Jamie Carragher believes Callum Wilson “just doesn’t seem the same player” since he came back from the World Cup – but he’s backing Newcastle to remain in the top four race.
Speaking on Monday Night Football last night, the Sky Sports pundit praised our “fantastic” defensive record, insisting that our ability to stay in games always means we’re never far away from a win.
However, he does accept that the lack of goals is a concern, with us scoring six times in our last nine games in all competitions and winning just once in the last eight Premier League outings as a result.
Carragher therefore believes Wilson and Isak could hold the key to getting our Champions League push back on track, feeling wins are just around the corner if we can start to take our chances.
Win our two games in hand on Spurs (we also have one game in hand on Liverpool) and we’d suddenly shoot up to fourth. Our form is a concern – we’ve had too many draws, look a little flat and continue to miss big chances – but Carragher feels it’s far too soon to be writing off our top four hopes:
“The big plus point they’ve got is the defensive record is fantastic. They’re always in games.
“So, more often than not, Newcastle don’t need a lot of goals to win the game. But, as I said, it has been a problem for them of late [not scoring goals].
“Callum Wilson just doesn’t seem the same player since he’s came back from the World Cup. Isak, he had more than a great cameo when he came on in the cup final.
“Between the two of them they’re going to need to find some goals to make the difference, but I would not be writing them off, I still think they’re well in the race.”
