What's happening at Newcastle United? - Alarming goal stats and Howe's baffling subs

Last night's 2-0 defeat to West Ham was a massive momentum killer, but also a match that flagged up a worrying theme so far this season; our struggle for goals.

Newcastle United have scored just five goals in six Premier League games at St James’ Park this season. Last season the average was over 2.5 goals a game.

Goalscoring is becoming a huge issue. The lads have failed to beat West Ham, Brighton, Everton, Fulham and Bournemouth so far this season, scoring just two goals in the process. It’s now just 13 goals scored in the opening 12 league games with only Southampton, Everton and Palace scoring less!  At this stage last season, United had more than twice that amount, where we went on to break records for goals scored in the Premier League era.

The attacking players look a shadow of the players they were last year; especially Gordon, but Isak, Joelinton, Willock and Bruno are all sorely lacking in goals too this season. It’s not all on the attackers, there are obvious deficiencies behind them, but the drop-off in goalscoring ability is stark and must be addressed ASAP.

Then we come to Eddie Howe’s substitutes, which were a bit of a car crash last night.

On paper United had a very strong bench but Howe made a huge mess of his subs as they were useless and headscratchingly poor as nothing worked on the night. What even was the team shape at the end of the game? If Steve Bruce had made those changes…

Murphy was a disaster, yet Miggy sits on the bench all night. Longstaff is having no impact on the game, yet Tonali sits on the bench until the team is 2-0 down. Where was Barnes even playing? Wilson looked, unsurprisingly, unfit and isolated as we moved to a 4-4-2. For 20 minutes after the flurry of substitutes, it looked like no one knew where they were playing.

On top of that, the complete lack of defensive cover meant a frankly appalling Lloyd Kelly played the full 90 minutes despite his marking, passing, heading and all-round game largely contributing to the team dropping points. That isn't on Howe, but it was a hard watch and concerning to see his summer signing look so poor in what is meant to be his preferred position.