'Perfect': Sandro Tonali opens up on relationship with Eddie Howe after celebrating with gaffer on touchline
Sandro Tonali had the perfect answer to his critics last night, scoring a brace for Newcastle United as they overcame the challenge of Aston Villa plus two at Villa Park.
Aston Villa had the home advantage last night, but even more importantly, they had a referee and a linesman on their side, so even when they had a player sent off just before half-time, they still had a one-man advantage.
Thankfully for Newcastle, Sandro Tonali picked last night to remind us all why we're so worried about him leaving us in the summer with two fantastic strikes that tipped the scales in the Toon's favour.
The first took a wicked deflection off Douglas Luiz to wrong-foot Emi Martinez, but the second strike was an absolute peach, after which the Italian ran to the touchline to hug Eddie Howe.
Sandro Tonali says his relationship with Eddie Howe is 'perfect'
Speaking to NUFC TV after the game, Sandro Tonali spoke about his relationship with Eddie Howe amid talk that the gaffer was losing the dressing room, and the doubts about Tonail's commitment to the club started to fade.
“After the second goal, I came to Eddie because in the past week, people spoke a lot about our relationship. I work every day with the gaffer, the gaffer works every day with me. Our relationship is perfect - it is not broken. We try to do the best for this team.”
Tonali's celebrations weren't those of a man who is thinking about abandoning ship. We saw what that looked like last season with a certain Swede, and this was very different.
Eddie Howe is looking for players to step up in the absence of Bruno Guimaraes
Eddie Howe also spoke to NUFC TV, and he mentioned how he needed players to step up in the absence of Bruno Guimaraes and how he felt that Sandro did that last night.
“I think the only way Sandro can answer any question on his performance is on the pitch, and today he responded really well.
“We needed players to step up in Bruno's absence, we needed the creativity gap that Bruno will leave filled, we needed the passion that Bruno shows on the pitch filled and I thought all three midfielders did that.
“Sandro's got two goals, Nick's got a goal, so our midfield contributed massively and I'm really pleased with everybody, we're going to need that in his absence throughout the time that he's out.”
