Newcastle: Santos could be Shelvey upgrade

The January switch window remains to be quite a lot of Premier League matches and a World Cup away from rolling round however that won’t cease Newcastle United sporting director Dan Ashworth from holding his eyes open within the coming weeks and months.

Eddie Howe’s squad was bolstered over the summer season because the ex-Brighton chief introduced in Sven Botman, Alexander Isak, Nick Pope, and Matt Targett to enhance the group.

This got here after PIF sanctioned the signings of Bruno Guimaraes, Dan Burn, Kieran Trippier, and Chris Wooden on everlasting offers at first of the yr.

Ashworth is now trying to make additional enhancements to the group in 2023 and one participant who’s reportedly being eyed up is Vasco da Gama midfielder Andrey Santos.

Newcastle have reportedly held talks with the Brazilian facet, who worth the gem at £30m, forward of a possible swoop to signal him within the upcoming January window.

The teen solely turned 18 in Could and he might not be a signing with the expectation of him coming straight into the primary group to start out video games within the Premier League. Nevertheless, he could possibly be a participant with the potential to be a star for the Magpies sooner or later if Howe is ready to unearth his expertise.

Jonjo Shelvey loved a run of video games within the quantity six place for Newcastle previous to his harm final season as he averaged a SofaScore rating of 6.96 – inserting him sixth within the squad – within the top-flight. He made 2.2 tackles and interceptions per recreation and accomplished 81% of his passes as he caught the attention in a deep-lying midfield function.

In Santos, Howe may discover an improve on the previous England worldwide by easing him into life at St. James’ Park and unearthing the perfect of his potential.

He has proven nice promise for Vasco da Gama within the Serie B in Brazil all through 2022. The 18-year-old has averaged a SofaScore rating of 7.19 throughout 29 video games this yr, making 3.9 tackles and interceptions per recreation and finishing 78% of his tried passes.

Santos, who has been likened to Barcelona’s Sergio Busquets, could possibly be extra suited to Howe’s pressing model of play than Shelvey as he has been described as a “pressing machine” by expertise scout Jacek Kulig.

The supervisor wants his group to press aggressively to win the ball again in good areas and the present Toon midfielder doesn’t excel at this a part of the sport, rating within the worst 6% for pressures per 90 amongst gamers in his place in Europe’s prime 5 leagues over the past 12 months.

This means that he is without doubt one of the least aggressive pressers in that function in Europe, while Santos has been praised for his high quality at that a part of the sport and their respective defensive actions per recreation illustrate the distinction between them by way of profitable the ball again.

Subsequently, Howe may land an improve on Shelvey if Ashworth indicators Santos in January because the Brazilian teen may slot into that function sooner or later and provide extra to the group’s model of play along with his spectacular urgent and comparable passing high quality if he can adapt to Premier League soccer as he positive factors extra expertise within the recreation.