Alan Shearer now says one Newcastle United player would be 'heaven' to play with
Alan Shearer was a happy man on this week's episode of The Rest Is Football podcast after Newcastle United's 2-1 win over Manchester City.
What's probably even more pleasing than the win itself is that Newcastle were good value for it. It wasn't a smash-and-grab job; it was a well-earned victory.
Micah Richards and Alan Shearer disagreed on the decision around the Malick Thiaw handball incident, with Micah insisting Thiaw's arms were in an unnatural position, but we refer you to Dermot Gallagher's response on that one.
We agree with Al saying that if the Fabian Schar challenge on Phil Foden was given as a penalty, you're unlikely to disagree, but by the letter of the law, it was not a spot kick.
Alan Shearer feels Jacob Murphy is 'heaven' to play with as a striker
One thing Big Meeks and Big Al did agree on was Jacob Murphy. Richards started off by singing the Newcastle winger's praises for Shearer to chime in and say that what he does is 'refreshing' in the modern game.
“You know what else he does really well, what is refreshing for a centre forward, he actually puts the ball in the box early.
“He’s not bothered about going past someone. If someone’s going to stand off him, he’ll whip the ball in. For a forward, it’s heaven.
“You can time your run, you can do everything else early and everything that you want to do as a forward because he puts the ball in early and it’s refreshing to see.”
Murphy should have had at least one assist on Saturday
Murphy was extremely unfortunate not to add another assist to his record on Saturday after putting in some superb crosses for Nick Woltemade and, of course, Harvey Barnes, who really should have scored in the first half.
If Woltemade were more of a poacher, he'd be bagging so many goals with the balls provided by Murphy. It's something that Yoane Wissa is likely to benefit from massively.
Everybody is still sleeping on Jacob Murphy, even after the goal contributions he came up with last season, and that's a massive advantage for Newcastle.
