Laura Woods revealed she was happy to hear that Newcastle United flyer Jetro Willems was doing well at St James Park.
Woods was discussing the 25-year-old Magpies defender with Ally McCoist and Sam Matterface after hearing that Matt Ritchie was set to miss several games due to injury.
Matterface claimed that Willems would now have to play left wing-back in Ritchie’s place and proceeded to gush about his “dive” in the League Cup loss to Leicester City.
“Jetro Willems will have to play there, did you see his assist in midweek?” said Matterface on talkSPORT (9:15, Friday, August 30th).
Woods replied, “I didn’t” before Matterface continued.
“That dive! It was brilliant, he went down in the penalty area, got a little shove then sort of dived over like he was trying to win a penalty, the ball hit him and he ran to the striker who scored, it was brilliant,” explained Matterface.
Woods then revealed that she was happy to hear Willems was making an impact as she implied she felt sorry for him in the 1-0 loss to Arsenal.
“I’m happy for him actually as he was one who gave the ball away in the Arsenal game that ended with Aisley Maitland-Niles picking the ball up and then they conceded the goal,” stated the talkSPORT host.
“He had just come off the bench, so it wasn’t ideal.”
OPINION
You feel Matterface was being sarcastic by praising Willems for his dive that ended up weirdly assisting Yoshinori Muto’s goal against the Foxes, but he may not have been. After all, Willems’ impact against Leicester was better than the impact he made in the 1-0 loss to Arsenal at St James Park. The 25-year-old looked a bit lost when being brought off the bench to feature against the Gunners, this wasn’t helped by Steve Bruce deploying him in midfield, and you can see why Woods felt sorry for him. This is because you have to wonder how Willems’ confidence withstood being pointed out as the player that cost the Magpies the game against Arsenal. The 25-year-old has only featured in the Premier League against the Gunners, where he averaged a 6.2 rating despite his error (WhoScored), he was an unused option against Norwich City and Tottenham, but with Ritchie out injured, then you feel his minutes in the first-team are about to receive a boost. Hopefully, he is able to excel and show everyone why the Magpies signed him.
