Hamza Choudhury criticised for challenge on Newcastle United’s Matt Richie
Newcastle United manager Steve Bruce has criticised Leicester City midfielder Hamza Choudhury for his challenge on Matt Richie.
Choudhury made a bad tackle on Ritchie – who is a former Leicester player – during the Carabao Cup second round tie on Wednesday at the St. James’ Park.
Although the 21-year old did get the ball first, he also took out Richie in the follow through and was rightly booked for it.
The Newcastle midfielder is now expected to be out of action for at least a couple of months after suffering an ankle ligament injury. No surprises that Bruce is furious.
"“They are the ones that really… if Matty hadn’t taken [his leg] away, he’d seen it coming, he could have been in serious trouble.“It could have been eight months, it could have been career-ending. If his leg had been planted on the floor, he was in serious trouble. He rode it a little bit, but it was a horror challenge.“You can’t tackle like that any more. When you leave the floor, you are over the top of the ball in your follow-through.“Sorry, but it is a bad challenge.”"
Despite criticising Choudhury, however, the Newcastle gaffer did admit that he admires him and that he is “a very, very good player”.
"“He is a very, very good player. He is enthusiastic and wants to go and win the ball back.“I’ve got nothing against that, I liked that sort of thing myself.“But it is a bad challenge and I hope he learns from it.”"
We can all agree that it was not the best of tackles. Choudhury, as Bruce stated, can certainly learn from it to avoid damaging his reputation and attracting unwanted attention from the referees.
The sort of position he plays in, discipline is equally as important as being aggressive and commanding is. Those who find the right balance succeed and those who don’t normally play for Stoke City in the Sky Bet Championship.
Also, if he doesn’t learn to balance his game now, then he will have to be on the receiving end of a lot of cards even when not at fault. Granit Xhaka of Arsenal, for example, only has to touch a player for him to see a yellow.
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Surely, that is something that a combative midfielder like Choudhury could do without.