'Made a difference': After praising Joe Willock Alan Shearer turns his attention to another midfield magician for praise

Eddie Howe has some difficult calls to make these days when he's picking his starting XIs with more players fit and available than he had for pretty much all of last season.

The area where Newcastle United are most healthy is in central midfield and now that all but Lewis Miley are fit and competing for places, Eddie Howe finds himself with one of those 'nice' selection headaches.

Indeed, every fan has their own opinion on which three should be starting each game and on Sunday when Newcastle United faced Wolverhampton Wanderers, we wonder how many people agreed with Howe's midfield selection.

We are referring, of course, to Sean Longstaff starting ahead of Sandro Tonali. Howe had justification given that Tonali had just come off the back of playing two full games for Italy so soon after coming back form a 10-month absence, but many fans expected Tonali to start and be replaced by Longstaff maybe.

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Alan Shearer was asked if Sandro Tonali could be come one of the best PL midfielders

However, that midfield trio simply wasn't working and at half time Howe hooked Joelinton and Sean Longstaff and replaced them with Joe Willock and Sandro Tonali.

Speaking on The Rest Is Football podcast, Alan Shearer spoke about how good Joe Willock can be, but as well as that, he and his cohorts spoke about Sandro Tonali and faced the question of whether he has the potential to be one of the best midfielders in the Premier League.

Shearer didn't quite go that far, but he did explain how big of a player the Italian could potentially be for Newcastle.

Shearer called Sandro a 'very talented' player

Shearer acknowledged how difficult a time it must have been for Tonali since his move to Newcastle last summer, almost immediately being hit with a 10-month ban, but it backs him to be a good fit for the Toon.

“Yeah I mean, you can imagine how tough it’s been for him. So I think he’s a great option for Eddie to have.

“He hasn’t started him other than in the cup game against Forest. So in a couple of the league games he’s been on the bench, but he did come on at the weekend and made a difference at half time.

“So whether that forces Eddie’s hand to start him now, probably actually. Yeah, but he’s a very talented player.

“There’s no doubt about it and it’d be a good addition to get him back into the Newcastle squad.”