Fans of Newcastle United have been reacting to a post on Twitter, in which Newcastle defender Jamaal Lascelles gives his verdict on the club’s 2019/20 Premier League campaign.
Speaking to the Newcastle United matchday programme (via Chronicle Live; 10:10), the Newcastle captain claimed that the club let themselves down with their performances over the ‘last couple of weeks’ of their Premier League campaign, however, that he believes, overall, ‘it was a decent season’.
After his comments were relayed on Twitter by The Chronicle, fans of Newcastle flocked to have their say on the matter, with many suggesting that the defender’s comments are well wide of the mark, while others claimed that Lascelles is a Mike Ashley ‘fanboy’.
@Lascelles16 should be embarrassed coming out with tripe like this.
It's insulting to us and shows a complete disconnect between the ambition of the fans and the ambition of the players/Club.
A Captain should NOT be classing that season as "decent".#NUFC
— ????? ?? ??? ???? #NUFC (@ToonMouthTyne) July 28, 2020
Another Ashley fanboy.
Another average player that will probably be backheeled when the takeover is completed along with 90% of the current squad.— Delboy E ???? (@dedwards1892) July 28, 2020
Well that statement epitomizes everything wrong with the club,may as well have just said “At least we weren’t relegated”.
— Stuart Harvey (@Potoglue) July 28, 2020
While it is indeed true that Newcastle finished comfortably above the relegation zone this season – in 13th place, 10 points above the bottom three – if you dig slightly deeper, it would appear that their performances haven’t necessarily warranted this league position.
Looking at expected goals (xG) – a stat indicating the number of quality goalscoring opportunities a team creates – Newcastle had a seasonal xG of 34, meaning that, from the chances they created this season, they were expected to score 34 goals – a number that ranks them as the least creative team in the Premier League last season – but actually scored 38.
Do you agree with Lascelles that Newcastle's season was 'decent'?
Yes
No
Meanwhile, in terms of expected goals against (xGA), Newcastle’s xGA was 58.7, while their actual number of goals conceded was 58. While this figure only shows the club as slightly overperforming, when combining the xG and xGA totals, Newcastle’s expected goal difference was -24.7 – the second-worst in the Premier League last term.
As such, despite the fact that the club comfortably secured survival, it would appear that this was actually simply more luck than any real improvement in performance.
It was poor.
Results wise, we spawnied a few results.Football and leadership was dire.
— Rob Watson (@whickhamrobbie) July 28, 2020
I like Lascelles but its alarming, as our captain, that he is satisfied with that…
— Harky (@harkatronic) July 28, 2020
Deluded
— Dave phalp (@DavePhalp) July 28, 2020
As such, although some of these Newcastle fans have been slightly strong in their response to Lascelles’ evaluation of the club’s season, we have to agree that it has not been as ‘decent’ as the defender claimed.