Anthony Gordon lashes Newcastle teammates with brutal Sunderland ‘not a very good team’ claim
Newcastle were humiliated again by Sunderland in the Tyne-Wear derby
Newcastle United’s Anthony Gordon celebrates scoring against Sunderland(Image: Getty Images)
Anthony Gordon has hit out at both his Newcastle United teammates and Sunderland with a damning critique of the Tyne-Wear derby.
Sunderland completed the double over Newcastle with a 2-1 win at St James’ Park on Sunday after Brian Brobbey’s late winner in front of their travelling supporters.
The result left some home fans calling for big changes to be made at the club, both on the management side and to the playing squad, as United’s season continues to implode. After a disastrous second-half showing against Barcelona in midweek saw them crash out of the Champions League, they now sit below Sunderland in the Premier League table and looking at a season without European qualification.
The Black Cats, who beat Newcastle 1-0 in December in the reverse fixture, overturned a half-time deficit at St James’ to show their battling qualities again in their first season back in the top flight. However, Gordon – who opened the scoring for Newcastle in the 10th minute – insists that the Black Cats ‘are not very good’ while blasting the second-half performance of his side again.
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No Newcastle player fronted up to the written media after the humiliation but Gordon, speaking to the club’s in-house media team, said: “Not good enough really. No excuses. We were good for [just] 45 minutes which has been the case too often this season.
“It’s something we knew going into the game and something we have been trying to work on this season. Not good enough [our] start to the second half, they [Sunderland] were the better team in the second half.
“We had chances, we had some good play in the first half, but to be honest, I don’t think we showed our quality.
On whether losing this game is harder to take than the reverse fixture back in December, Gordon added: “It’s probably worse. Both are just as bad but the way we lost the game, we went ahead 1-0, the way we were playing, I thought they were really poor. And then we let them into the game and basically gave them the win.
“The frustrating thing is, in my opinion, they’re not a very good team, compared to us. We shouldn’t lose to them.
“Away is obviously more difficult because they have their fans and the atmosphere but at home we should not lose that game. Not with the first half that we had, but again we have not been good enough with the start to second halves and it’s an ongoing problem.”
Gordon will now link up with England for their upcoming friendlies against Uruguay and Japan ahead of the World Cup. He will be joined by five Newcastle teammates – Aaron Ramsdale, Tino Livramento, Dan Burn, Lewis Hall and Harvey Barnes, after the latter was called up as a replacement for Arsenal’s Eberechi Eze, who withdrew from Thomas Tuchel’s 35-man squad due to injury.
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