Pair will have to fight it out for starting spot in side
BUT IT’S THE WAITING GAME FOR BOTMAN
NO one of course is in any doubt whatsoever. Either Fabian Schar or Dan Burn – heroes in Newcastle’s opening day victory over Nottingham Forest – will feel cold steel on the back of the neck very shortly. They know it and we know it.
For Bruno read Botman. Newcastle’s manager Eddie Howe is playing it exactly the same way with his B Boys regardless of them both being big priced imports.
Despite words of praise and recognition of service already rendered by Schar and Burn football is a tough arena and Howe can be a baby faced assassin. Successful managers must.
Guimaraes was forced to be patient and wait through five matches for a start.
Similarly Sven is getting to sit on the subs’ bench without the benefit of a time limit.
Yet everyone recognises it is just a matter of time. It is as inevitable as night following day that Botman will become an automatic pick. United have not shelled out £35m for a back up central defender. Maybe Howe stayed loyal to Joelinton, Jonjo Shelvey and Joe Willock as his midfield three back at the end of January but they knew as much as the fans that Bruno at £40m was quickly going to be one of the first names on the team sheet. It was just who would make way.
So the pressure is on Schar and Burn. One to go.
Both justified their selection against Forest of course. Schar scored a thunderous opener – the critical goal – and provided right-foot-left-foot balance with Burn who once again was a colossus.
However the big decision is waiting to be made – do two left footers Botman and Burn play together or is Schar almost untouchable for the balance he brings and so one giant has to give way for another?
Certainly the Swiss has become an integral part of a new look United under Howe. In his first three seasons he managed only 74 appearances but since a change of manager Schar has started 25 of Howe’s 29 Premier League games.
It is up to the men in possession to state their case over the next couple of games of course. They can change the manager’s mind or confirm his thinking. Mind you, cynics would say that with champions Manchester
City and an explosive Erling Haaland to follow Brighton one of them will immediately take the drop allowing Botman to start at Wolves!
Of course United play in the league cup a few nights before Molineux but that team may be a patchwork quilt depending on Wednesday night’s draw and in any case the Premier League is where Botman wishes to reside.
Sven just needs to have a quiet word with Bruno about patience and its virtue.
Guimaraes went through five matches when he only got on as a sub – the first three times as late as Botman against Forest.
Howe has decided that players coming from abroad like Bruno and Botman are best served to watch and learn about the Premier League’s pace and intensity before being unleashed.
Players with PL experience can be thrown straight into battle – Dan
Burn, Matt Targett, Chris Wood, Nick Pope and even Kieran Trippier because while he signed from Spain had got to know our league well with Spurs.
But not others, regardless of United’s considerable financial outlay even if there is a significant difference between the cases of Guimaraes and Botman.
Bruno arrived on the last day of January with time against him as matches piled up thick and fast while the big Dutchman has enjoyed a pre-season training daily with his new team-mates and playing in games though admittedly not with PL intensity.
Without question Schar and Burn will stay in partnership at Brighton on Saturday leaving Botman again on the outside looking in.
Schar’s goal makes his selection automatic and Burn returning to his old club Brighton having just been outstanding will keep him in the frame. The Blyth Baresi is well loved by his own folk!
What can we say about Brighton? They simply defy all odds.
Brighton over-achieved to finish a more than respectable ninth top last season but there is no getting away from the fact that they are a feeder club.
They have lost Yves Bissouma to Spurs and Marc Cucurella to Chelsea this summer as they so often lose their top players and while that brought them an astronomical £88.3m it appeared to have savagely weakened Graham Potter’s side.
Yet forget it.
They went to Manchester United on Sunday, outpassed them, and gained their first ever win on Old Trafford soil.
Maybe another United will have it all to do down on the south coast but then the Magpies are no slouches these enlightened days unlike their aristocratic northerly brothers.