Newcastle returned to winning ways on Saturday, with a dominant display in the capital against Fulham. Although the home side went down to ten men early, our performance was great and we likely would have triumphed if they had eleven men. Eddie Howe spoke about the importance of getting back to winning ways and the hope will be that we can now push on before the World Cup.
Below, we discuss three interesting stats from the game.
Joe Willock’s creativity – 7 Shot creating actions, 1.1 xA and 6 chances created
It has been a quiet, but impressive start of the season from Joe Willock. Some believe he is no longer in the team’s strongest eleven when every player is fit. However, this performance was a reminder of his quality in the final third.
He broke onto the scene with his excellent goal-scoring record during his loan spell, but Saturday showed his creativity, Willock had seven shot creating actions, which was more than any other player on the pitch. His expected assists (xA) was 1.1, again the highest of any player on the pitch.
Willock was getting into advanced positions and causing a lot of problems for Fulham. At times, we have lacked creativity in the final third. The former Arsenal player showed he can offer that when he is in the team.
During the match, he got two assists. The first wasn’t by design, as he was trying to score. He will think that his effort was going in, but Callum Wilson made sure. The second was more intentional with great movement down the left before playing a great ball into Miguel Almiron.
Bruno Guimaraes – 9 progressive passes
There were some worries that Bruno Guimaraes would miss the game, but he was named in the starting eleven. It was a slight role change for him, as he was used as one of the two number eights and it suited him. The Brazilian could get on the ball more and dictate the game.
He only played 58 minutes, as Howe chose to bring him on when the game was won. That makes his passing statistics from the game even more impressive. Guimaraes made nine progressive passes, which was the highest of any player. He made nine passes into the final third and had a total of four key passes.
The Brazilian international was always trying to play positive passes to put the team into promising attacking positions.
Further to his ability to move the ball forwards, Guimaraes got the assist for Almiron’s first. The goal was more about the Paraguayan’s strike, but the ball from Guimaraes was perfectly weighted. It should the understanding between the pair.
Callum Wilson – 1.6 xG
Like Guimaraes, Callum Wilson had his minutes managed once it was clear that the game was won. He will be disappointed that he didn’t have a chance to score more goals, but he did have chances during his time on the pitch.
Callum Wilson had the highest expected goals (xG), despite being on the pitch for less than an hour. He had 1.6 xG, which suggests that he could have scored more than one.
Wilson only had 10 touches of the football. This underlines his role in the Newcastle team. Howe doesn’t expect him to get on the ball and contribute much in the build up. Alexander Isak is more likely to do this when he plays, as he likes to drop deep and get touches of the ball.
Meanwhile, Wilson is a pure goal-scorer, who focuses on taking up dangerous positions in the opposition penalty box. His goal underlined his own selfishness in the final third, as he could be accused of ‘stealing’ Willock’s goal.
However, that is one of his strengths. We need strikers that are desperate to score goals. When he is fit, he is a near guarantee of goals.
