BBC Sport pundit Garth Crooks has praised Newcastle United defender Fabian Schar for his performance against Cardiff City on Saturday.
The Switzerland international scored twice in his side’s vital win over the Bluebirds, and impressed Crooks enough to earn a place in his Premier League Team of the Week.
“I have to go back to the days of Philippe Albert for a performance like this from a Newcastle defender,” he wrote on the BBC Sport website. “I’m not saying he’s in that class but Fabian Schar did have a magnificent game.
“The Swiss international scored one of the best individual goals I’ve seen from a central defender in years, along with a match-winning intervention if ever I saw one. Can Newcastle survive this season? Yes, but not without Rafa Benitez.”
OPINION
Crooks is right to rave about Schar because he was absolutely incredible against Cardiff. Benitez needed one of his player’s to step up and take the game by the scruff of the neck, but he won’t have expected his centre half to be the man to do it. Schar’s first goal was a truly memorable moment that people on Tyneside will be talking about for years. Like Crooks says, he’s not on Albert’s level yet, but he has a similar ability to bring the ball out from the back. It gives this Magpies team an added dimension because suddenly teams have to worry about what this centre back is going to do on the ball. His passing is excellent and his dribbling ability sublime and, as we saw on Saturday, he can keep a cool head in front of goal as well. Schar is really starting to come into his own as a Newcastle player and is fast becoming a key player for his side. His performance on Saturday made that glaringly obvious.
