Ranked top ten in Europe – Newcastle United attacking players with forward defensive work | OneFootball

Everybody knows how well the Newcastle United attacking players have performed this season going forward.

As well as the goals in other competitions, Newcastle scoring more Premier League goals (78) than all but the top three in the table.

What about going the other way though?

How have the Newcastle United attacking players performed when asked to track back, doing the hard yards in terms of defensive work?

Well, a new report by the CIES Football Observatory, has given us some useful information on this front, to back up what we have seen as Newcastle United fans with our own eyes.

The CIES Football Observatory have ranked attacking players (wingers and centre forwards) according to the amount of defensive work performed.

This was measured using an index taking into account two variables: the distance covered at high speed (>25 km/h) in the defensive phase (SkillCorner data) and the number of pressures exerted on opponents without physical or ball contact (Wyscout data).

Down below are the attacking players this season, in the five major European Leagues (Bundesliga, La Liga, Premier League, Ligue 1 and Serie A), who have excelled the most when it comes to defensive work.

Great to see two of the Newcastle United attacking players making this top ten of hardest working in the big five European leagues when it comes to their defensive work.

No surprise to see Miguel Almiron in there, it is one of his biggest attributes season after season.

However, even better to see Anthony Gordon ninth highest of all these attacking players in the major leagues.

As well as having now managed ten Premier League goals AND ten PL assists, these stats above are also testament to his incredible workrate as well, working forwards and back.

As Anthony Gordon has admitted, his first job when arriving from a shambolic Everton set-up, was to get properly fit in order to be able to do what Eddie Howe demands from his players.