Phil Thompson heaped praise on Newcastle United defender Jamaal Lascelles for his display against Huddersfield Town on Saturday but admitted he could have easily been sent off during the game.
The Sky Sports pundit praised the Magpies captain, as well as Fabian Schar and Ciaran Clark, for his part in the Magpies’ achieving a 1-0 win over the Terriers and shared that he thought all three defenders were in excellent form on Saturday.
“And it took until 55 minutes, Rondon, you wouldn’t have expected this sort of goal as it has come right from the back, the three centre-backs, Clark, Lascelles and Schar were all fantastic in this game, gets the ball back to the keeper then back to Lascelles and he goes to Schar who plays it down the flank, Perez gets the ball, Manquillio the right-back is already ahead of the game, and its a fantastic ball by Perez on the blind side just plays it inside and if he delays it Rondon will be offside, but he plays it round the front and he slides it in,” said Thompson on Sky Sports’ Soccer Saturday (Sky Sports News, Saturday December 15, 17:22).
“And Newcastle were one up then it was phew and sat back, Rafa although he looked nervous on the touchline would have been delighted with how his back three defended.
Thompson then proceeded to explain how Huddersfield didn’t carve out another chances before restating that “the back three were absolutely fantastic for Newcastle.”
Before moving on to another game despite raving about Lascelles’ performance, Thompson went on to share that the defender could have easily seen red for a tackle on Laurent Depoitre.
“Only thing that may have gone in their favour today was there was a dreadful tackle by Lascelles out on the flank, he didn’t have to commit himself at all but he goes right through Depoirtre on the byline when he could have stood off, it could have easily from Anthony Taylor been red rather than yellow,” added Thompson during his verdict on the game.
OPINION
Lascelles has been struggling to deliver the goods as of late and other centre-backs have shone instead of him. Yet against the Terriers the centre-back hardly put a foot wrong and played a key part in his side seeing out another win. The only questionable part of his performance was his tackle on Terriers forward Laurent Depoitre which Thompson highlighted. It’s easy to see where the Sky pundit is coming from as Lascelles’ challenge was wild to say the least. However you feel the centre-back didn’t take the conditions into account and that is what led to him recklessly taking Depoitre out. You feel the referee may have taken the conditions into account when deciding to award Lascelles only a yellow card and the centre-back should feel lucky as a result. While Rafa Benitez has often moaned about luck not favouring his Magpies side this season, he can have no complains that his side got the rub of the green on Saturday.
