Hit or miss? Analysing summer signing Jetro Willems’ Newcastle United career so far

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Newcastle muddled through much of last season with Matt Ritchie out of position at left back so reinforcements in that area were badly needed during the summer.

They arrived in the shape of Jetro Willems, a 25-year-old Dutch international who joined on loan from Europa League semi-finalists Eintracht Frankfurt.

The second international break of the season provides an ideal opportunity to assess how his Newcastle career is going so far.

What’s the background?

Sky Sports reported Willems’ arrival at the same time as Allan Saint-Maximin’s permanent signing and stated that there is an option to buy inserted in the deal.

Steve Bruce said of the defender: “Jetro brings a wealth of experience into the dressing room and I’m very pleased to have brought him here. He has played at the highest level and is naturally left-footed so he’ll give us another strong option on that side.”

How’s he looked so far?

Willems’ Newcastle career got off to a poor start when he was seemingly unclear on his position when introduced off the bench against Arsenal on the opening week of the season.

For some reason, he ran into central midfield when he was meant to be playing left back, leaving Ainsley Maitland-Niles free to rampage forward and set up the winner for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

After that, he started four of the next seven Premier League matches, and scored his first goal for the club when he opened the scoring against Liverpool at Anfield in September.

He didn’t play in Newcastle’s worst result of the season, the 5-0 thumping at Leicester, and came back into the side for the weekend victory over Manchester United.

The Verdict

Willems looked a good signing on paper; experienced but young enough to improve in a position Newcastle needed to bolster and so it has proved.

He could still become more reliable defensively and needs to absolutely nail down that left back role but there’s enough there to suggest the club will want to activate that option to buy when the end of the campaign rolls around.