OPINION
Miguel Almiron’s time at Newcastle United so far has been a tale of two halves. He excelled early on, but has been going through a sustained rough patch recently.
However, his performance in the 1-0 win over Leicester City on Friday suggests that he may have come out on the other side after a series of disappointing recent displays.
Obviously it’s always difficult adapting to a new league and a new culture, but there was beginning to emerge just the slightest bit of concern surrounding the 25-year-old after another sub-par showing against Crystal Palace last Saturday.
The Paraguayan looked reborn against the Foxes, though, roaring back to form and producing a performance dripping with creativity and industry.
It wasn’t a perfect display, his finishing clearly still needs some work, but he caused Brendan Rodgers’s side plenty of problems from start to finish. His pace and close control make him so hard to dispossess, rendering the prospect of him running at you a terrifying proposition for opposition defenders.
He does need to work on his end product, that much is clear, but he showed enough at the King Power Stadium to suggest that he is back to the explosive form he demonstrated in February after making his club record move the previous month.
The Almiron, Ayoze Perez and Salomon Rondon triangle that had gone missing in recent games came back looking sharper than ever on Friday. All three excelled and it was clear from very early on that Leicester couldn’t cope with them.
And while it was good to have those two firing once again, having Almiron back to his best is what will have pleased Rafael Benitez and the Magpies faithful the most.
