Newcastle striker Lomana LuaLua has taken a swipe at the
club's senior players as the shock waves following the shock FA
Cup exit at Wolves continue to vibrate.
The Congo international has urged manager Sir Bobby Robson to
apply some pressure on the Toon's established stars by putting
his faith in the club's younger players.
LuaLua insists the fringe players at St James' Park are
desperate to prove their worth, even if it is at the expense of
dropping some of the Magpies' big names.
His comments come on the heels of a similar attack by Alan
Shearer on his team-mates.
LuaLua said: "I think I deserve a chance now, as do many of the
lads on the fringes of the team.
"Although some people might have the idea that those of us not
in the team like sitting on the bench and getting paid good
money, nothing could be further from the truth.
"I'm not in this for the money, I want to play for the first
team and show what I can do on a regular basis," LuaLua told the
Daily Express newspaper.
LuaLua also questioned whether Newcastle's poor away form was
down to lack of effort from some of his colleauges.
Newcastle have won just twice away from St James Park, where
they have won 10 of their 11 Premiership matches.
LuaLua said: "When we play at home we have 52,000 supporters
backing us and if there are any players not putting in the work
rate the fans soon let them know.
"When we are on our travels there are not so many of our
supporters present and some players might think they can get
away with it.
"That's something we've got to address because you only need a
couple of broken links in the chain and the whole system can
break down.
"Now we've got to put the Wolves game behind us."
Robson and Newcastle chairman Freddie Shepherd held a meeting on
Tuesday to try and establish what went wrong at Molineux.
High on the list of Newcastle's concerns is their defensive
frailty which may prompt a £4m bid for Marseille central
defender Daniel van Buyten. |
