Former England international Paul Robinson believes that Newcastle United defender Federico Fernandez has ‘definitely’ won over head coach Steve Bruce.
The Argentine international came in from the cold for his first Premier League start of the season against Wolverhampton Wanderers on Sunday, and performed very well. Sky Sports pundit Robinson was certainly impressed.
“Yeah definitely especially when they went down to 10-men as they had their backs-to-the-wall and offered very little offensively,” he told Football Insider when asked if Fernandez had given Bruce food for thought.
“They were under the cosh defensively and probably for them in hindsight, to come away with the draw was a good result and it was a good defensive performance.”
OPINION
There’s no doubt that Fernandez pulled out a very important display for him and his Magpies career on Sunday. It was a bit of a surprise when he was brought into the line up, although somebody had to replace the sidelined Fabian Schar. However, Paul Dummett was there, and he’s played more than Fernandez this season. However, Bruce obviously wanted a right-footer on the right hand side of his central defensive trio, and Fernandez provided him that. Beyond that, though, the former Swansea City man produced a tremendous display on Sunday. He got the assist for captain Jamaal Lascelles’ opener, as well as having 69 touches of the ball, the second most of any Newcastle player. Furthermore, the 30-year-old made four tackles and nine interceptions on his way to a 7.67 WhoScored rating for the game [Source: WhoScored.com]. The challenge for him now will be to build on this performance and to try and make himself a permanent fixture in Bruce’s starting line up.
