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The clamour for Sean Steur to start for Newcastle United against Fulham on Saturday was already fairly loud before his second-half cameo against Everton on Monday night. Now it's almost too significant for Matthias Jaissle to ignore.
The 18-year-old Dutchman has been used sparingly so far this season, but has shown a maturity well beyond his years when given the chance in the first few months of his time on Tyneside.
After a man-of-the-match performance against Hull City against September, Steur's minutes have been limited to second-half run-outs as Jaissle looks to protect the young midfielder, who only just broke into the Ajax first-team picture last season.
However, what he did in the 26 minutes he was given against the Toffees in Monday's 1-0 defeat could finally persaude the Magpies' head coach that he is a must-start for Saturday's crucial game at Craven Cottage.
No one in a Newcastle shirt made more passes into the final third than Steur, despite the fact he only played less than a third of the game.
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His 20 passes into the danger area was a glaring but welcome change in the latter stages as United pressed for an equaliser they had not looked like getting before his introduction.
Steur's first intention is always to go forward, but he used the ball intelligently against Everton, keeping possession and rotating the Toffees backline as he probed for an opening.
Everton stood firm to defend their lead comfortably in the end, with only Yoane Wissa's shot on the turn giving Jordan Pickford any concern, but Steur asked more questions that anyone.
He managed twice as many passes into the final third more than Nico Gonzalez, despite only playing half the minutes of the ex-Man City man, while only Lewis Hall (17) came close to his total.
Jaissle appears to feel that Steur and Gonzalez would struggle to play alongside each other in the midfield, with both their styles too similar.
With the Spaniard unlikely to be dropped, a switch to a three-man midfield is perhaps the only way both will be accomodated in the short-term, but numbers he posted on Monday will soon become hard to ignore.
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