Quite incredibly, we have worked out that Newcastle have NEVER won a single point in the league this season when last season’s top scorer Dwight Gayle has started up front.
He’s started as a lone striker in a 4-2-3-1 or alongside Joselu in a 4-4-2 in his 8 starts so far this season and although he has bagged three goals in the process (making him our joint top scorer), we’ve failed to pick up a result each and every time he’s started – meaning all 15 of our points have arrived when the NUFC number 9 has not been in Benitez’s starting 11!
Here’s the eight games he’s started this season and the results in all of them:
1 – Tottenham (H) – LOST – 0-2
2 – Huddersfield (A) – LOST – 0-1
3 – Bournemouth (H) – LOST – 0-1
4 – Man Utd (A) – LOST – 1-4 ⚽️
5 – Watford (H) – LOST – 0-3
6 – Chelsea (A) – LOST – 1-3 ⚽️
7 – Leicester (H) – LOST – 2-3 ⚽️
8 – Everton (H) – LOST – 0-1
Quite incredibly, in the eight games we’ve played, we’ve scored just 4 times and 3 of those were scored by him – meaning Joselu’s early opener against Leicester was the only time another NUFC player has scored in a game he’s started.
Intriguing stats here. Gayle’s presence is by no means the reason we have struggled recently (he’s bagged most of our goals!), however this perhaps shows why Benitez has favoured the Perez-Joselu partnership. It may be unpopular and unflattering, but it’s delivered the vast majority of our 15 points so far this season.
As the below table shows, NUFC have also failed to pick up a point when Mo Diame’s started either – with him playing in losses to Burnley, Watford, Chelsea & Everton.
Points per game WITHOUT each NUFC player pic.twitter.com/bpik8twdhW
— Chris Holt (@bigchrisholt) December 16, 2017
so based on this
GK – Elliott
RB – Yedlin
CB – Lascelles
CB – Clark
LB – Manquillo
RW – Ritchie
CM – Merino
CM – Hayden
LW – Atsu
CF – Josulu
CF – PEREZ
Sean Foster(Quote)