The Newcastle United Class of 2022/23 – Miguel Almiron | OneFootball

Here at The Mag we have asked 20 of our regular / irregular contributors to pay tribute to the 20 Newcastle United players who started two or more Premier League matches this past 2022/23 season.

To an extent guided by their preference, each writer has been allocated one player each.

This series of articles runs from Thursday 1 June to Tuesday 20 June with one player covered each day, each article appearing at noon.

This will be starting with the player who had the lowest NUFC squad number (Kieran Trippier), right through to the highest (Bruno Guimaraes).

Today’s Newcastle United player from the class of 2022/23 is Miguel Almiron, our thanks to Matt Busby said to Joe Harvey for providing this overview:

Your three stand out moments of the season for Miguel Almiron?

The fact that Miggy plundered eleven league goals must be the number one stand out fact, if not moment.

With only fourteen league goals in the three and a half years since his arrival in January 2019, Miggy hit a purple patch beginning at Craven Cottage on 1st October when he scored two goals in our 4-1 win over Fulham, going on to score another five in his next six matches, making it seven in seven in little over a month.

One of those goals at Fulham was a contender for goal of the season but for me the three stand out moments are these.

The way in which Miggy left Emerson Royale for dead, skipped past Clement Lenglet and with the deftness of finishes, lifted the ball over the oncoming Hugo Lloris at the Tottenham Stadium was breathtaking.

The determination in which Miggy cut in from the right, out muscled Kalidou Koulibaly and slipped the ball to Joe Willock who finessed his shot past Edouard Mendy to give us victory against Chelsea at St James was in some respects, as good as little Joe’s goal itself.

Miggy’s tireless running and infectious enthusiasm has been apparent all season but his performance against Brighton and Hove Albion in our penultimate home game was brilliant. Towards the end of a very nervy second half, Miggy’s exquisite through ball to Callum Wilson split the Brighton defence and although Callum still had a lot to do, he made it 3-1 and with that, it was GAME OVER and cue an explosion of relief in St James Park.

What have been Miggy’s strengths this season?

Goals have clearly been added to Miggy’s repertoire. Only the second Paraguayan to hit double figures in a premier league season, this is something that was perhaps long overdue. His purple patch last autumn coincided with the first of two outstanding runs of form from the team that saw us recover from a faltering start to look like Champions League contenders.

Miggy’s tireless running, his press and his link up play with Kieran Trippier and Bruno Guimaraes have at times, been phenomenal.

Miggy’s Weaknesses?

Despite the praise most of us regularly heap upon Miggy, he undoubtedly has a few weaknesses. Eleven league goals is a fantastic return but he should have scored more. His finishing often leaves a lot to be desired – take our final match of the season at Stamford Bridge, where he had a great chance to put us in front near the end of the first half, but Kepa comfortably saved what was a pretty poor effort. Unfortunately, we see that quite a lot from our little Paraguayan.

Further, of those eleven league goals, it’s not surprising to see only one came from his right foot, thereby shining a light on perhaps his most serious weakness. How many times does Miggy check back to play the ball with his left foot at a crucial moment? When he does this, we often lose momentum and that can be incredibly frustrating.

Miggy’s contribution has been phenomenal, with his strengths far outweighing his weaknesses.

He has the heart of a lion and gives his all for the cause

On a scale of 1 – 10 how important will Miguel Almiron be to Newcastle United next season / What do you see as his role in the team / squad?

If Miggy stays, I’m pretty sure he’ll play an important role, although with Eddie looking to strengthen the squad and a Champions League war chest to assist, I doubt Miggy will start as many games, having being in the first eleven for 29 of our 38 league matches last season.

Instead, I see more competition for Miggy and think he’ll be asked to make more of an impact from the bench next season, although with at least six additional games because of Champions League qualification, I would still expect him to feature on a semi regular basis, particularly in the domestic cup campaigns.

On a scale of 1 – 10, I would see Miggy as being a 6, in terms of influence next season.

Is there more improvement Eddie Howe can get out of Miguel Almiron?

Eddie has worked wonders with the squad of players he inherited. Let’s not forget, all of them had been seriously Bruce’d. Not just Miggy, but Big Joe, Sean Longstaff, Fabian Schar – the list is endless.

Miggy needs to improve his finishing and needs to be less inclined to always cut back to use his trusted left foot. If Eddie could improve those two aspects of Miggy’s game, he could be first choice in that wide right position, irrespective of that Champions League war chest.

The question is, can Eddie improve Miggy further, or at 29 years of age, is Eddie unlikely to get any more out of the loveable Paraguayan? I’d like to think he can but unfortunately for Miggy, it might be the opportune time to trade him in for a younger model.

What rating out of 10 would you give the Newcastle United team / squad for the 2022/23 season and in comparison, what would be the individual rating you’d give for Miguel Almiron’s contribution this past season?

What would the lads need to have achieved to get top marks? Is finishing fourth after fighting relegation only 12 months earlier, with a squad that cost less than a fraction to assemble than those of the so called big six, a better achievement than what Man United did? Or Arsenal? Even Man City?

I think the answer to that has got to be a resounding YES.

At the beginning of the season, I thought top six and a good cup run (and by that I didn’t necessarily mean an appearance in a final) wasn’t beyond us. To have surpassed those expectations has been fantastic.

Attending my first competitive away match in goodness knows how long, with my son, and at Wembley Stadium no less, will be an enduring memory.

The fact we didn’t lift the League Cup is history now, almost forgotten in the euphoria of qualifying for the Champions League, but boy did it hurt at the time.

I wrote an article for the Mag last year that suggested that it would be more difficult for Newcastle United to make an impact after our takeover than it had been for Manchester City in the aftermath of theirs. Champions League qualification in the season following our takeover represents better progress than that of the Citizens and they didn’t have the FFP restrictions that have put us in something of a financial straitjacket.

So, considering the wider context, it’s 9/10 for the team for last season’s exploits. I have refrained from scoring us a perfect 10 because there was the odd game where we could have done better, including the League Cup Final.

As for Miggy, I’d score him 8/10. Excellent and much improved on previous seasons, but he could have done better at times also.

How gutted would you be if Miguel Almiron left Newcastle United this summer?

We can’t be too sentimental now that we’ve gatecrashed Europe’s top table. The lure of Champions League football and the war chest that will materialise means Eddie will make summer acquisitions that would have been beyond him had we finished outside the top four. We now need to consolidate and at the very least, maintain that position. Finishing outside the top four next season will be regression and unless we can finally win a trophy, very disappointing.

Therefore, if Miggy was to leave, I don’t think I’d be too gutted. He’s been a loyal servant in his short time at the club and his infectious smile will be a big miss, but I’m assuming we could offload Miggy for something like £30 million and spend something like a net £30 million on a significant upgrade.

Please predict Eddie’s first choice eleven for next season?

Dan Burn has been fabulous but we need an upgrade. Same goes for Fabian Schar but I would definitely keep both for cover.

I’ve retained a midfield three of our two Brazilians plus little Joe. Longstaff also needs to be kept on the payroll to provide cover. Up top, I see Isak getting the nod over Wilson but Wilson needs to be retained as back up for the Swede.

The jury is out for me on Miggy and Jacob Murphy, who I could see being offloaded. I think we need two quality wide men to improve our attacking threat. I considered putting Anthony Gordon in the first eleven but still have some reservations, although working with Eddie during the close season will bring him on.

So, it’s four new signings that will fit into the first team from the get-go. With some limited funds from offloading certain squad members e.g. Targett, Murphy, Almiron and Maxi, that might amount to gross expenditure of around £250 million. For that sort of outlay, they need to be acquisitions that are as astute as the ones we made when signing Botman, Bruno and Isak.

Pope