Pot Shots: Newcastle’s careless shooting is stopping them from reaching their potential

Newcastle’s Papiss Cisse (Left)

After a fantastic start to life at Newcastle, Alan Pardew is now in a real dogfight. A bad set of results, poor football and a lack of transfer activity during the summer has piled the pressure on Pardew from all sections of St. James’ Park. They’re currently mid-table in the Premier League, but with the team he has at his disposal, I ask: where is it all going wrong?

Eight games into the new season; three wins, three defeats and two draws spells mid-table mediocrity. A goal difference of -3, an average possession of 49% and having the 10th best shot accuracy in the league this season backs this up further. But after coming close to qualifying for the Champions League the season before last, the Toon Army are disappointed and want more.

However, with a team consisting of Tim Krul, Cheick Tiote, Yohan Cabaye, Loic Remy and Hatem Ben Arfa, you’d expect a little more from Newcastle.

After dissecting their defeats to Manchester City, Hull City and Everton, one will find that Newcastle took more shots from outside of the penalty area than inside. This was also evident in their 2-2 draw with Liverpool that featured just two out of 14 shots taken from inside the 18-yard box.

Newcastle Attempts v Liverpool

Against Man City, they managed just one shot on target and one shot from inside the penalty area. They lost 4-0.

In their 3-2 defeat to Hull, Newcastle had two shots on target out of 15 in total. From that total, just 6 were inside Hull’s penalty area.

During their dismal display at Goodison Park, they, again, had just two shots on target from 15. However, this time, just four were from inside the penalty area.

They are the third highest in the Premier League for long shots, which is telling.

Premier League Top Shooters From Outside The Area

This is a clear problem for Newcastle and Pardew needs to fix it somehow. Their passing in the final third of the pitch – all season – has been dire so it seems that Newcastle can get into the opposition’s half but cannot penetrate. They get frustrated and take a long shot that ends up causing the opposition no harm whatsoever whilst also gifting them possession.

In terms of possession, the Magpies have dominated it just three times from eight games so far, which just isn’t good enough.

Going forward is a problem for United but they seem to be able to create chances well, sitting fifth in the chance creation league with 90 overall from eight matches. However, the chances created are long shots so the numbers are a little misleading from one angle.

Clubs Who Have Made The Most Defensive Errors This Season

At the back, there is something to worry about for Newcastle fans. The number of defensive actions (407) and defensive errors (6) are quite high. Newcastle are 4th worst offenders for defensive errors and have the 7th highest amount of defensive actions, averaging 51 per game. Having too many defensive actions per game is damaging for a team as the more occasions where the defence have to be called upon, the chances of making errors increases.

By reducing defensive actions, Newcastle will reduce defensive errors. This should result in conceding less possession and less goals. The way to do this is to pack the midfield or supply the defence with a shield of two defensive midfielders. This would reduce the amount of defensive actions made by the defenders and would allow Newcastle more possession and a higher possibility to create chances and score goals.

On paper, Alan Pardew has a decent team to work with. It’s full of talented individuals and combative hard workers. Putting them together in a system that gets the best out of them all is difficult but if Newcastle can improve on what they’re doing wrong last season and this term, they should move away from mid-table.