Newcastle United desperately miss this star player

With back-to-back losses, Newcastle United need this gamechanger to get back in the lineup as soon as possible.

Yesterday, Newcastle United came away with their second consecutive 2-0 loss, this time to Chelsea at St. James’ Park. While the absence of Callum Wilson was noticeable vs. the Blues, there’s another missing NUFC key player that can change the game when he’s healthy.

Jonjo Shelvey has not appeared since the 4-1 loss to Manchester United and had hernia surgery that put him on the shelf. But, he was available on the bench yesterday and that’s great news for Newcastle.

While every player brings a different skill set to the table for Steve Bruce’s side, there aren’t many players in the Premier League with Shelvey’s abilities and definitely nobody else on the current Newcastle roster.

The 28-year-old can spray passes to any place on the pitch and that’s huge for Newcastle when they are trying to play on the break. In his absence, there have been too many poor passes trying to spring Allan Saint-Maximin and the other pacey players. Shelvey isn’t perfect on his passes, but if he misses, it was on an aggressive, ambitious long pass rather than a short, poor conservative one.

Among the group of Isaac Hayden, Jeff Hendrick, Sean Longstaff, and Shelvey, it’s Jonjo with the fewest EPL appearances this season with five. But, he has at least ten more accurate long passes than any of the others.

He’s also a dangerous weapon on set pieces, often able to deliver a quality ball that has been missing for the past four matches. Typically playing alongside defensive-minded Hayden, Shelvey adds a certain attitude to Newcastle that they won’t be pushed over.

As the club moves forward with some winnable matches, they desperately need Shelvey back in the center of the park.