Revealing stats highlight just what this NUFC squad is lacking
A concerning statistic has been flagged up in The Chronicle today, with Mark Douglas highlighting that there is a severe lack of Premier League goals and experience within this current Newcastle United squad.
Mohamed Diame is not only our current top Premier League scorer with just 16 goals, but our most experience top flight player too, with 179 appearances. It is also worth noting that his best Premier League tally is just four, and the 30-year old midfielder is hardly coming off the back of an impressive season in the second tier either.
Here's a snippet from Mark Douglas' piece in the Chronicle today:
"Here is a worrying statistic: if you combine the total number of top flight goals that the squad have scored in their entire careers, it does not break the 100-mark."
"Between them, they have 96 goals at the highest-level, and Mo Diame has the most (16). He has not scored more than four in a season either."
"After him it is Dwight Gayle on 15 (from a creditable 64 games), Ayoze Perez on 13 from 70 games for Newcastle and then Jonjo Shelvey’s 12 from midfield."
Gayle's goal record is promising. He's a player who knows where the back of the net is and i'd expect him to guarantee at least 10 goals if he kept fit and was given the necessary service.
That is not a huge tally however and a proven goalscorer is clearly required - Benitez will not be prepared to take a leap of faith next season and hope the likes of Gayle, Ritchie, Murphy, Perez, Diame and Shelvey contribute enough collectively. We need firepower.
Experience is also lacking. In our squad of well over 30, we have just 5 player with over 100 Premier League appearances (Diame, Krul, Colback, Clark and Shelvey).
There's still a lot of work to do for Newcastle, with goals and experience sorely lacking in the current squad, but Benitez will be aware of this too. Here's hoping these gaps are filled over the coming weeks.
