A few Newcastle United fans have been praising Matt Ritchie on social media for showing a bit of backbone and yelling at his teammates during Tuesday night’s 2-2 draw with Everton.
The Toon were behind until the dying embers of stoppage-time, when Florian Lejeune became the unlikeliest of heroes to snag a brace in two minutes and salvage a point after a frustrating encounter at Goodison Park.
Before the French centre-half would poke the ball home for his first-ever Magpies strikes, supporters were lauding Ritchie’s name for barking at Joelinton to run forward when the Toon had a chance to break.
Ritchie was visibly yelling at the Brazilian to dart forward as he looked to slot a ball down the left-flank, though would only see his pass head straight out of play as the Gosport-born wing-back had no one else in support.
The incident perfectly summed up the attitudes of each player for some of the St. James’ Park faithful, who loved the passion Ritchie showed and hated the laziness of our £40million record signing.
Does Ritchie deserve the captain's armband?
Yes
No
As well as being a leader on the field for head coach Steve Bruce, Ritchie recorded 69 touches of the ball against Everton during what was his second start in three days, having recovered from the ankle injury sustained last August.
Ritchie also registered six clearances, two interceptions, one key ball, 31 accurate passes, one accurate cross and one accurate long ball, per Sofa Score data.
However, the £10.8million-rated full-back played his one accurate cross from nine deliveries, made four unsuccessful long passes, lost possession 20 times, committed one foul, lost five of his six aerial duels, each of his two ground duels and did not make any successful tackles.
But his attitude impressed some supporters enough to warrant praise on social media.
Here are a few of the messages shared…
Yes Ritchie you tell em “RUN” #NUFC
— $¥ (@iCoreHeatz) January 21, 2020
Ritchie is class. Full of passion. #NUFC
— NUFC Rumours (@NUFCrumours) January 21, 2020
Matt Ritchie screaming at Joelinton and telling him to run perfectly sums up both players #NUFC
— Billy Thomson (@billythomtoon) January 21, 2020
#nufc seeing Matt Ritchie mouth the words “joe, RUN” tells me all I need to know!
— Jonny Grant (@jonnygrant31) January 21, 2020
Atsu and Joelinton are just lazy, ritchie screaming at joelinton to run into the channel sums it up really #NUFC
— Connor Marson (@Cwm20_marson) January 21, 2020
This Newcastle team just hasn’t got a spine only two lads with abit of backbone are ritchie and Hayden #NUFC
— RJT97 (@RJT971) January 21, 2020
In other Newcastle United news, the club are not giving up hope of signing a 16-goal forward this month.