supporters couldn’t decide if he was good enough for the first-team set-up after his outing against Forest.
Nothing But Newcastle has rounded up some of the best tweets below:
https://twitter.com/samftbI/status/1034939005241122816
Longstaff doesn’t do it for me I’m afraid, not really sure what people were batting on about, seen nothing that impresses and if he’s going to be competing he should be at least matching players like Ben Watson and Liam Bridcut…. #NUFC
— Graeme Brash (@Brashmeister81) August 29, 2018
Longstaff is not ready for this level. He tries his best tho, but Benitez should not put him in this position imo. #NUFC
— NUFC Portal (@NufcPortal) August 29, 2018
Funny, because I thought Longstaff struggled but Muto, although not threatening enough, showed a lot of running and endeavour. Game of opinions, I suppose.
— Stephen Foster (@StephenJF94) August 29, 2018
Longstaff was brilliant tonight by the way. What an excellent debut. Kenedy, Atsu and Muto especially frustrated me. #nufc
— Macca (@MaccaNUFC) August 29, 2018
Newcastles display last night was shocking. Nott.Forest were slicker and hungry for a victory whereas Ncle were slow and ponderous and shirking challenges. Kenedy very poor and looks a shadow of the player we saw last season. Longstaff showed a lot of players up. He tried.
— Gordon G🏴 (@GordonG22552156) August 30, 2018
I thought Muto done ok this evening. Full of energy. Felt he was one of the bright spots same with Longstaff and Sterry. Kennedy is worrying me, don't think he will have the same impact as last season. Early days but have bad feeling
— Keith Johnson (@Big_J316) August 29, 2018
OPINION
It seems brutally harsh that a section of Magpies fans are already ready to slam Longstaff as the 20-year-old midfielder had a tough task when it came to trying to put in an impressive display against Forest. Not only was the promising talent playing a side that hadn’t lost yet this season but he was expected to excel in game where even his more experienced teammates failed to impress. While the fans who were disappointed with Longstaff’s performance will no doubt hoping another loan exit is afoot for the midfielder before the window shuts, he did show enough to suggest that it wouldn’t be the worst thing if he stuck around. However based on the mixed reaction perhaps the Magpies should see if there is Championship side willing to make a last-ditch attempt to sign the player on loan. Forest proved to be a good test for the youngster and he could learn a lot and improve from regularly playing in England’s second-tier.
