Danny Mills was impressed with Jamaal Lascelles’ goal for Newcastle United in their 1-1 draw against Wolves at St James’ Park on Sunday.
Lascelles put the Magpies ahead in the first half after heading Federico Fernandez’s cross past goalkeeper Rui Patricio.
Although it was a good goal that Mills has waxed lyrical about, the Sky Sports pundit has taken a negative slant on things and suggests there is an issue in the fact that it was two centre-backs who made the goal.
“One defender crossing for the other, wasn’t it? Can’t argue with that, but maybe that’s the problem, their two most creative players were their centre-halves,” Mills told Football Insider.
“It was great determination for the goal, I thought that was absolutely superb. All credit to them for getting in the box and that determination to go and win the ball I thought was absolutely superb.”
OPINION
Mills makes a good point because Newcastle simply aren’t creating enough goals in the Premier League this season. Yes, they did manage to get a goal through two centre-backs combining on Sunday and that is impressive. But it just goes to show that goals are going to have to come from unconventional means unless the attackers start pulling their weight. Joelinton has scored once this season, Miguel Almiron is yet to score or get an assist in Newcastle colours and Allan Saint-Maximin is also the same. Newcastle have two centre-backs with the same goal tally as their record-signing striker this term so far, so there is a clear issue with creativity. Stats by WhoScored show that Newcastle rank lowest in the Premier League for shots on target per game [2.3] while their 7.7 key passes per game is only better than three other sides. Steve Bruce needs to sort out this lack of creativity as soon as possible.