Newcastle United failed to make it two wins from two last night as the Magpies fell to Leicester City on penalties in the Carabao Cup, but it wasn’t all bad from Steve Bruce’s side, as the St. James’ Park faithful did have some positives, namely the performance of Yoshinori Muto.
The Japanese international bagged against the Foxes for what was just his second goal for the club since he made a £9.5m move from Mainz to sign for the Northeast club back in summer 2018, BBC, and his performance was more than deserving of that goal.
The 27-year-old ran himself into the ground, doing a similarly good job to what Joelinton did against Tottenham on the weekend when Bruce’s side secured an unlikely win away at the North London side. After that game, though, it appeared the Brazilian was injured, freeing up a spot for Muto.
Muto didn’t only cancel out James Maddison’s opener in the tight affair against Leicester City, but he also dispatched his penalty into the top corner, despite the fact his teammates then let him down as Leicester won the shootout 4-2 after the 1-1 draw.
The player ratings were very telling from the clash, The Chronicle gave the Magpies’ front-man a 7/10 rating after he ran himself into the ground, which shows how good he was especially considering it was the attacker’s first start since boxing day last year when he played in a 4-0 loss to Liverpool.
If Joelinton, who missed out on a place in the squad last night, presumably through injury, is again out this weekend then it could be time for Muto to step up and have a go in the Premier League, where he could be set to score his first Premier League goal since he bagged against Manchester United at Old Trafford last October.