NUFC stat-man Chris Holt has revealed some harrowing stats following Newcastle’s struggling start to the new season – showing how we are bottom of the pile in several key areas when it comes to shots, possession, pass completion and crosses.
One thing I will say – our tough start to the season potentially warps some of these numbers, with us unlikely to have great possession and a high humber of shots against the likes of Spurs, City, Chelsea and Arsenal, however this does highlight how much we’re struggling.
As you can see for yourselves in the tables below, we are practically rock bottom in all of the following charts shared on Twitter:
Shots per game – 7.4 – less than any other side in the league. Yes games against the top 6 haven’t helped this stat, but we mustered just one shot on target (from our own half) against Leicester last weekend and struggled to threaten against Palace or Cardiff either.
Possession – 39.1% on average. We know we don’t play possession based football, but this combined with a pass completion rate of 66.9% (a stat that’s only ‘bettered’ by Cardiff) shows how much we’re struggling to get on the ball and how often we’re giving it away when we get it. 66% pass completion means that one in every three passes is going astray – and that’s woeful.
The fat just 19% of our attacks come from central areas also suggests that a LOT of our ‘attacks’ come from out wide – yet the table on the bottom left shows that we’ve got less crosses into the box per game than any other Premier League side.
As the tweet below suggests, we are in deep trouble if we don’t get our act together on the pitch.
Extremely worrying stats. #Nufc are in deep trouble https://t.co/B0Hp18HNFi
— NUFC 360 (@NUFC360) October 3, 2018