OPINION
Newcastle United right back Emil Krafth produced easily his worse performance since joining the club in his team’s 3-1 defeat to Liverpool on Saturday.
To be fair, that’s not unexpected when travelling to Anfield to face the European champions. However, the extent of Krafth’s struggles were truly alarming.
The 20-cap Sweden international was very much taken to the cleaners by the Reds, and the alarm bells will be surely be ringing amongst the Magpies fanbase after this display.
Liverpool left back Andrew Robertson is a tough man to keep in check, but it was an assignment that Krafth entirely failed in. The Scotland captain gave him the run around from start to finish, and it was no surprise to see Javier Manquilo replace the right wing back mid-way through the second half.
The nadir of Krafth’s day, though, was when he missed an absolutely glorious chance to equalise on 55 minutes. The score at that point was 2-1, and so a goal for Newcastle would have changed the entire complexion of the game and potentially the result. However, it clearly wasn’t mean to be.
The statistics make for pretty hairy reading for the former Amiens star. As per WhoScored.com, Krafth came away from Saturday’s game with two shots, both of which were off target, and only 30 touches of the ball, the joint fewest of any Newcastle starter. Indeed, goalkeeper Martin Dubravka touched the ball more often than the Swede.
His pass accuracy of just 58.3% perhaps gives us some indication of why Krafth’s teammates were so reluctant to pass him the football.
Overall this was a mess of a performance from the 25-year-old, and he certainly needs to up his game heading into the crucial clash with Brighton & Hove Albion next weekend.
