Newcastle United are currently 18th in the league, and apart from an embarrassing thrashing at the hands of Leicester City, the Toon’s defence have performed pretty well keeping three clean sheets and conceding a respectable 14 goals.
Going forward, however, Newcastle are abysmal.
We have scored five goals all season with no team scoring less, but it is not just the number of goals that is concerning.
All of the underlining stats show that Steve Bruce’s side are not even creating chances nevermind scoring them.
The Toon have only managed 81 shots this season with only 21 of them on target, and they also have completed the 19th least passes in the league.
Bruce promised that his side would play exciting football – yet they have had the least possession in the division and just don’t seem to know how to play way any other way than on the counter-attack.
However, this style of play only works if players get forward quickly, and at the moment, that does not happen.
Allan Saint-Maximin and Miguel Almiron are rapid players and, if used correctly, could become superb counter-attacking footballers, but that isn’t happening.
On Saturday, we played a Chelsea side who have looked poor defensively, but as soon as we conceded, I knew that was it.
Bruce’s side offers no threat at the moment, and he must do something to change this, or we will not survive in the top-flight.