{"id":291298,"date":"2023-09-19T22:37:31","date_gmt":"2023-09-19T22:37:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tellmysport.com\/?p=291298"},"modified":"2023-09-19T22:37:31","modified_gmt":"2023-09-19T22:37:31","slug":"newcastle-in-focus-lost-boy-sandro-tonali-struggles-in-his-new-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tellmysport.com\/soccer\/newcastle-in-focus-lost-boy-sandro-tonali-struggles-in-his-new-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Newcastle in Focus: Lost boy Sandro Tonali struggles in his new home"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Sandro Tonali is struggling in his new home and Eddie Howe must work out how best to use him&#8230; Sean Longstaff outshone both the \u00a352m Italian and Bruno Guimaraes in Newcastle&#8217;s draw at San Siro<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Sandro Tonali turned in a subdued performance on his return to AC Milan\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>The midfielder has not fit into Newcastle&#8217;s midfield unit despite a brilliant debut\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Listen to the latest episode of Mail Sport&#8217;s podcast\u00a0It&#8217;s All Kicking Off!\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Sandro Tonali said this week that he felt lost after leaving AC Milan for Newcastle. He is yet to find himself.<\/p>\n<p>There have been flashes \u2014 and a brilliant debut fuelled by adrenalin \u2014 but, for now, the search intensifies for the player that Eddie Howe was convinced is the midfield upgrade his team needs.<\/p>\n<p>Tonali will be given time to adapt to the Premier League, of course, but the Champions League at the San Siro should have been his stage. He has shone in these conditions before, leading his boyhood club to the semi-finals last season.<\/p>\n<p>He was given the noisiest of welcomes on his return, but the performance that followed was subdued. Maybe the emotion of it all left him drained, for his running was not as hard as it should have been and his cunning was also lacking. He was withdrawn on 72 minutes \u2014 again, to much applause \u2014 but that was because of his history.<\/p>\n<p>The future is Howe\u2019s concern. The boss has a selection problem now: which of Tonali and Bruno Guimaraes does he leave out? Together, they are not working, and the man they were signed to replace in Howe\u2019s strongest XI outperformed both here.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/19\/22\/75614873-0-image-a-2_1695158972212.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Sandro Tonali was substituted on a night in Milan where he struggled to impact the game\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/19\/22\/75614981-0-image-a-3_1695159044206.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Eddie Howe must work out how best to use his marquee summer signing, who joined from Milan for \u00a352m\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Sean Longstaff was Newcastle\u2019s best midfielder. As a unit, though, they are not functioning, and have not since the 5-1 opening-day win over Aston Villa.<\/p>\n<p>When Tonali and Guimaraes sat next to each other on the team\u2019s flight to the United States in July, there was much excitement given the pedigree of the pair. But their partnership remains grounded.<\/p>\n<p>Howe is sticking with Guimaraes as the central component of a midfield three but that leaves gaps in behind, and Tonali doesn\u2019t seem the type to plug them.<\/p>\n<p>There were two occasions in quick succession last night when Ruben Loftus-Cheek ran free of Newcastle\u2019s midfield. It prompted an inquest on the pitch and touchline, Tonali making the point to team-mates and staff that it was not his duty to track the Englishman.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>If not, what was \u2014 and is \u2014 his task?\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>That is the conundrum facing the manager, how best to use a \u00a352million player who, on the evidence of the reception from the fans here, can clearly impact a team to great effect. That is why Howe made him his top summer target, admitting he \u2018fell in love\u2019 watching the 23-year-old play for Milan.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/19\/23\/75616399-12537707-image-a-14_1695161861639.jpg\" height=\"512\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>His partnership with Bruno Guimaraes (right) has not yet developed in the manner expected\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/19\/22\/75614941-0-image-a-5_1695159175545.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>He enjoyed a triumphant debut with a goal after six minutes against Aston Villa but has not hit the same heights since then\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But maybe it is that a piece of Tonali\u2019s heart remains at the San Siro. It was telling when he opened his pre-match press conference with those revelations of feeling lost and struggling to find his place in his new home.<\/p>\n<p>Where is his place in the team? It was on the left of midfield here, but he was not signed to charge down wings, the domain in which he found himself most often last night.<\/p>\n<p>There were nice touches \u2014 he is a talented and classy player \u2014 but Newcastle needed a dominator this summer, not a decorator. Tonali needs to discover that authority on Tyneside.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/football\/article-12537707\/Newcastle-Focus-Lost-boy-Sandro-Tonali-struggles-new-home-Eddie-Howe-work-best-use-52m-midfielder.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sandro Tonali is struggling in his new home and Eddie Howe must work out how best to use him&#8230; Sean Longstaff outshone both the \u00a352m Italian and Bruno Guimaraes in Newcastle&#8217;s draw at San Siro Sandro Tonali turned in a subdued performance on his return to AC Milan\u00a0 The midfielder has not fit into Newcastle&#8217;s&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291297,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Newcastle in Focus: Lost boy Sandro Tonali struggles in his new home - Tell My Sport<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tellmysport.com\/soccer\/newcastle-in-focus-lost-boy-sandro-tonali-struggles-in-his-new-home\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Newcastle in Focus: Lost boy Sandro Tonali struggles in his new home - Tell My Sport\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sandro Tonali is struggling in his new home and Eddie Howe must work out how best to use him&#8230; 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