Manager has already undergone a tactical evolution but needs further progress if his side seek highest honours
A
t first glance, Anthony Gordon appears to have little in common with Sir Keir Starmer but, like the prime minister, the Newcastle forward looks infinitely more surefooted on foreign soil than domestic battlegrounds.
In the Champions League, Gordon has scored 10 goals in nine games. In the Premier League, meanwhile, he has managed a modest three in 21 appearances, two of which were penalties. Whether deployed wide on the left or, following a recent positional shift, at centre-forward, Gordon seems emblematic of a wider Newcastle paradox. Just like Eddie Howe’s team, he is irrepressible one match and ineffective the next.
There is a decent chance of Gordon again leading the attack when Newcastle face Qarabag in the second leg of their Champions League playoff at St James’ Park on Tuesday night. Yet although the 24-year-old scored four against the Azerbaijani champions in Baku last week, the blistering pace and remorseless energy of a player ahead of Nick Woltemade and Yoane Wissa in Howe’s attacking thinking camouflages certain weaknesses. Accordingly, Gordon and company may find things less straightforward when Everton visit Tyneside on Saturday.
