---
title: "Saint-Maximin fails to impress in Newcastle’s latest win"
canonical: "https://www.footballtransfertavern.com/newcastle-united-vs-nottingham-forest-nufc-saint-maximin/"
type: "post"
language: "en-GB"
author: "Aaron Hindhaugh"
section: "Newcastle United News"
published: "2023-03-18T20:52:05Z"
modified: "2023-03-18T20:52:05Z"
---

# Saint-Maximin fails to impress in Newcastle’s latest win

**Journalist [Liam Kennedy has admitted](https://twitter.com/newcastle_world/status/1636871458805760001?s=20) he was far from impressed with Allan Saint-Maximin’s first-half showing in [Newcastle United’s](https://www.footballtransfertavern.com/newcastle-united-news/) latest victory.**

### The Lowdown: Chaotic win for Newcastle

Newcastle were involved in a [chaotic evening at the City Ground](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYc5xsNAvoU&t=125s) which saw VAR step in to rule out a goal from Elliot Anderson despite [a lot of confusion](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqVHkjsggqw) around why it was not allowed to stand.

It certainly wasn’t all simple for the Magpies as they saw Saint-Maximin hooked off at half-time after he failed to register a single shot in the opening 45 minutes, while he only touched the ball a staggering 20 times ([Sofascore](https://www.sofascore.com/newcastle-united-nottingham-forest/osO)).

[Eddie Howe spoke post-match](https://t.co/YCuiHfIr9W) about how Saint-Maximin had felt something in his hamstring, so he was perhaps carrying a muscle knock in the opening exchanges of the match, but he didn’t seem his usual self.

### The Latest: Saint-Maximin fails to impress

Kennedy – who was at the City Ground on Friday night – spoke after the game about Saint-Maximin and how there is something just isn’t quite right with the Frenchman after his latest showing.

He said: “I thought that was the best Newcastle United performed as a team since Christmas, probably. I thought that was overall the best performance.

“There were a couple of off-days, Botman; Saint-Maximin, there’s something not right with that today. Botman just had a really bad day at the office, it happens.”

### The Verdict: Howe must manage Saint-Maximin carefully

It has been a staggering fall from grace for Saint-Maximin over the last 12 months, as he has gone from a player who was relied upon so heavily at Newcastle during the Steve Bruce era to having [started just nine league games](https://fbref.com/en/players/2b16cb1a/Allan-Saint-Maximin) all season and [earning a 4/10 rating](https://www.newcastleworld.com/sport/football/newcastle-united/newcastle-united-player-ratings-bad-410-as-910-steals-the-show-in-nottingham-forest-win-4069794) for his latest display from Newcastle World’s Jordan Cronin.

The Frenchman was even being [tipped with a move to Tottenham Hotspur](https://theathletic.com/3433915/2022/07/19/saint-maximin-training-newcastle/) last summer and [talking about](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-11571491/Newcastle-star-Allan-Saint-Maximin-reveals-France-World-Cup-ambition.html) trying to win a spot in France’s World Cup squad at the back end of last year, and now he’s getting hooked off at half-time.

Now, with the likes of Elliot Anderson starring against Forest and Jacob Murphy starting back-to-back games in the league, Howe must be careful to not push Saint-Maximin out of the spotlight too much and manage his ego, because he could still be very valuable in the final few games of the season.