Sue Smith has blasted Jonjo Shelvey for an inconsistent performance in Newcastle United’s defeat against Leicester City in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday night.
Shelvey, 27, missed from the spot in the penalty shoot-out loss at St James’ Park after 90 minutes of action led resulted in a 1-1 draw between the two sides.
Smith was impressed with what she saw from Shelvey in parts of the game, but was not happy with his work-rate and suggested that the penalty miss could harm his chances of getting back in the starting line-up in the Premier League.
“He’s had a different game with some excellent bits of quality, some not so good,” said Smith on Sky Sports News on Wednesday night [09:48pm].
After watching Shelvey miss his penalty, the former England women international added: “In the game, he’s done some really superb things but at times he’s been poor on the ball, he’s been a little bit lazy.
“He didn’t play in the game at the weekend but will be hoping to have made an impression so that he starts but he will be disappointed with that penalty.”
OPINION
Shelvey has had such a mixed start to the season, so his performance against Leicester was perhaps synonymous with what we have so far seen from the former Liverpool and Swansea midfielder. Steve Bruce looked as though he was calling on Shelvey to become a key player under his leadership as he was one of the more influential players against Arsenal before he got on the scoresheet against Norwich. However Bruce then dropped the 27-year-old for the trip to Tottenham last week and that resulted in Newcastle picking up their first win, and points, of the Premier League season. It does not look good for Shelvey ahead of this weekend’s clash against struggling Watford at St James’ Park. He played the whole match so might not be fully ready to go against the Hornets and Bruce is bound to recall Sean Longstaff into the side to replace the six-time England international. Being labelled as “lazy” is not great preparation for that match.
