OPINION
Freddie Woodman is a talent. The England youth international has a massive future ahead of him, but you get the impression that he is reaching a point in his career that he needs to be playing matches to continue his development.
Since Karl Darlow returned from injury recently, however, the 22-year-old has found himself third in the pecking order for the Magpies. Martin Dubravka is undisputed number one, and rightly so, but the young prospect now finds himself directly battling Darlow for a spot on the bench.
If he was still a teenager that would be fairly acceptable, but at the age he is now, at a stage in his career when he should be making the move into regular senior football, he finds himself floundering.
Woodman has done his fair share of time out and about on loan, and has impressed on loan spells with Aberdeen and Kilmarnock north of the border, but you can’t help feeling that if he were to go out again, it would be on a more permanent venture.
The chances of him getting ahead of Dubravka are slim, admittedly, but the Slovakian is approaching 30, and you could easily foresee a situation whereby he was phased out for Woodman in a couple of years time.
That would make things more acceptable for the Englishman, but knowing that Benitez doesn’t even rate him above Darlow can’t be good for his confidence, and if he wasn’t considering a move before, he must be now.
Benitez has to show his faith or he could risk losing a future England number one.
