Eddie Howe made sure to acknowledge Newcastle United star's performance last night after coming in for criticism on Sunday
Sometimes, we wonder what game some of our more vocal online fans are watching when they launch bizarre criticisms of some of the Newcastle United team on social media.
After the 4-1 win over Bradford last night, we had to make a point in our post-match report to mention Lewis Miley and how well he'd played.
Not because we thought he necessarily needed the attention, but because we'd seen online that there were some fans claiming that he'd been poor.
We assume they were looking solely at the few times he played a sloppy pass and gave possession away, which is simply just the law of averages when you play 110 passes. Yes, it was his clearance that led to the Bradford goal, but that was just pure bad luck.
Eddie Howe says Lewis Miley was pulling the strings for Newcastle last night
Over the course of the game, Lewis Miley was outstanding, and his head never went down even after losing possession. The entire midfield was brilliant, with Bruno Guimaraes running the show and Joelinton bagging two goals, but none of that would have been possible without the support of Miley.
Eddie Howe acknowledged the 19-year-old's contribution when speaking to Sky Sports at full-time.
"It was great to see [Joelinton] score - two really good finishes from him. I know Bruno [Guimaraes] wanted to score, you could see that, and he came close.
"But Lewis Miley behind them really pulled some strings. The midfield were excellent - it was a top performance."
Online trolls are always going to shout the loudest
It can be hard to forget that Miley is still only 19, such is the level of maturity he plays with, but he's still developing as a player, hell, as a person.
To suggest that he was, as one user on Facebook eloquently put it, "💩", then it just seems like you're looking for negativity for the sake of it, you're just trolling, or you simply don't understand the game.
We can't go comparing Miley to Italy international Sandro Tonali, it's simply not fair. However, we can see Miley's development and the way he plays now and safely say that there's nothing stopping the kid from being just as good as our midfield maestro one day.
