Miguel Almiron’s injury set to give rarely-seen £9.5m signing his big chance at NUFC?

News that Miguel Almiron will miss the last three games of the season is a real blow, but it could just hand a long awaited chance to a rarely seen Rafa Benitez signing – Yoshinori Muto.

Since making the £9.5m move from Bundesliga side Mainz, the Japanese international has started just five times all season – playing just 21 minutes of football since returning from the Asian Cup in February.

There’s been talk of him taking a while to pick up the English language, but he’s shown promise on the odd occasion he’s played and appears to have the pace, work-rate and energy to play in Almiron’s role – with him also having experience of playing out wide both at Mainz and with Japan.

As you can see in the highlights below, he’s shown a burst of pace, decent upper body strength, bundles of energy and decent passing / dribbling in some of his cameos this season:

Christian Atsu is Rafa’s other option out wide, and although he’s done a decent job in recent cameos from the bench, I think it’s time both we and Benitez got a proper look at Muto.

I can see why he’s had so little game time up top, with Rondon’s priceless performances since November making him undroppable, however a big chance has now arisen to see the 26-year-old in action.

I for one would love to see him given a proper run in the side over our last three games of the season – starting at Brighton on Saturday.

After all, the other options are Christian Atsu – a player who’s had plenty chances but is yet to bag a single goal or assist this season – and Kenedy; someone who won’t even be a Newcastle player in a month’s time.

(Fancy writing for us? Send any articles/ideas over to us at [email protected] & we’ll get back to you!)

About Olly Hawkins

As a Junior Magpie since birth and season ticket holder, I eat, sleep and breathe all things NUFC! Here at the blog, I aim to bring you news, views, match reports and transfer exclusives as and when I get them.

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