· November 27 2024, 13:30
**This season we here at NUFC Feed are making an effort to keep track of our player ratings after each game and we've taken a look at the current standings after 15 games.**
While Rich gets the final say on his ratings, there is a bit of a democratic process before they are finalised as not everybody sees the game in the same way.
Quite often we will go through a process of adding and taking away points based on things that others may not have noticed during the game.
Sometimes it's simply a case of ironing out where emotions have perhaps influenced a rating more than they should have, but we're always happy with our scores by the time they get published and we've looked this morning at who is leading the way for Newcastle and who is lagging behind.
The current standings
Our ratings aren't scientific but they paint a good picture nonetheless
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For you stats nerds, it is worth pointing out that the scores aren't normalised, so there is no accounting for games or minutes played. Someone may have got a score of 5 after playing 90 minutes but someone who came on in the final moments and did something spectacular could have been given an 8 (this hasn't happened yet, but it's possible).
Similarly, both Martin Dubravka and Odysseas Vlachodimos have an average score of 6 but both have only played one game each.
So now you've got a bit of background let's reveal who our top performers are so far this season. We'll start with the positive.
Our top three players are Fabian Schar (6.8 avg), Bruno Guimaraes and Tino Livramento (both 6.7) which does seem about right based on performances this season, however when our top-performing player is coming in under a 7/10 that does suggest we aren't doing so great.
Eddie Howe is fully aware of the problems down the right-side of the attack
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This leads us nicely on to the big issue: We all know by now that right-wing is a huge problem for Newcastle with two sub-par options as our only recognised players for that position and Eddie Howe moving left-wingers to the right and deploying Joelinton there. Anything to address the issue in the short term.
Looking at our lowest-rated player merely highlights the problem. Jacob Murphy is holding up the table with a 5.0 average. Only the referees have scored lower this season.
Monday night was the typical example for Murphy. He came off the bench and his first act was to give the ball away. He actually lost the ball 13 times in a 28-minute spell on the pitch.
Could Bryan Mbeumo be the answer?
Newcastle _have_ to bring in a winger in January
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We love Murphy as a character, but as a footballer, we have to be doing better. Miguel Almiron has an average rating of 6.0 but has appeared in four fewer games than Murphy so he's not exactly making a case for himself either.
We're confident that a more scientific view would yield similar results. If we broke these scores down minute by minute and normalised them we'd see Murphy and Almiron still looking way below where they should be as our two right-wing options.
Hopefully, the club will address this issue in January by bringing in a player more likely to create something down the right flank and maybe even contribute with goals. Wouldn't that be a novelty?