Little Vurnon Anita has had a torrid time in defensive-midfield this season - most notably during Newcastle's embarrassing 5-0 defeat at Manchester City when he was hooked at half-time having given away a penalty inside 30 seconds - but since moving to full-back in recent weeks, the diminutive Dutchman has excelled. Newcastle are going through a defensive crisis right now, and Anita filled in admirably for the suspended Daryl Janmaat. He is not going to challenge Branislav Ivanovic or Nathaniel Clyne as one of the Premier League's best full-backs anytime soon, but Anita is relatively quick and he doggedly sticks to his defensive tasks by tracking his men and staying in line with the rest of the back four. What's more, Anita even likes to link up play in attack and he can deliver a pretty-decent cross into the danger area - it's just a shame there's rarely anyone there to get on the end of it. Against West Brom Anita was sound defensively and, on the occasions when he was stupidly given the task of marking Victor Anichebe at set-pieces, he managed to keep the Baggies striker at bay (he was not marking him for the goal). John Carver lost trust in Anita a couple of months ago but that seems to have been restored - at least if the Dutchman is playing at right-back or left-back, that is.
NUFC editor for WhatCulture.com/NUFC. History graduate (University of Edinburgh) and NCTJ-trained journalist. I love sports, hopelessly following Newcastle United and Newcastle Falcons. My pastimes include watching and attending sports matches religiously, reading spy books and sampling ales.
