Rafa Benitez gives 11 reasons to be positive
Rafa Benitez sees a special 11 reasons to be positive after these opening seven Championship fixtures.
Amongst the many plus points, the United boss sees goals from all over the pitch as essential to the promotion process.
In the whole of last season, only five players scored more than two league goals, with 13 different goalscorers in all.
This season, there have already been 11 different Championship goalscorers, with Rafa saying ‘I think it is important for us to have different players scoring goals’.
The six goals at Loftus Road saw goals from five different players and the strikes arrived from team moves in open play, long-range shooting and set-pieces.
The Newcastle Manager impressed with his team’s collective goalscoring power: ‘It means that we can be a threat in different areas: corners, free-kicks, even shooting from outside the box’.
With 16 Championship goals so far, these are the 11 different scorers:
4 Gayle
3 Shelvey
1 Hanley, Mitrovic, Lascelles, Ritchie, Yedlin, Hayden, Gouffran, Clark, Perez
Rafa Benitez after beating QPR 6-0:
“I am really pleased winning, after – if you can score (more) goals, scoring two or three, then is great if don’t concede, much better.
“The strikers want to score, the fans want to see them scoring goals, but for the defenders and the keeper, everybody who is working so hard during the week, trying to do work in the defence – another clean sheet is very important.
“I think it is important for us to have different players scoring goals.
“It means that we can be a threat in different areas: corners, free-kicks, even shooting from outside the box.”
Back in the last promotion season, Newcastle scored 90 goals and had 17 different goalscorers (plus 3 own goals), four players hit double figures and eight different ones managed four or more.
Both Alan Pardew and Steve McClaren talked a good game about scoring goals from all over the pitch but the reality was something different.
The bonus of now scoring regularly from set-pieces is an extra problem Newcastle’s Championship rivals could have done without…
2009/10 Championship Goalscorers
17 Carroll
17 Nolan
13 Lovenkrands
10 Shola
5 Harewood
4 Guthrie, Gutierrez, Ryan Taylor
3 Routledge
2 Coloccini, Ranger
1 Steven Taylor, Barton, Enrique, Pancrate, Simpson, Duff (Plus 3 own goals)
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