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Newcastle United goals and assists in pre-season friendlies – The final scores on the doors

2 years ago
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Very interesting looking at these Newcastle United goals and assists stats in pre-season friendlies.

The individuals who have been getting amongst the direct goal involvements.

Last season saw Eddie Howe do a remarkable job, ending up with the final 19 games (entire second half of the PL season) seeing only Liverpool and Man City pick up more points than Newcastle.

However, that turnaround was largely built on rebuilding the defence, Eddie Howe inheriting a shambles and getting it solid at the back. Whilst there were still a couple of off days, with five conceded at both Man City and Spurs, in the other 17 matches in the final 19, Newcastle only conceded 10 goals. Considering 42 goals had been conceded in the opening 19 PL games of last season, the change was even more of a stand out.

When it came to scoring goals, with the emphasis more on getting Newcastle United as tight as possible at the back, the improvement wasn’t so noticeable. In the opening 19 PL games of last season NUFC scored 19 goals, in the final 19 it was 25 goals.

So, with the new season rapidly approaching, Eddie Howe needing the whole squad to step up when it comes to Newcastle United goals and assists, to provide more of a goal threat.

After the 2-1 win over Athletic Bilbao completed the NUFC pre-season schedule, this is how the final Newcastle United individual totals look…

Newcastle United goals and assists in pre-season friendlies:

8 Miguel Almiron (6 goals and 2 assists)

4 ASM (2 goals and 2 assists)

4 Callum Wilson (2 goals and 2 assists)

4 Matt Ritchie (2 goals and 2 assists)

3 Joe Willock (3 goals and 0 assists)

3 Bruno Guimaraes (1 goal and 2 assists)

3 Kieran Trippier (0 goals and 3 assists)

3 Joelinton (1 goal and 2 assists)

3 Elliot Anderson (1 goal and 2 assists)

2 Sean Longstaff (2 goals and 0 assists)

2 Chris Wood (1 goal and 1 assist)

1 Jacob Murphy (1 goal and 0 assists)

1 Jonjo Shelvey (0 goals and 1 assist)

1 Emil Krafth (0 goals and 1 assist)

Something certainly seems to have clicked with Miguel Almiron, judging by pre-season.

The Paraguayan looking more focused, playing more direct, looking more dangerous, using a turn of pace, most importantly…more end product. We all know his workrate can’t be questioned but in a team / squad that doesn’t have many regular goal scorers / creators, Miguel Almiron had / has to start making more of a difference up front.

He showed improved form in the final games of last season but still only scored one goal, actually the only one he has scored this past year and a half for Newcastle United. It was a goal of the season contender against Palace but regular goals and assists still hard to come by, indeed, not a single assist all last season from the Paraguayan.

However, with six goals and two assists in pre-season already, the signs are promising.

When it comes to these Newcastle United goals and assists in pre-season, then I think it is fair to take more notice of these three most recent tough games against three very good teams. This past week when things have got serious in terms of preparing for the Premier League.

Almiron was excellent in that Benfica match, not just the two very good goals, his contribution overall. Likewise, I thought he was one of Newcastle’s best players in the 1-0 win over Atalanta. Unlucky to get on the scoresheet he was a threat, one moment standing out in particular – receiving the ball at the right corner of the 18 yard box, Almiron totally outwitted the defender by going so direct and sprinting past, with only an excellent save via the keeper’s foot stopping him scoring.

Friday night saw an excellent burst into the box by Elliot Anderson win a penalty, the cool spot-kick hopefully boosting Chris Wood.

Especially good to see those goals on Saturday though, two class team moves and brilliant finishes from Wilson and ASM, the two players who we look to be most reliant on for Newcastle United goals and assists as things stand. ASM also very much involved in the first goal, a great run from him then touched on by Ritchie for Callum Wilson to finish.

Likewise, Bruno feeding Joelinton and his very good assist / ball over the top setting ASM away for his winning goal.

Also, very much worth highlighting Kieran Trippier, three assists pre-season and two of them came against Benfica, rampaging down the right and excellent balls into Miggy for the goals. His quality is well known in both open play and when it comes to set-pieces, hopefully he will prove a key player going forward, as well as his defensive ability. A few free-kicks like the two he scored last season won’t come amiss either.

As for elsewhere, we have seen a big spread of both goals and assists amongst the squad, which is almost certainly what will be needed this coming season, unless Eddie Howe can get these couple of attacking signings in.

The NUFC head coach has said once again in the last couple of days that he had hoped to have at least one new attacking option in by now and yesterday it was revealed that a £40m bid for James Maddison had been rejected.

I think we will get at least one or two quality attacking players in, during the rest of this transfer window, but certainly when it comes to kicking off against Forest, we are looking at the current NUFC players to come up with the necessary goals and assists.

Newcastle 2 Athletic Bilbao 1

Goals

Newcastle

Wilson 5, ASM 54

Athletic Bilbao

Garcia 64

Newcastle team v Athletic Bilbao:

Dubravka, Krafth, Lascellles, Botman, Dummett (Bondswell 70), Bruno (Matty Longstaff 89), Joelinton, Willock, Ritchie, ASM (De Bolle 89), Wilson (Munoz 90)

Unused substitutes:

Gillespie, Stephenson, Turner-Cooke, A.Murphy, Miley

Attendance – 46,856

(Eddie Howe answers this very vocal minority of Newcastle United fans – Read HERE)

(Match Report : Newcastle 2 Athletic Bilbao 1 – Plenty of positives – Read HERE)

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