The shocking Newcastle United drop-off Eddie Howe must solve this summer

Like so many Mags up and down the country, I woke up this morning feeling absolutely gutted by last night's result. It was one of those nights and a game we could've easily won, but missed chances, more awful defending on the road and a VAR howler gifted Man Utd a 3-2 win to leave our European hopes in doubt.

Having taken some time to reflect, I've had a look at our away form and compared it to last season. I expected to see a big contrast, but what I found was pretty alarming.

Last season, Newcastle conceded 33 goals in 38 games. We lost just 3 away games (Man City, Liverpool, Aston Villa) and conceded just 19 in the process. This season, Newcastle have conceded 60 goals in 37 games. We've lost 11 of 18 away games and conceded 38 in the process.

Last season, no one lost less away games than Newcastle (3) and only Man City (16) and Arsenal (18) conceded less than us (19) on the road. This season, only three clubs (Sheffield United, Luton, Brentford) have lost more games than Newcastle away from home and only three clubs (Sheffield United, Luton and West Ham) have conceded more away from home. 

Injuries caused havoc over the winter, fatigue set in with the small pool of players available and we got stuck in a rut, but that doesn't excuse all of our away woes this season. On average, we concede over two goals per game away from home, meaning we invariably need to score three times to win. The drop-off has been absolutely massive compared to last season.

We're a different beast at St James' Park, which really has become a fortress again under Eddie Howe, but too often away from home we've looked soft, too easy to play against, wasteful in attack, full of errors at the back and sometimes a little naive in our approach.

I back Eddie Howe to find the answers, as our away form was rock solid last season, but we have lots to work on this summer and some big issues to address ahead of the 2024/25 season.

Let's hope we put an end to our away woes on Sunday, better Man Utd's result at Brighton and clinch a place in Europe to end what's been a tough old season for all involved. HWTL.

2022/23 away table vs 2023/24 away table