Newcastle United goals and assists in pre-season friendlies – The absolute stand out player | OneFootball

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, the 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 3-2 defeat to Benfica, this is how the individual totals look so far…

8 Miguel Almiron (6 goals and 2 assists)

3 Joe Willock (3 goals and 0 assists)

3 Matt Ritchie (2 goals and 1 assist)

3 Callum Wilson (1 goal and 2 assists)

3 Bruno Guimaraes (1 goal and 2 assists)

3 ASM (1 goal and 2 assists)

3 Kieran Trippier (0 goals and 3 assists)

2 Sean Longstaff (2 goals and 0 assists)

2 Joelinton (1 goal and 1 assist)

2 Elliot Anderson (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)

1 Chris Wood (0 goals and 1 assist)

No doubt who is the absolute stand out, a bit too early to say that he is definitely going to take the Premier League by storm this coming season, but…something certainly seems to have clicked with Miguel Almiron. 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. Last night Miguel Almiron was arguably Newcastle United’s top player and scored two very good goals.

Also very much worth highlighting Kieran Trippier, he is now on three assists pre-season and two of them came last night, 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 in the squad, 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.

If Miguel Almiron can take this form into the Premier League though, there is real potential if both ASM and Wilson are also producing the goods.

Benfica 3 Newcastle 2

Goals

Newcastle

Almiron 22, 44, Joelinton red card 82

Benfica

Ramos 15, Grimaldo 32, Araujo 89

Newcastle team v Benfica:

Pope, Trippier, Lascelles, Botman, Targett, Sean Longstaff, Bruno G, Anderson, Almiron, Saint-Maximin, Wilson

At half-time eleven changes:

Darlow, Krafth, Schar, Burn, Matt Bondswell, Shelvey (Matty Longstaff 75), Willock, Joelinton, Murphy, Ritchie, Wood

Unused substitutes:

Turner-Cooke

(Match Report – Benfica 3 Newcastle 2 – Miggy at the double, Joelinton late red card and then later goal – Read HERE)