Gary Neville believes he knows why Anthony Gordon continues to struggle for Newcastle United.
Clearly, itâs not been all bad for Gordon at Newcastle United this season.
The winger has scored big goals in the Champions League and was at his electric best against Chelsea last weekend.
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Still, it is reasonable to expect much more consistency from an England international.
It is almost a year since Gordon scored a Premier League goal from open play and that is not good enough.
The forward has to take his share of the blame for that, but Neville believes the way in which he was deployed by Eddie Howe as Newcastle lost 1-0 to Manchester United didnât help his cause.
Gary Neville says Anthony Gordon plays in the wrong position
Watching on as the co-commentator for Sky Sports during their live coverage of the Premier League clash on Boxing Day, Neville noticed a couple of issues with Gordon.
He noted upon the fact that the former Everton star was simply playing too wide and too deep to impact the game in any meaningful way.
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Clearance from Nick Woltemade wasn't great eitherâŚ
At 21:13 GMT on Boxing Day, the former England defender said: âGordon is playing far too deep and far too wide.
âHe is nowhere he needs to be to score goals and impact matches.â
Gordon has struggled for Newcastle this season and though it would be unfair to absolve him of any blame, perhaps Howe is using him in the wrong way.
Between a combination of the two, Newcastle just arenât getting the best out of Gordon often enough.
Anthony Gordon actually created three chances for Newcastle United against Manchester United
Gordon wasnât brilliant by any means, and his final ball was lacking at times.
Still, he did create three chances for the Magpies at Old Trafford â the most of anyone who played in the match.
It did feel as if he was too distant from Nick Woltemade for either of them to impact the game, aside from one relatively bright moment in the opening exchanges.
Gordon is not the most consistent player in the world but perhaps the way in which he is deployed at least partly explains that.
It wasnât an absolute disaster of a performance but unlocking the key to Gordonâs consistency will be crucial to Newcastle in the second half of the campaign.
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