Interesting to look at the Newcastle United players and their opponents from a different angle.
What determines your chances of winning and losing.
With so many factors that play a role.
However, one of the most important is outlined below.
How do Newcastle United’s players stack up against their opponents on this front?
Here are Newcastle United’s last thirteen matches in the Premier League and the distances covered by each team in total (all stats via BBC Sports):
Newcastle United players 116.91 km and Chelsea players 108.91 km
Newcastle United players 109.91 km and Sunderland players 106.52 km
Newcastle United players 114.04 km and Burnley players 108.91 km
Newcastle United players 112.30 km and Spurs players 110.05 km
Newcastle United players 116.39 km and Everton players 111.74 km
Newcastle United players 112.40 km and Manchester City players 113.64 km
Newcastle United players 111.01 km and Brentford players 114.13 km
Newcastle United players 116.85 km and West Ham players 114.08 km
Newcastle United players 114.50 km and Fulham players 110.21 km
Newcastle United players 115.16 km and Brighton players 113.59 km
Newcastle United players 109.45 km and Forest players 106.43 km
Newcastle United players 112.94 km and Arsenal players 115.08 km
Newcastle United players 113.23 km and Bournemouth players 109.03 km
As you can see, in ten of the last thirteen Premier League games (BBC Sport previously did not show these statistics of total distances covered for each match), Eddie Howe’s Newcastle United players have comfortably outpaced the opposition, collectively covering more distance.
Indeed, Saturday’s performance by Newcastle United’s players showed the widest gap of all thirteen matches, with Newcastle United’s players collectively covering exactly 5 miles more distance than Chelsea. This was also the highest total distance traveled by Newcastle United’s players in any match that could be analyzed on this front.
Workrate is the least fans can expect.
In the three of the thirteen Premier League games in which the opposition covered more distance, two of them were against the two best ball-handlers in the division. Newcastle United forced themselves to commit more against both Arsenal and Manchester City, somewhat reducing the distances the players covered. Against Man City there was anyway a collective difference of just over a km. Newcastle then played against Brentford with one player less for quite some time, after Burn was sent off.
One of my biggest hates is when NUFC fans accuse Newcastle United players of not trying. Maybe we’ve had it happen in the past, but I honestly don’t see that in the Newcastle United team that Eddie Howe has.
Sure, Newcastle sometimes have players who don’t play well, or lack a bit of confidence, lack form and so on.
I don’t think it’s a lack of effort though.
Even at the Sunderland game, where I saw fans wanting to see a lack of effort as a major factor in the defeat, I felt it was more a lack of inspiration and belief. When you consider that the Newcastle United players collectively ran almost two and a half miles further than the Sunderland players, I think this supports the idea that it was not a lack of effort for NUFC.
Looking ahead, despite being cheated out of victory, I think we deserved it against Chelsea on Saturday, both by the match officials and chance after chance missed by the Newcastle United players. The fact is that this was a match where Newcastle showed the most distance the players have covered so far this season, across Chelsea. The fact that Wissa and others now provide better backup from the bench also plays into this, as they can continue to build up the effort and pressure. Keep up these levels and good times await us this season.
#harder #work #luckier