Newcastle United answered their critics in style on Saturday afternoon with an emphatic victory over Leicester City in the Premier League.
It was ruthless rather than toothless from Newcastle United at St James’ Park. Creating chances and scoring goals has been a bit of an issue for the Magpies against weaker opposition this season.
But that certainly wasn’t the case in the 4-0 win over Leicester with Newcastle dominating the game while relentlessly laying siege to the visitors’ goal.
Anthony Gordon was incredible vs Leicester, while Newcastle fans loved Lewis Hall’s display at left-back. It was a flawless performance from Eddie Howe’s side – who responded brilliantly after the manager’s future was plunged into doubt.
After his style of play was questioned, Howe promised his Newcastle side would “entertain” and he has kept that promise in recent matches. Saturday’s win was full of free-flowing attacking football.
Ruud van Nistelrooy, Manager of Leicester City complaining on the side line to Jason Tindall, Assistant manager of Newcastle United and Eddie Howe,...
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Jason Tindall role in Newcastle United’s opening goal
Jacob Murphy scored twice for Newcastle after keeping his spot on the right, and his first came from a well-worked corner routine.
Lewis Hall lined up the corner but passed short to Sandro Tonali. He then found Anthony Gordon after a cleverly-disguised run, and he found a simple cut-back to Murphy who fired in from the edge of the box.
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As reported by The Athletic, assistant manager Jason Tindall had a big role to play.
Newcastle do not have a specialist coach for set pieces, instead they are worked on by Tindall, first-team coach Stephen Purches and analyst Kieran Taylor.
As pointed out in the report, Tindall was directing Newcastle’s set piece from the technical area and he “urged Newcastle to wait before taking their corner” which ended up resulting in the opening goal.
Newcastle United improving at set pieces
Set pieces have not been a strong point for Newcastle this season, but there are some promising signs in recent weeks that things are starting to change.
Dead-ball situations have now accounted for 29.8% of Newcastle’s shots this season and they have now amassed 4.51 expected goals (xG) from set pieces. That ranks the Magpies 11th out of 20 in the Premier League.
Bruno Guimaraes’ goal against Leicester was also the result of a well-worked free-kick routine where Gordon’s looping ball was headed back across goal by Hall.
READ MORE: What happened between Jason Tindall and an angry Ruud van Nistelrooy as Newcastle thrash Leicester
During the 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace, Newcastle also broke the deadlock with a well-worked set piece which was eventually turned in by summer transfer target Marc Guehi.
Newcastle are starting to turn a corner with set pieces and it has added another weapon to their attacking arsenal.
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