Newcastle United youngster can cure Blackpool’s goalscoring ills

The Seasiders beat off competition from a number of clubs to seal the signature of the forward, who will remain with the club on loan until the end of the season.

The 19-year-old is the leading goalscorer for Newcastle’s Under-21 side and recently bagged his first international goals while away on duty in Mexico with Denmark U21s.

“He’s a proven goalscorer at the U23 level and he’s gone away with Denmark and scored on his debut,” McPhillips said. “He’s scored two in two games.

“So I’m delighted to get him. I think Sean Longstaff being here last year (had an effect).

“That worked for Longy and we thank Newcastle very much for having him. He’s obviously spoke to Longy and you have to say it was a good loan move for Longstaff last season, he’s playing in the Premier League now.

“It’s brilliant when I first spoke to Elias, he’s a Geordie isn’t he? He’s the Jan Molby of the North East.

“But he’s a confident young man and he’s got a bit about him. He really wanted to come.

“I’m a little surprised clubs higher up didn’t fancy him but he’ll want to play, won’t he? If he went to a club in the Championship he might have run the risk of not playing as much as he’d like.

“He’s just a real coup for us, a great capture and we’re delighted to have him.

“He goes straight into the squad for Coventry and hopefully he gets on the pitch.”

The man Sorensen could potentially look to displace in the Blackpool side is Armand Gnanduillet.

The Frenchman, the club’s leading scorer with nine goals, hasn’t scored in any of his last seven appearances.

When asked if that is a concern, McPhillips said: “You’d probably have to ask Armand that but yes, we want him scoring again.

“But in training, on Tuesday in particular, it was all about scoring and he scored the most. He looked terrific.

“Bringing in Chris Long, Nya Kirby and Sorensen, they’re all attack-minded players and obviously Longy and Sorensen are forwards.

“We’ve had a theme for a few weeks now of trying to score more goals and that’s what we’re going to have to do if we’re going to climb up that table.

“We’re going to Coventry and they’re on the same number of points and the emphasis is on them to attack a bit more being at home.”