Newcastle United’s Joe Willock topped the Premier League charts for ball carries this season.
At this point most Newcastle fans are very aware of how impressive Joe Willock has been this season, but the lack of fanfare surrounding him has probably meant that fans of other clubs likely aren’t aware just how important he has been for Newcastle.
Now a tweet from Mozo Football has highlighted a stat which proves just how massive Joe Willock has been for the Magpies this season.
Joe Willock’s stats are no surprise to Newcastle fans
Mozo Football’s tweet said: “Joe Willock had the highest average ball carry distance per game (12.96) than ANY other midfielder in the 2022/23 Premier League campaign. This is so impressive, people must know.”
When Willock first arrived at Newcastle on loan from Arsenal he ended up going on a run of scoring massively important goals for Newcastle towards the end of the season which kept Steve Bruce‘s side in the Premier League.
The Toon Army begged for him to stay and during the summer of 2021 Newcastle completed the £25million permanent transfer from Arsenal.
Willock got off to a slow start in the 2021/22 season, that goal scoring machine we had on loan was gone and his confidence seemed to dry up and his performances made us all wonder what’s gone wrong.
Thankfully mid-way through that season the long-protracted takeover went through and PIF sacked Steve Bruce and brought in Eddie Howe. Since then, Willock (as with many other “Bruced” players) has one from strength to strength.
This season Willock has become an entirely different type of player to what we thought we’d signed. We wanted Willock for his goals after he scored seven in seven while on loan, but now Willock is a more complete attacking-midfielder.
It’s madness that Willock hasn’t been called up for England
The fact that he lead the way in the Premier League for ball carries won’t be a surprise to Newcastle fans but it might give other football fans something to think about, and it absolutely should be giving Gareth Southgate food for thought.
It’s baffling for Newcastle fans that Joe Willock is still waiting for that England call up. Kalvin Phillips got his call-up despite playing only 290 minutes of Premier League football this season. I’m a big fan of Phillips, but I don’t see how someone who’s barely kicked a ball gets in ahead of someone as consistent as Joe Willock has been.
To give Southgate the benefit of a doubt, Willock is injured so maybe if he was fit he’d have got in ahead of Phillips.
It’s surely only a matter of time before Willock pulls on that England shirt, especially if he carries on playing the way he has been under Eddie Howe.
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