It’s been a huge three-game period for Newcastle United, who have responded to that 4-2 defeat at Brentford with a trio of convincing victories over Leicester (4-0), Brentford (3-1) and Ipswich (0-4).

It’s the run of performances and results our stop-start season was crying out for and Eddie Howe deserves a lot of praise for making the alterations needed to get us back on track.

One of those changes has featured Sandro Tonali dropping into a deeper role; a move that has seen the Italian receive some well deserved praise from Alan Shearer.

Shearer hails transformative Tonali

Our all-time top scorer has been discussing exactly why Tonali’s move to that No.6 role has worked a treat for the team, our midfield balance and Bruno Guimaraes.

Speaking on Match of the Day, Shearer had this to say on the Howe change that’s sparked a much-needed change in fortunes for Newcastle:

“In recent games, Eddie Howe has put Sandro Tonali in the number six role and moved Bruno Guimaraes a little bit further forward to give him a little bit more freedom to get into forward positions. It certainly helped both of the players and, more importantly, it helped the team.

“Tonali will sit there in midfield – he is very good at that and I think he feels very important in that role. He is certainly a better player for it because he has the skills to do that.

“A lot of the time, when he gets the ball, within one or two touches he likes and wants to play the ball forward. So for the forward players, that is much better.

“He has to do his work defensively as well and he has certainly done that in recent games. The understanding of both Tonali and Guimaraes in their roles was absolutely superb.”

Shearer is bang on; Tonali always seems to do things quickly. Not only has he swept up so well defensively, covering ground quickly to snuff out danger, he releases the ball fast and it’s nearly always a forward pass.

Praise for brilliant Bruno

Shearer continued in his praise for our new midfield dynamic, feeling a slightly more advanced No.8 role for Bruno Guimaraes is “certainly suiting him.”

“Sometimes it was Guimaraes getting on the ball and him passing it forward, other times it was Tonali. Bruno was very clever in what he had to do in that role. He feels part of it as well because that role is certainly suiting him.” 

The pair interchange well and we’ve really benefited from Bruno’s quality in the final third, where his output has dramatically increased with four assists and a goal in his last five outings.

Hopefully this newfound balance can continue in midfield, with tough tests to come as we prepare to face Aston Villa, Man Utd, Spurs and Arsenal in our next four games in all competitions.