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Newcastle United – Sweet Left Side

12 years ago
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In all my years following Newcastle I’d never loved a full-back like I did Jose.

A brilliant combination on the left which bizarrely more often than not, left Jonas supplying the Spanish left-back for him to try and create after bombing forward, rather than the other way round.

Not much has been said about our latest left-back but even from early on, I was very encouraged by the odd glimpse we got of our young Italian recruit.

To be honest I became quite frustrated by his lack of opportunities, the player I’m guessing even more so, but now I believe we are all really starting to enjoy the benefits of that softly softly approach.

Jonas Gutierrez, Santon’s partner in crime on the left flank, had this to say about his new team mate when talking to The Journal;

“He loves to get forward. He sometimes has to know the moment to go and the moment to stay back but he is young, he will learn that. Sometimes he can go, sometimes he should stay. He’s so young, has too much energy and maybe he just wants to show what he can do.

For me, that is incredible. With an offensive player you just have to give him the ball and he will do the rest. He has amazing ability.

I don’t mind sharing the defensive responsibilities with him. I like helping him.

I am finding it good. He’s an offensive player as well – like me. When we have to defend we try and hold it all together but I think he’s a really, really good player.

He is only really, young. The Premier League is very tough – it takes a long time for you to get ready for it but he has made a very good start”.

Davide Santon only turned 21 a month ago and despite the likes of Ba, Cabyae and now Cissé predictably grabbing the headlines, I really think teh Italian left-back is one of our most exciting players.

The pace he shows when surging from halfway in our half is a tremendous asset and he looks one of those players who has the ability to run as fast with the ball as without it.

I would have loved to have seen both Santon and Enrique in the same team, even though I understand Santon prefers the left despite being right footed.

For my money, Santon is actually even better than Enrique at going forward, if his Premier League defending develops over time then you could have the complete player.

As he does develop he could have nobody better than Jonas alongside him to protect against defensive naivety.

 

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