Newcastle find themselves going into the weekend game with Brighton in the bottom three, and the Daily Mirror has highlighted the attacking statistics that make poor reading for fans.
They show Newcastle as having the third worst record for shots on target this season. While also highlighting Steve Bruce’s side as being 15th in overall shots, and 17th for passing.
On the face of it, those do look like pretty damning numbers, but what they read as on paper is not representative of the factors behind them.
Newcastle have played five games, of which three have been against ‘top six’ sides, Liverpool, Spurs and Arsenal, and not many teams will have good passing, possession or shooting statistics against those sides.
So we used WhoScored.com to compare the figures to the two sides below them for total shots on target, Wolves and Sheffield United.
Wolves, like Newcastle, have registered an average of three shots on target per game, but have only played two of those ‘bigger’ clubs – Manchester United and Chelsea – both at home.
Sheffield United, who fare worst of all averaging just 2.8 shots on target so far, have only played Chelsea of those top sides.
So no one in their right mind would look at Newcastle’s fixtures and expect them to dominate the shooting stats, or passing numbers.
In fact, it is fare to say, considering the opposition played, Newcastle’s numbers stand up a lot better than those of their rivals.
Stats do not always represent the full story
While most Newcastle fans would agree we need to get more from our forwards, the opposition must be taken into account before throwing figures around to try to show how badly we are doing.
Add to that the number of injuries we have, and how it has affected team formations and tactics, and you start to see the figures in a different light.
With a number of attacking personnel sidelined, and the teams we have played, Joelinton has had to play a lone role at the top end of the pitch for most of the games, and his work has been admirable at holding up the play.
The result is that chances for him are limited in and around the box, but that does not mean his performances have been terrible.
Obviously in games like this weekend’s against Brighton, Newcastle will hope to have more chances, and be able to be on the front foot more.
Let’s hope the statistics on the attacking front will make better reading on Sunday morning, hopefully after a huge win against Brighton on Saturday.
But as ever, at the end of the day, the only statistic that counts is the one that shows the result of a game. All the others are largely irrelevant.
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