“Passive”, “Anonymous” – So many NUFC fans destroy “below average” man after thrashing
Many Newcastle United fans have been destroying Nabil Bentaleb on social media, having been left questioning what the FC Schalke 04 loanee has to offer following Sunday’s 4-0 thrashing at Arsenal.
Steve Bruce’s Magpies had been able to enter the dressing room level at the break by keeping the Gunners to three on-target first-half efforts, but a quick-fire double from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Nicolas Pepe gave the hosts the momentum to go on and seal all three points.
Bentaleb had opened the affair at the Emirates Stadium for what was the Algerian’s second start in the Premier League since joining the Toon during the winter market.
Our deal with Schalke features a €10million (£8.3m) option to buy, but many of the St. James’ Park faithful are seemingly keen to see Managing Director Lee Charnley hold off on triggering the clause, at least for the time being.
Should Bruce bench Bentaleb vs Palace on Saturday?
Bentaleb left large corners of the fanbase dismayed on Sunday having been “below average” and at times “miles off the pace”, having used his 48 touches to record no attempted efforts on goal, no attempted dribbles and play one key ball, per WhoScored data.
The 25-year-old did play a team-high 38 passes in North London, though only connected with teammates with 84% of those while twelve were noted as being made back toward Martin Dubravka’s net.
Here are some of the messages shared as fans voiced underwhelming views on Bentaleb’s performance against Arsenal…
Passive.
— Damien Coughlan (@dynamodamo) February 16, 2020
Anonymous..!
Not sure of what his role his in the team..— Vaibhav Pitaliya (@PitaliyaVaibhav) February 16, 2020
Average. Would rather Matty got more game time #nufc
— Chris Currie (@Wig82) February 16, 2020
What does he do?
— Gavin Nicholson (@silverbricks) February 16, 2020
Below average
— Cory Jay Graham (@Coryjgraham) February 16, 2020
Not looking match sharp, or that he fits our style. As we continue to sign players with quality that don’t seem to fit
— Matthew (@JB4t00n) February 16, 2020
Really poor today. Second half completely gave up.
— Shaun Durning (@SDMorpeth) February 16, 2020
Offers pretty little
— Harry Bellew (@harrybellew) February 16, 2020
Miles off the pace but lets face it he’s a ball playing midfielder and we don’t play with the ball so we’re never going to see what he’s really like
— colin oliver (@100Magpie) February 16, 2020
I hope theirs no obligation to buy.
— Angel🎅🎁🎄 (@01dunnn) February 16, 2020
In other Newcastle United news, reports have suggested that Bruce is eying a new deal for an influential first-team figure.