Harvey Barnes may not be the flashiest of players or the most exciting but he is very efficient. When you look closely at his numbers they are incredible.
He is our third top scorer with five goals. He averages 0.73 g/a per 90, which places him in the 94th percentile for all wingers in the Premier League, from a 0.61 XG/XA per 90 (86th percentile).
To put that in perspective, he’s outperforming Liverpool’s left winger Luis Diaz, who has 0.65 g/a per 90 from a 0.54 XG/XA per 90.
Now from a graphic provided by @ftblnl on X, according to the metric XT per 90 (expected threat per 90) Harvey Barnes ranked second in the entire Premier League behind Mo Salah as of December 2024, with Barnes at 0.22 per 90, behind only Salah at 0.23.
The reason I’m going this far back is because Barnes has not played enough minutes to be included in the more recent graphics.
Barnes’ underlying numbers are hugely encouraging and they just show how important he can be to us, despite previous suggestions he wouldn’t get a look in beyond Anthony Gordon.
There’s a typical saying when competing for league titles, “you need two good players in each position”. Well we absolutely have that at left wing and the idea of selling Barnes does not sit right with me at all.
With his defensive contributions improving, I fully believe Barnes has a bright future for Newcastle United under Eddie Howe, and with us back in Europe next season (as long as we get through UECL qualifiers), Barnes will be crucial for us next season and will bring us much needed output.
Football doesn’t provide any guarantees but Harvey Barnes is very close to guaranteeing you goals.
Barnes v Gordon for that left sided attacker is the level of competition we need across the park. Unfortunately, we don’t have it.
PremAndUp(Quote)
Harvey Barnes is very good and he will continue to improve under Eddie Howe as all of the Newcastle squad have done since being appointed manager.
B. BUDD(Quote)