Eddie Howe has challenged Allan Saint-Maximin to couple his individual flair with being a team player - after the winger faced fan criticism.
The Newcastle boss admits he is striking a difficult balance with star man Saint-Maximin as he moulds the Toon into a tight, hard working unit. Howe wants the French wizard to hit the heights of the home game against Everton at the start of February, and knows he is a match winner.
But the 25-year-old has hit a rough patch suffering a bout of covid, and minor calf and groin injuries, with some fans questioning his form. Howe said: “I think for a player of his type, consistency will always be an issue because it’s very difficult to do what he does. But as long as we get the buy-in from him to the team, and he is really committed to the things he finds more difficult, which would be recovery runs, working off the ball… as long as we see that, the other things will take care of themselves.
“I think over coaching him is a negative. Part of the strength of Allan is that you can almost let him do his stuff - but he needs to be free to do that. You don’t want him over-thinking the game because his natural talent is so impulsive. So I’ve tried to strike that balance. I don’t hear or read comments (from fans about ASM), but it’s also healthy because it means I judge him on what I see and I’ve got very high expectations for Maxi as I have seen what he can deliver when he is at his best.
“You go back to the Everton game at home and he was absolutely electric that day, very, very difficult to play against. I judge him on those levels. You have to understand each player’s strengths and weaknesses.
"You will never make Maxi be like another winger, he’s unique, and the team has to work around that uniqueness. Part of my job is to try and figure out tactically how to make the team function while recognising people’s strengths and weaknesses. I think that is unfair, but that’s not necessarily his first strength.
“His strength is obvious for everyone to see and we need to emphasise that and minimise any weaknesses. It’s the same for everybody.” Saint-Maximin is fighting for a recall against Spurs on Sunday, after a solid block of training, including cycling tests in an altitude chamber during the club’s trip to Dubai last week. Howe added: “Every player needs to be loved, and Maxi is not different from anyone else. Players need to be respected, cared for and their own careers need to be given the care and attention they deserve.
“But no player needs to be indulged. There are barriers and lines that you don’t want to cross and you need to treat everyone differently but there is a framework to stick to to get good results, and Maxi has been excellent and I have no issues about getting back to his very best levels.”
Howe is hoping Kieran Trippier will be back in full training and in contention to play next weekend after his broken foot. But Callum Wilson’s calf and achilles injury is taking time to get right and could take several more weeks. “It’s not necessarily a gloomy assessment, it more reflects the type of injury he has had. It needs time. We need to stress the Achilles and the calf in the right way because if we do it too fast he is going to reinjure himself and if we go too slow, we are going to run out of games this season.”
