Why Anthony Gordon Is Now Vital To Newcastle United
Newcastle United's season is back on track after an unbelievable 8-0 win over Sheffield United. But while there was amazing performances across the pitch for Eddie Howe's side, it was also the biggest sign yet that Anthony Gordon has become integral to the team this season
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00:00 Hello there everyone, Adam Cleary from 442 here and Newcastle 8 Sheffield United 0. That
00:10 was nice. Now it would be incredibly easy for me to sit here with my pants off and just
00:14 go through every single goal and talk about what a great time it was as a Newcastle fan
00:19 to watch that game but I'm not going to do that because I think if yesterday proved anything
00:24 it was that Anthony Gordon is f***ing mint. So to get us going here and this is even weirder
00:33 considering the scoreline I'm going to show you something that wasn't a goal. End of the
00:36 first half Newcastle receive the ball on the halfway line and if you're Sheffield United
00:40 you're probably not overly worried about this situation but Elliot Anderson plays a ball
00:44 in behind the Sheffield United defence and despite the fact Gordon is probably third
00:48 favourite to get to this he somehow almost turns it into a goal. Now when I first saw
00:52 that I just thought oh he's been quicker to the ball than the other two players and it's
00:55 his pace that's got that but when you see the replay from another angle it's his strength
01:00 as well. He completely out muscles the full back to win the ball and then immediately
01:04 cuts inside the centre back and gets his shot away. And while probably not looking like
01:08 too much on the face of it that is nonetheless the actions of a wide attacker who has both
01:12 pace and power and technical ability it's really top top level stuff so it does ask
01:18 the question why wasn't he doing this last season where was this player then? Because
01:23 that was the thing about Newcastle last season if there was any one position in Eddie Howe's
01:27 starting eleven that kind of felt like it was changeable up for grabs it was that left
01:31 sided attacking role so Max Amann had a long run there they played Isak Merge or Linton
01:35 was occasionally in it if you've spent 40 million pounds on a player who likes to play
01:40 there he should be able to cement himself in that squad but try as he might he just
01:45 didn't in fact it was pretty bad for Anthony Gordon last year there was a moment in the
01:49 Brentford game when Newcastle were hanging on to a 2-1 lead Gordon had been brought on
01:53 at half time to replace Jacob Murphy gave away a really really silly foul towards the
01:58 end of the game and Eddie Howe just hooked him on the spot he substituted the substitute
02:02 and Gordon's reaction to being substituted in that game drew a load of headlines all
02:07 of their own he was clearly very frustrated he didn't take it particularly well Howe had
02:10 to have a word with him he got questions about it for weeks and weeks and weeks afterwards
02:14 and we started to think maybe this was a bad buy but then right at the end of last season
02:20 something happened Gordon started in the game against Chelsea on the final day scored a
02:24 goal and he gave an interview after the game to the Newcastle United in-house media team
02:29 where he basically said I've not been getting played because I'm not good enough he said
02:34 he found the transfer both mentally and physically really challenging he'd been way off the levels
02:38 Howe expected of his players but he was going to go away that summer take part in the under
02:42 21 Euros get himself as fit as he has ever been and then come back next season a different
02:47 player. Now that's all well and good for a player to just say in an interview you hear
02:51 that kind of stuff all the time but he has absolutely been as good as his word he went
02:56 to the under 21 Euros he got player of the tournament in that and he has come back a
03:01 completely different player and the reason for that is because now he's got the physical
03:05 aspect of his game up to the right level Anthony Gordon can now show you why Anthony Gordon
03:11 is such a good footballer for someone his age his on pitch intelligence his ability
03:16 to read a game is just light years ahead of where it's supposed to be like Anthony Gordon
03:23 understands space better than f**king Brian Cox and that's why I wanted to show you that
03:27 first clip like we'll just add Sheffield United to this pitch here and despite the amount
03:32 of points they had on the board at this part of the season Sheffield United have actually
03:35 made it really difficult for all the other teams they've played against with this sort
03:38 of low block 3-4-3/5-4-1 they're very hard to break down Sydney had a really tough job
03:45 it was a late goal there that won it they looked like they were going to get all three
03:48 points against Tottenham but again two late goals undid them they make it really difficult
03:53 for teams to break them down if you go back to the start of that clip just look at Gordon's
03:57 starting position he is really really wide but he's also not that far advanced now Sheffield
04:03 United a team who want to be both deep and compact that creates two entirely separate
04:07 problems for them him holding that much width means they can't stay as narrow in the centre
04:11 as they'd like to the fullback has to go out to address him even just a little bit and
04:15 the fact he isn't pushing on as much as he can means they can't automatically sit as
04:19 deep as they would like it leaves space in behind Anderson then plays the ball into that
04:23 space he's created he's got the quickness to then beat the defender to it and then the
04:27 strength to muscle him off it and despite the fact the other defender has done really
04:30 well to read the danger and come across and double up he then uses his ability to cut
04:35 inside the pair of them and it's only a really good save off the deflection that stops that
04:39 being a goal I know it probably seems a bit of a weird clip to zone in on but it's just
04:42 got little bits of everything in it it shows how much he understands the game it shows
04:46 how he exploits the space it shows how quick he is it shows how strong he is it shows how
04:51 good he is on the ball I'm annoyed that's not a goal because it would have looked a
04:55 lot better if it ended up in the back of the net but you can just see all the different
04:58 attributes that make him so good in it but you can see that understanding of space in
05:02 his goal as well this time when Anderson picks up the ball Gordon isn't standing wide anymore
05:06 he's come into the centre and dragged one of the centre backs into that area along with
05:11 him now when you look at it as a freeze frame here there is undoubtedly a glaring space
05:14 right in the middle of the goal that Gordon could attempt to make a curved run into and
05:18 if Anderson finds him he might be through but the fact there's other centre backs around
05:22 there means probably not the best option instead what he wants is the ball played into the
05:27 space out wide even points and shows Anderson exactly where to put it and again just like
05:31 the other clip now that he has used his understanding of the space to create an opportunity he relies
05:36 on his ability to exploit that he knows he's got the centre back beat if he tries to take
05:41 him on one on one and thanks to this brilliant run from Dan Byrne taking the covering midfielder
05:46 out of the equation as soon as he isolates him on the edge of the box he cuts back inside
05:51 leaves him for dead and curls a brilliant ball into the corner like it's dead easy in
05:55 both of those clips to look at like his pace or his technique or his finishing or something
05:58 like that but what sets him apart from other players who have those attributes is those
06:02 are two chances created entirely by his reading of the game and his ability to manoeuvre other
06:08 players into positions where he can then go and hurt them and this isn't new by the way
06:12 as much as Newcastle fans won't want to revisit it he was doing this unbelievably well against
06:17 Liverpool now as you're no doubt aware while Liverpool do use a 4-3-3 they're one of those
06:21 teams that like to invert one of their full backs to create a box midfield and get numerical
06:26 superiority so Alexander-Arnold tends to come across here and that gives them an extra player
06:31 in this area of the pitch now Alexander Zinchenko is another player who does a very similar
06:35 thing to what Alexander-Arnold does here and he has said in an interview that he loves
06:39 to play this system because it's absolutely no win for the attacker now I can't remember
06:44 what the exact quote was but it was something like if the attacker follows me into that
06:47 area then he can't do any damage out wide where he's at his best so that's a good result
06:52 and if he doesn't follow me out there then we've got a man advantage so happy days but
06:57 Gordon absolutely terrorised Alexander-Arnold when he was in this position he was happy
07:02 to go with him into that area and then press him every single time he received the ball
07:06 that's where he got his first yellow card from he hounded him down he won the ball back
07:10 and in his frustration Alexander-Arnold chucks the ball away and gets a yellow card Gordon
07:15 was also so confident in his ability to beat them one on one that he was even really happy
07:18 to drop all the way back into the defence when Alexander-Arnold was up that high because
07:23 he knew if he did then get the ball the space this would have left would have been perfect
07:27 for him you remember all the controversy about whether or not he should have been sent off
07:30 Gordon receives the ball he beats Siboslai he attempts to break into this space Alexander-Arnold
07:35 makes contact with him because he knows he's got him beat and he could potentially have
07:39 been sent off and while it's dead easy to look at Newcastle's goal in that game there's
07:43 an absolute clangor from Alexander-Arnold if you look at Gordon's reading of the game
07:47 and his decision of when to put him under pressure it's a mistake entirely brought about
07:52 by his actions when the ball breaks loose it's obviously going to go to Salah but Gordon
07:56 recognises that it will be doing so with his back to goal and with Dan Byrne in very close
08:01 attendance the most sensible thing for Salah to do in that position is to roll it back
08:06 into Alexander-Arnold and before he even makes that pass Gordon is alive to it he's on his
08:10 way to close down the defender which Alexander-Arnold recognises and it means he can't then control
08:15 it on his strong foot he has to try and take it on his left and that's where the mistake
08:19 comes from and again just like the Sheffield United clips he has created a situation that
08:24 he knows he can rely on his technical ability to exploit he's got the pace to get away from
08:29 the recovery runs and he's got the ability to finish that through Alisson's legs he does
08:33 it again leading up to the red card as well like Gordon holds a bit of width here not
08:37 as much as in the Sheffield United clip but enough that isolates Alexander-Arnold from
08:41 the rest of the midfield despite the fact Alexander-Arnold tries to show him down the
08:44 channel where he's going to be slightly less dangerous he's got the faith in his ability
08:48 to then beat him on the inside gets into that area which is now fairly empty plays the ball
08:53 through for Isak and that's where the foul comes from for the red card this is all why
08:56 he was so important to England under 21s and that Euros as well like their system was incredibly
09:00 flexible but it had Gordon playing centre forward he was mostly used as a false nine
09:05 and that was primarily because of his great understanding of space allows him to recognise
09:09 when to go wide when to drop off when to change and that allowed like Emile Smith-Rowe and
09:13 Morgan Gibbs-White to push up into the more attacking areas but also he got an amazing
09:18 goal from it here he is playing as a normal centre forward he pushes the defence back
09:22 and back and back and then finally recognises the right time to drop out of that area into
09:27 the space he has created and applies the finish am I painting a clear enough picture now Anthony
09:33 Gordon understands space on a football pitch so well he is able to create it through his
09:38 starting positions he is able to exploit it through his ability nobody is doing this quite
09:44 like he is in the Premier League at the minute like even just the difference in his numbers
09:48 between this season and last season are absolutely astonishing I get it's a small sample size
09:52 we've only played six games but the leap he has made already is mind-blowing you can see
09:57 here last season he wasn't taking players on very well he wasn't carrying the ball very
10:01 far his runs weren't particularly penetrative or progressive and you compare that to this
10:05 season and it's just a completely different player he's been one of the best players in
10:10 the league this season for how far he's carried the ball up the pitch for how many times he's
10:14 done it in the final third and into the penalty area this is just such a dangerous dangerous
10:19 footballer what's going to be even more pleasing to Eddie Howe is the intensity with which
10:23 he is doing this like bring his defensive numbers into this there's virtually no wingers
10:27 or wide attackers who are winning the ball back who are applying as much pressure to
10:31 their opponents as Anthony Gordon is as well I'm gonna be just one a really little funny
10:35 statistic to back all this up in virtually all of the games the castle of play this season
10:40 where Anthony Gordon has been on the pitch the opposition's player assigned to mark him
10:45 has been booked including AC Milan's captain who actually got subbed off as well like I
10:51 know Milan dominated that in a lot of different ways and they probably should have won it
10:54 but just forget all that Anthony Gordon got the captain of AC Milan booked and hooked
11:00 and he's still only 22 by the way which I think is the most impressive thing like his
11:04 ability doesn't particularly surprise me doesn't even particularly impress me that much there
11:08 are a lot of players who can do with the ball what he does with the ball but just up here
11:13 his ability to read the game and understand where he's best to position himself and to
11:17 maneuver the opposition out of position to create chances for himself and his teammates
11:22 that is that's light years light years ahead of where he should be at that age he's not
11:27 perfect mind by any stretch of the imagination he still has to work on a few different things
11:32 he was almost certainly getting rested against Sheffield United because he's already one
11:36 yellow card away from a suspension and that's incredibly early in the season to be talking
11:40 about that so he's still got some stuff to work on but in terms of the raw ingredients
11:45 what he's actually got Christ he's a he's a good player and that's why Newcastle spent
11:50 40 million quid on him last January even though he couldn't get into the team like they recognize
11:55 what an incredible talent he is what incredible potential he has he was available in that
12:00 window for what they felt was way below his ultimate market value so you go and get him
12:06 then you worry about getting him into the team and how he fits later but you go and
12:10 get him when he's available it's like have you ever seen a really nice like light summer
12:14 jacket in the sale in like November or December for like half what it's gonna be later on
12:19 like yeah you're not gonna wear it straight away it's gonna sit in the cupboard for ages
12:23 but like when that Sun comes out whoo-hoo everyone's gonna be asking where you got that
12:28 and they won't believe how much you paid for it yes there you go Anthony Gordon a player
12:32 who told you all he was going to have a big season and is now having a big season but
12:38 as ever though please let us know what you make of Anthony Gordon in the comments below
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13:00 my friends 8 nil 8 nil 8 nil