The Newcastle scapegoat that needs to be protected

There always needs to be a scapegoat when it comes to the online reaction to Newcastle United performances. Many have taken that role this season. Dan Burn, Martin Dubravka, Miguel Almiron and Kieran Trippier have all taken on the mantel at some point during this season. The man currently being criticised more than others is Sean Longstaff.

What a difference a year makes. This time in the 2022/23 campaign, we were struggling without Longstaff in the team and many of the same supporters were suggesting that we couldn’t win without the academy graduate midfielder.

Now, they talk about how he isn’t good enough for the Premier League. Many want Longstaff to be sold this summer, as he would represent pure profit when it comes to PSR.

A lot of the discussion about scapegoats is often short sighted. All of the players named above have proven their worth to the team, both this season and previous campaigns. Every player goes through periods of bad form and although Longstaff hasn’t been as good as he was last season, he is still a good Premier League player.

This season, he has been reliable and has played the majority of matches. Availability is the best ability, although a cliché, is especially correct for us this season. Only six players have managed to play over 2000 minutes in the Premier League for us in the 2023/24 campaign. Longstaff is one of them and he ranks fourth in our squad. Considering the amount of running he gets through in a match, that is very impressive.

Longstaff has been criticised for his loose touches in possession causing break downs in attacks. A lot of players are guilty of giving the ball away, but his mistakes are magnified at the moment.

I do feel a degree of sympathy with Longstaff. He has been playing with an injury to help the team and that would help explain some of his performances. In The Athletic's in-depth piece on our injury crisis, his comments are quite telling: "I got injured again at Bournemouth in November. It was a 10-week ankle injury and I came back in four. It’s hard enough playing with one bad foot, but when you’ve got a left foot that’s sore and a right ankle that doesn’t move properly, it’s never going to be the easiest, especially at this level. It is what it is. I’ll always put the team ahead of myself and people will either see that and appreciate it or they won’t.”

The same piece reveals that he had injections last month to allow him to keep playing, with our 4-3 win over West Ham thought to be “the first time in a while" where he was able to play without pain. Bruno Guimaraes had similar issues at this time last season and his own output definitely decreased. Although Longstaff’s struggles are more noticeable as he is starting from a lower base.

Considering his injury issues, Longstaff deserves praise for putting the team in front of his own needs. He wouldn’t have been expected to play as much this season, following the arrival of Sandro Tonali. Eddie Howe’s plan for this season would have been to demote Longstaff to a squad role, to increase the technical level of the midfield.

When viewing Longstaff through this lens, you can’t help but feel sorry for him. Is he good enough to start regularly for an upwardly mobile club looking to finish regularly in the Champions League places? Probably not.

Is he good enough to be a valuable squad player at such a club? Definitely. We have seen that over the last two seasons. It wasn’t long ago that he was talked about as a potential England international.

This season, he has six goals across all competitions, including one against PSG in the Champions League. That isn’t a bad return at all. At the weekend, he made an excellent forward pass to put Alexander Isak through on goal. It was similar to the Swede’s debut goal at Anfield, but the striker couldn’t get it under his control. On another day, Longstaff gets a very good assist.

If he had been given more rest this season, maybe we would be seeing more consistency from him. That said, Longstaff is clearly fatigued and he doesn’t deserve to be the scapegoat.