A series of shocking stats have emerged since Saturday’s 1-4 defeat to Man Utd, highlighting a series of key areas Steve Bruce MUST improve on if he is to turn the tide in his favour at Newcastle United.
The statistics include possession, shots on target and long ball figures and all of them should pose a concern for our fans.
It will be no surprise that our goalkeeper once again has had to make the most saves so far in the Premier League, with Darlow deputising for the injured Dubravka.
As shared by popular fan page NUFC360, here are the stats in full:
- Newcastle United have played more long balls (335) than any other team in the Premier League this season.
- Newcastle United have faced more shots per game (avg 18.2) than any other Premier League team this season.
- Newcastle United have the worst shots on target per game (2.4 avg) than any other Premier League team this season.
- Only Crystal Palace and Sheffield United have lower possession per game than NUFC (43.8%) this season.
- Only Crystal Palace, WBA and Burnley have a worse pass completion rate per game than NUFC (75.5% avg).
- Only Arsenal have less tackles per game than NUFC (12.4) in the Premier League this season.
- Karl Darlow (27) has made more saves (28) than any other goalkeeper inside Europe’s top 5 leagues so far this season.
While the most important stat is points and league position, these numbers reflect exactly why a lot of our supporters are becoming increasingly critical of Bruce and his approach.
Our summer arrivals have given him the tools to do the job but we still appear to be approaching each game negatively and continue to be an extremely dull side to watch – Saint-Maximin aside.
Wolves this weekend will likely see us adopt an identical style to the one we have played for years now with little to no change. An identical scoreline to the one of Saturday, however, and the pressure will begin to mount on Bruce.
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