Scotland ace labelled an 'unheralded' star of the EPL after being 'heart' of shock weekend win

The Scotland international has been lauded for his weekend performance.

Scotland international Ryan Christie has been crowned an “unheralded” star of the English Premier League after his impressive performance in Bournemouth’s shock 4-1 win over Newcastle United in the English Premier League.

The ex-Celtic man delivered a impressive display in Saturday’s thumping win at St James’ Park to help Bournemouth go seventh in the league table thanks to a hat-trick from Justin Kluivert and an injury-time strike from Milos Kerkez. While it was Kluivert who took the bulk of the headlines, former Liverpool defender and Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher believes singled out the performance of Christie as a key reason for the Cherries astonishing win.

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“You come up against a Newcastle midfield, who I think have been the best midfield in the Premier League with [Sandro] Tonali sitting role, Bruno Guimarães and Joelinton, and they [Bournemouth] were fantastic. But he [Christie] was right at the heart of it,” gushed Carragher on Monday night football.

A regular fixture in the Bournemouth midfield, the Inverness-born midfielder has featured in 21 of the club’s 22 league games this season, and is flourishing under Spanish head coach Andoni Iraola, who has Cherries fans dreaming of European qualification. There’s no doubting Christie’s weekend performance was the best yet though, with the 29-year-old producing some stunning figures in the game

Ryan Christie celebrates his goal for Scotland against Croatia last year. Cr: SNS Group.Ryan Christie celebrates his goal for Scotland against Croatia last year. Cr: SNS Group.
Ryan Christie celebrates his goal for Scotland against Croatia last year. Cr: SNS Group. | SNS Group

Christie made the most touches, most tackles, most passes into final third and won the most duels, while he also made the joint most tackles by a English Premier League midfielder this season during the win on Tyneside, leaving Sky Sports host Dave Jones to label him as one of the league’s most “unheralded” players. Following his own praise, Jones told viewers Christie was “going to get his flowers” from the ex-Liverpool man, and Carragher wasted no time in waxing lyrical about a performance that left him “so impressed” with the Scotland star.

“They matched Newcastle up to make it a three vs three,” continued Carragher. “So you got Ryan Christie here in midfield, and Tyler Adams just behind, and that’s your midfield two. Initially Christie was going to press in, and as soon as he goes, Tyler Adam jumps and the centre-back jumps in to make a three vs three. They kept trying to push Newcastle to this left side constantly.

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“Christie is pressing high, and he was stopping the ball going into Joelinton. The Newcastle midfield are difficult to play against, with Tonali in the six, Guimarães as the eight, Joelinton as the 10. All on different lines and difficult to combat and to pick up. Christie was going with the holding player sometimes. How do they make it a three vs three? This time it was Antoine Semenyo coming over, as Adams is looking after Joelinton. And that’s how the combatted the three vs three.

“Sometimes the centre-back would step in, and sometimes we’d see the wide player coming really narrow, but because he [Christie] is pressing the holding midfield player Tonali, who is almost at the top of the midfield position, he gets a shot off.”

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