Nottingham Forest were beaten 4-3 by Newcastle United with Elliot Anderson getting the chance to play against the club he departed in the summer.
Forest started well and scored through Callum Hudson-Odoi. However, 11 first-half minutes shaped the game, with Newcastle scoring four times to go in at the interval three goals to the good.
Goals from Nikola Milenkovic and Ryan Yates made the score more respectable and on another day Forest might have taken more of their chances and earned something against the Magpies.
VAR was once again in the dock. Forest fans were furious to discover that Peter Bankes was the referee who didn’t give a penalty to the Reds against Wolves, yet sent Jarred Gillett to the screen yesterday to overturn a practically identical decision.
Troy Deeney and Joe Hart disagreed over Matz Sels during the game against Newcastle. Deeney didn’t stop there, however, making a bizarre and really unnecessary claim about Elliot Anderson.
Troy Deeney makes himself look silly over Elliot Anderson
When Forest beat Liverpool in September at Anfield, Deeney overlooked the 11 heroes who played when it came to picking the Team of the Week.
With that in mind, it’s perhaps no surprise to hear that Deeney has been downright disrespectful and rude about Anderson – who it’s worth remembering, is still a kid when it comes to this game.
When analysing the fourth goal scored by Newcastle, Deeney dug out Anderson for getting outmuscled by Joe Willock but he’s made himself look extremely foolish given that the closest player to Willock was Chris Wood.
Deeney told Match of the Day 2: “Watch Isak here, he keeps the defenders honest they can’t push out, they know that Anderson can’t live with Willock, that’s why they got rid of him and it’s an easy goal for him. A great goal.”
Why Newcastle offloaded Elliot Anderson to Forest
The lack of research is alarming at times from a number of pundits these days. No, despite what Deeney thinks, Newcastle didn’t offload Anderson because he’s not at the same level as Willock but because he represented complete profit on the PSR sheet.
It’s really harsh to dig out a 22-year-old in such a spiteful manner and it was almost smug how he said the comment as though he was being somewhat dismissive of the quality that Anderson actually possesses.
Anderson has enjoyed a solid first season playing at Forest. From his 27 appearances so far this season, the youngster has scored once and claimed five assists in all competitions which doesn’t represent bad form.
Our pundits on our best-loved shows and platforms need to do better. Deeney was somewhat harsh on Anderson and hopefully, the Forest man can dust himself down and prove him wrong in the final 12 games of the campaign.
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