A lot of Newcastle United fans have been reacting to a tweet that was recently posted by Toon news Twitter account @NUFC360 in which they shared that Newcastle centre-back duo Federico Fernandez and Jamaal Lascelles are ‘yet to be dribbled past in the Premier League this season.’
This claim is backed up by stats-focused website WhoScored, which shows that these two players are yet to be dribbled past in the league this term and this is despite Fernandez playing the full 90 minutes in all of their first five Premier League games this season and Lascelles playing the entirety of four of Newcastle’s five top-flight games so far during the 2020/21 campaign.
So, how did these Newcastle United fans react to this statistic after it was shared by @NUFC360 on Twitter?
Only ten defenders are yet to be dribbled past in the Premier League this season.
Federico Fernandez and Jamaal Lascelles are two. #nufc
— NUFC360 (@NUFC360) October 21, 2020
Plenty of Toon supporters reacted negatively to this stat after it was shared by @NUFC360, with some of them casting doubt over the relevance of this stat.
Absolute pointless stat haha
— liam larmouth (@larrrmmy) October 21, 2020
This is such a stupid stat when we’re leaking in goals
— SRELLAIN (@SRELLAIN) October 21, 2020
Some Newcastle fans suggested that this stat gives us more of an indication that Steve Bruce’s side simply defends very deep, than an indication of Lascelles’ and Fernandez’s defensive quality.
You can’t dribble past two blokes that are already so deep that you’re in good shooting range and dribbling further forward would be pointless.
— CT (@Chris9Thompson) October 21, 2020
What’s the point of trying to dribble past two blokes stood on the edge of the 6yrd box?!
— Ross (@rossington_bear) October 21, 2020
As per WhoScored, Newcastle United have faced more shots per game than any other side in England’s top tier so far this season and some Toon supporters shared that this is more of a concern for them than whether or not these two centre-backs have been dribbled past.
Teams that play us are too busy taking shots to dribble.
— Liam Taylor (@27liamdavid) October 21, 2020
But then they’ve conceded the most shots to opposition in europe I think was the stat?
— Lee Robson (@leerobson23) October 21, 2020
Does this stat make you happy?
YES
NO
Aye cos we just drop back so deep there is no room to dribble past them, plenty space to shoot though considering we concede the most shots on goal by absolutely miles
— ASHLEY OUT (@NUFC_UNITE) October 21, 2020
Hard to dribble past then on edge of 6yard box, a shots already gone in by time they get to them..
— Premier league of corruption.. (@myoung23) October 21, 2020
So, as can be seen in these Newcastle fans’ replies to this tweet, it seems as though plenty of the club’s fans don’t really think that this stat is much to shout about.