Newcastle United conceding goals conundrum – Answered | OneFootball

Newcastle United conceding goals, why so many?

That is the conundrum.

I have seen Newcastle supporters asking the question, or is that questions?

Why conceding more goals than last season? Newcastle conceded 33 in the 38 Premier League matches last season, compared to 37 goals conceded already in the 23 PL games so far this current season.

Why in particular, Newcastle United conceding so many goals recently? Newcastle conceding 23 goals in just the last nine games.

How do you solve this conundrum, what has changed?

I have a few theories.

Nick Pope

I think fair to say any NUFC fans who were demanding Newcastle’s keeper should be dropped because he isn’t as good ‘on the ball’ as other goalkeepers, should be now hanging their heads in shame.

Nick Pope might not be as good ‘on the ball’ as many goalkeepers, however, he is quite good at keeping the ball out of that net thing. You know, the primary job of a goalkeeper, or at least it was when I was a lad.

Nick Pope has started 51 Premier League matches so far for Newcastle United and has conceded 46 goals. In the 10 PL matches where he hasn’t started, Newcastle have conceded 24 goals.

Alexander Isak

Nick Pope is Newcastle’s best keeper by some distance and is indeed one of the very best in the Premier League.

Having Nick Pope in goal is the equivalent of having Alexander Isak available up front. When your best players are on the pitch doing the jobs at the sharpest ends of things, scoring and stopping goals, you have far more chance of achieving both aims AND winning football matches.

Martin Dubravka

Martin Dubravka is a decent number two to have but that is it. Anybody who claims he is anywhere near as good as Nick Pope, isn’t watching.

That Luton match is a case in point. With better positioning, better anticipation, better goalkeeping, better shot stopping, Nick Pope would have prevented at least two of Luton’s four goals, in my opinion. Indeed, he may have even saved them without you thinking he had done anything particularly special. Dubravka is reactive whereas Pope is proactive, always looking to get ahead of the curve in preventing danger happening and/or putting himself in the best position to then prevent the ball hitting the back of the net.

Recently…

Newcastle United have conceded 23 goals in their last nine PL matches, having conceded only 14 in the opening 14 PL games.

It is very difficult to get away from the fact that Nick Pope was in goal for the first 14 PL games of the season, Martin Dubravka all of these last nine.

I am not saying the positions would have been totally reversed BUT if I had to guess, I reckon Dubravka would maybe have conceded half a dozen more if playing those opening 14, whilst Pope would have conceded at least half a dozen less if starting these last nine PL games.

Sven Botman

Quite simply he is consistently Newcastle’s best defender week in week out.

Botman started 35 of the 38 PL matches last season, only 10 of the 23 so far this time. That undoubtedly hasn’t been a help this season and has impacted on the goals against column.

Dan Burn

BDB started 35 of the 38 PL matches last season the same as Botman. He has started 18 of the 23 so far this time, however, he forced his return a month or two earlier than ideal from a nasty back injury, due to the massive list of unavailable players. So it took him time to get fully fit.

I know some lame individuals are wanting to ridiculously hate on Dan Burn and try to make out the failure to beat Luton was all down to him, but that is laughable, he didn’t have the best of games but a lot of Newcastle players could have done better at key points in the match and those and numerous other factors contributed to not winning.

Simple fact is that Eddie Howe hasn’t had his first choice back four / defence available for so much of this season and Newcastle have suffered due to this. Pope, Botman and Burn’s absences impacting.

Midfield

I think this is arguably one of the very biggest factors in terms of goals conceded.

Put it this way, if say any two of Joelinton, Tonali and Willock playing on Saturday, no way Luton would have scored four and the defence would have had far better protection. Plus, I think United would have had far more control of the game.

I think Bruno, Longstaff and Miley all add something to Newcastle United’s game but they aren’t an ideal trio together and certainly not when it comes to protecting the back four.

On the attack

Another big factor is that overall, Newcastle United have been more attacking this season compared to last season.

After 23 Premier League matches last season, Newcastle United had scored 35 goals.

After 23 Premier League matches this season, Newcastle have scored 48 goals.

Eddie Howe, in general, has set up Newcastle to be more attacking overall than last season, you play more attacking you will usually score more goals AND concede more.

In the 23 opening PL matches this season, Newcastle have scored 13 goals more (48 this season v 35 last season) than the first 23 games last season but conceded 22 more (37 this season v 15 last season).

This more attacking emphasis actually started during last season.

As you can see above, in 2022/23 season, the first 23 PL matches saw 35 scored and 15 conceded, then the final 15 PL games last season saw NUFC score 33 but concede 18.

That more attacking style helped Newcastle go on a run of nine matches in March and April 2023 where they won eight, which was key to ending up fourth top and getting Champions League football.

Injuries

I think this is a huge factor that only a total fool would try to dismiss.

Even if averaging five or six consistently missing rather than 10 or 11 for months, I think Newcastle United this season would have conceded less goals, scored more goals, won more matches, lost less games, picked up a lot more points and be a canny few places higher up the league table.