Pardew’s long balls – An in depth probe

Posted on November 16th, 2012 | 54 Comments |

NUFC long-balls v West Brom.
Pardew's long balls against West Brom.
As it starts to dawn on more fans that Alan Pardew is not bringing a more attractive, “fluid” style of play to Newcastle United after all, the Magpies continue to extend their lead as the biggest long ball team of the Premiership.

Using OPTA statistics for the Premiership season so far, which define “long balls” as passes which are over 25 yards, these long passes account for over 17.7% of Newcastle’s total passes on average, which is a hell of alot (see table below). To put this into some kind of perspective, Newcastle United are even beating Pardew’s own “Alma Mater”, Reading, currently managed by Pardew protege, Brian “long balls” McDermott into second place (16.3%). Meanwhile, the established high priests of “Route One” football, Tony Pulis and Sam Allardyce, currently occupy the third and fourth places respectively with 16.2% of Stoke’s passes, and 15.1% of West Ham’s being over 25 yards. At the other extreme we also find the usual suspects, with Arsenal occuping the bottom place in the table with only 7.7% of their total passes being long balls. Behind them we then have Manchester City (8.1%), Manchester United (9.7%) and Swansea City (9.9%).

So let’s take a look at the figures in the form of a Premiership “long ball” table, ordered in terms of the percentage of passes which are over 25 yards rather mere looking at the amount. Incdentally though, Newcastle would also top that table too with a huge figure of 724 in their first eleven games, an average of 66 long balls per game. Whilst neither are totally perfect, the reason why the latter would be more deceptive is because some teams simply pass the ball around more than other, whether it is long or short balls. The percentage method gives us a far better idea of who uses the long ball as a strategy. So here goes!

Premiership long ball table
No Team Gms TP LB ALB LBA LB %
1 Newcastle Utd 11 4081 724 417 58% 17.7%
2 Reading 10 3048 497 214 43% 16.3%
3 Stoke City 11 3463 562 300 53% 16.2%
4 West Ham Utd 11 3800 572 310 54% 15.1%
5 Norwich City 11 3786 556 210 38% 14.7%
6 Aston Villa 11 4064 579 278 48% 14.2%
7 W.B.A. 11 3990 546 295 54% 13.7%
8 Sunderland 10 3510 470 261 56% 13.4%
9 Everton 11 4691 611 362 59% 13.0%
10 Tottenham 11 4354 568 347 61% 13.0%
11 Q.P.R. 11 4368 537 307 57% 12.3%
12 Fulham 11 5273 640 390 61% 12.1%
13 Wigan 11 5077 611 384 63% 12.0%
14 Chelsea 11 5418 576 349 61% 10.6%
15 Liverpool 11 5661 566 378 67% 10.0%
16 Southampton 11 5077 504 364 53% 09.9%
17 Swansea City 11 5564 549 378 69% 09.9%
18 Man. Utd 11 6204 601 432 72% 09.7%
19 Man. City 11 6182 501 338 67% 08.1%
20 Arsenal 11 6412 496 328 66% 07.7%

TP – Total Passes.
LB – Long Balls (over 25 yards).
ALB – Accurate Long Balls.
LBA – % of Accurate Long Balls.
LB % – % of total passes which are 25 yards+ long balls.

As I suggested in the first paragraph of this piece, this is somewhat ironic as the usual perception amongst many fans used to be, and still is to a large degree, that we used to be something of a “long ball” team under Pardew’s predecessor, Chris Hughton, and that Pardew has brought a more “flowing” style of football to St James’ Park, when actually the opposite has been the case overall. I do recall that the BBC’s “Match of the Day” once did a feature on long ball teams after Hughton was sacked and during Pardew’s first few months in charge (probably using the same OPTA stats). This showed that Stoke and Wolves were the biggest “long ball” teams in the premiership back then, with Newcastle nestling somewhere in mid table. This misperception was perhaps caused by the fact that our biggest scoring striker of the time, Andy Carroll, is a very big unit who is known for his aerial abilty and heading of the ball, with other Newcastle United strikers of the time such as Shola Ameobi and Leon Best also being big lumps, and English. This was also, and still is backed up by poorly educated journalists who once again don’t really understand the game such as Luke “who’s talking” Edwards, who is one example alongside other misinformed football “journalists” such as Lee Ryder in local journal, the Chronicle. Most football fans in the N.E. will know that Edwards used to write for the other local Tyneside journal, “the Journal,” but is now writing on N.E. football matters for national newspaper, the Telegraph. In a perfect example of this misperception, Edwards wrote in this story about the possibilty of Andy Carroll coming back to Newcastle back in June:

“Alan Pardew’s side play a more attractive, quicker style of football now than they used to with Carroll as the focal point of the team and he would not be guaranteed a starting place with those two (Cisse and Ba) as rivals.”

Whilst the second part might be true, the first part is cobblers for the most part sadly. However, it is an error has been repeated so many times by Edwards and other writers that it has come to be believed by much of Newcastle United’s fanbase. I write “for the most part” because there WERE patches in some games towards the end of last season when the Magpies did indeed play a very attractive and effective style of football, with the team set up in something like a Terry Venables style “Christmas tree” formation (4-3-2-1) cum 4-3-3 with Cisse as the spearhead, with Ba and Ben Arfa just behind on the left and right side respectively. It was a revelation which brought out the qualities of our best attacking players in a flowing style which was both entertaining to watch, and highly effective. However, after dominating games using this approach and scoring two or three goals, our Silver Supremo would invariably revert to type in the latter part of games. One aspect of this approach is that we were playing very “skinny,” with wide players cutting in and full backs pressing forward, potentially leaving us open down our flanks. However, we were so dominant in attack that this was never an issue. The way we are playing at the moment, we may have more width, however we are still prone to attacks down our flanks anyway. Using the same OPTA data as above, stats site “whoscored.com” characterise our play this season as follows:

Newcastle United character

Strengths

(Attack) Creating chances using through balls (very strong)

(Defence) Defending set pieces (strong)
(Defence) Protecting the lead (strong)

Weaknesses

(Attack) Finishing scoring chances (weak)

(Defence) Defending against attacks down the wings (very weak)

Newcastle United style

(Attack) Long balls
(Attack) Play with width

(Defence) Playing in their own half
(Defence) Aggressive

In my final thoughts, I don’t intend this to be some kind of damning indictment so much as a call to honesty, and an end to the self deception that Pardew is some kind of “Pardiola” type figure who is bringing Barcelona style football to St James’ Park. As far as a “critique” goes, whilst we have certainly brought bringing in the kinds of players who can bring about a more expansive style, the style imposed by our current manager is actually going the other way. We usually play very deep, looking to dispossess opposition attackers and strike out on the break, too often by lumping big balls over the top of a huge chasm between the defence and the attack.

It is as if Pardew is trying to turn cows into ham and it certainly isn’t working too well for us at the moment.

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NUFCBlog Author: workyticket workyticket has written 1095 articles on this blog.

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Comment on this post

54 Responses

  1. great article bro if we don’t step up our game we will lose some our best players in January! I see on another site we are going after debuchy again to try keep cabaye, sadly if we are playing the way we have been we would struggle to bring anyone in

  2. I think quite a few of us knew already judging by some of the comments on here and the people I speak to and it definitely is pretty to watch! It’s good to see the facts in black and white though even though it might be difficult reading for some. I’m surprised that more people don’t have something to say about it though?

  3. danny b says:
    November 16, 2012 at 3:43 pm

    “great article bro if we don’t step up our game we will lose some our best players in January! I see on another site we are going after debuchy again to try keep cabaye, sadly if we are playing the way we have been we would struggle to bring anyone in”

    Thanks Danny b.

    On the subject of Cabaye, on the 4 November 2011 he had this to say:

    “Like Garcia (Rudi Garcia the Lille coach), what Alan Pardew wants is for us to keep the ball. He talked to me about changing Newcastle’s style and we work a lot on possession. He’s doing a great job.”

    I do wonder if he’s still thinking that?

    Benny on the other hand always seems to have thought of us as being more direct, though I don’t have any quotes to hand right now.

  4. toontony says:
    November 16, 2012 at 3:46 pm

    “I’m surprised that more people don’t have something to say about it though?”

    toontony, not many of the fans are really that interested in the actual football stuff nowadays, and they are the ones which take the longest amount of time to do by far so it’s a labour of love really.

    Most Toon fans would rather read endless specious gossip about potential new players coming in, or pompous opinion pieces, stuff about the finances etc. The gossip ones get far more viewers and are MUCH quicker to do most of the time. It would be far easier to just copy and paste guff from the mainstream media and crank out several every day like most of the other blogs, but that isn’t why I do this one.

  5. judging by the number of players wives, pardew has tried to jump the bones of, he either has long balls, or big balls.
    i just wish he would get some decent service into the strikers, instead of trying to service his own balls.

  6. Trojan, it looks like it’s Danny Simpson’s balls that are getting a good servicing ATM. It looks like he’s gannin’ to get a size five stiletto in them after reading what his current girlfriend has to say though.

  7. Worky: why don’t you do a mix and match? Write some good articles, but post some Lee Ryder shyte now and again. It might be funny to watch Chuck’s head explode.

    You could always write an Ed style headline tease like “ben Arfa to leave Newcastle” when he means for the next away game ben Arfa will get on a bus with the rest of the players and travel to another ground.

  8. That’s really sad worky. There are some people who really apprecite the football pieces on here though, and the other ones on fatman and robin too. Both types have really opened my eyes since I started reading this blog. I was sick of reading the same old shite on the other ones

  9. Alright Worky, you have been in London too long – when did you start using the term “cobblers”.

    You know the main culprit of hoofball is Krul. I wish we would try to knock it around at the back now and again. I have criticized Swansea for passing aimlessly in their own half but I bet we lose 85% of the Krul hoofs. Ba and Cisse are really useless as centre of the pitch target men and we still welt it up to them.

    This is not necessarily a criticism of Krul. It could be that he just doesn’t trust the ball playing ability of our defenders or that Cabaye and Tiote etc. aren’t available to collect a short pass.

  10. Oh, and Worky. Good article as always. Why can’t the Ronny Gill and Journal offer constructive criticism or even constructive adulation instead of their “press release” type articles? It is so lazy of them.

  11. GS says:
    November 16, 2012 at 5:34 pm

    “You could always write an Ed style headline tease like “ben Arfa to leave Newcastle” ”

    How about this one GS? :-)

    GS says:
    November 16, 2012 at 5:34 pm

    “You could always write an Ed style headline tease like “ben Arfa to leave Newcastle” ”

    How about this one GS? :-)

    https://nufcblog.org/2011/08/argentinian-international-full-back-in-newcastle/

    GS says:
    November 16, 2012 at 6:03 pm

    “Alright Worky, you have been in London too long – when did you start using the term “cobblers”.

    I’ve always been a big fan of “Steptoe and Son” GS.

    GS says:
    November 16, 2012 at 6:03 pm

    “You know the main culprit of hoofball is Krul.”

    No it isn’t GS. If he played for Arsene Wenger or someone like that he would tap it to one of his defenders far more often. I’ve gone through all the OPTA stats and it isn’t just Krul hoofing the ball past the half way line anyway.

  12. Worky: look at your chart in your article. You will see that about 70% of the hoofs are from our 18 yard box. And the new iphone has 40% more screen space than the iphone 4S and weighs 32% less.

  14. One more thing from your chart – only 1 hoof from our 18 yard box was won. And that was a diagonal hoof, not up the middle.

  15. GS says:
    November 16, 2012 at 6:40 pm

    “One more thing from your chart”

    GS, Forget the friggin’ image at the top. I wish I’d never picked it now!

    I spent hours going through the stats and Krul’s passing habits ain’t that much different from the goalkeepers of other long ball teams.

  16. Er, it is convenient when it backs up what you have to say :) You can’t deny that most of the Krul hoofs were lost and that despite their size, our forwards are not “target men”.

    I am sort of backing you up here Worky.

    There are lies, damned lies and statistics. Watching the election coverage over here they attributed this phrase to Mark Twain. He said it, but he wasn’t the first. Funny that things get twisted over time and that some managers like Hughton get tarred with the long ball brush and others like Padiola have a reputation for playing “attractive” football.

    What we witness as NUFC fans is that we almost always start slowly. When we do play well, Pardwho “dials” it back and doesn’t go for a big win. It is supposed to be entertainment for f@cks sake and I wish he would recognize this.

  17. GS says:
    November 16, 2012 at 7:20 pm

    “Funny that things get twisted over time and that some managers like Hughton get tarred with the long ball brush and others like Padiola have a reputation for playing “attractive” football.”

    That’s just Newcastle though GS, and as you know, we have a great talent for deluding ourselves sometimes. When the club is run on lies from top to bottom, it tends to aggravate the issue somewhat too.

    GS says:
    November 16, 2012 at 7:20 pm

    “There are lies, damned lies and statistics.”

    And there are people who don’t check statistics closely enough, miss important factors and hence jump to the wrong conclusions. ;-)

  18. Worky @17: your chart (yes, I know :) ) is a small sample. But, you get a feel for what is good and bad football, and I don’t think we are playing good football.

    I am not trying to wind you up, by the way. I just read your article and it made me think a bit. I am guessing that’s why you wrote it – to inform and make people question their views.

    I don’t think that I jumped to any “wrong conclusions” about Krul hoofs. Perhaps he has the same % of hoofs as the rest of the league, but maybe, just maybe, the other teams convert a few more than us. Just a feeling, based on observation and not statistics.

  19. GS says:
    November 16, 2012 at 7:20 pm

    “There are lies, damned lies and statistics. Watching the election coverage over here they attributed this phrase to Mark Twain.”

    Twain himself attributed it to Benjamin Disraeli, though there were other candidates too. Claiming credit for other people’s stuff is something of an American speciality though because it’s so insular over there, and it’s part of the myth that the US is the greatest country ever who invented everything. :-)

  21. GS says:
    November 16, 2012 at 7:42 pm

    “I don’t think that I jumped to any “wrong conclusions” about Krul hoofs. Perhaps he has the same % of hoofs as the rest of the league”

    Yes he does hoof the ball alot, but so do goalkeepers in other long ball sides because that’s what they’re told to do where other coaches may tell him to just tell him to roll it out to Colo, Taylor or whoever. I think I’ve written something like that already though?

  22. “American Exceptionalism”, “The Greatest Country on Earth”, “Give me your tired, poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” as long as they are not Mexican.

  23. But, the US does have a lot going for it even if it has been hijacked a bit by corporations and god cultists.

  24. GS says:
    November 16, 2012 at 7:55 pm

    ““American Exceptionalism”, “The Greatest Country on Earth”, “Give me your tired, poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” as long as they are not Mexican.”

    We English and Americans still need to understand that if you have a history of colonisation, slavery, and stealing other people’s lands and resources, sooner or later they’re going to come and take it back. ;-)

    Even the people known nowadays as “Native” Americans aren’t as native as some might think.

  25. You see, people here try to defend the phrase “American Exceptionalism”, they say it is about trying to spread democracy and free will to the rest of the world. Whereas, the phrase itself cries out a sort of arrogance and “we are better than you” narrative. This is only backed up by the “greatest country on earth” bragging. Quite possibly true, but no one likes a braggard.

  26. Worky: I have seen people recently arguing against David Ricardo’s comparative advantage theory. It is so funny that it is OK when it works for England and America, but not quite as good with globalization and China :)

  27. Where is Chuck and his tangent police? Although, it is OK for him to give people his full seven course bar menu, including cooking tips, but if I venture off into art, girls, culture, economics :) …

  28. Can I start supporting Man U or Barcelona now? It would be much easier. They have 4 times the revenue of us, so we will never catch up.

  29. So, I went to the casino last night and got talking to a friend about the Patreus affair. We were talking about the identical twin sisters and he said that one had better t*ts than the other. I am still wondering what part of “identical” he doesn’t understand.

  30. Another point: plenty of times our defenders hoof it out of the box too (lookin’ at you Willo).

    As for our exceptionalism and willingness to take credit for the work of others-I wonder where we got that cultural trait from. Hmmmm…..

  31. GS-so in your estimation, their t*ts are comparable? Just want to make sure to get this right. Lol…

  32. Love to join y’all, but tis the cocktail hour and there’s a few amstels demanding my attention.
    Later !

  33. Tunyc: I am just having a bit of fun on here. Please, please, f@cking please don’t let us lose to Swansea. I would just kill myself having to hear about Prince Michael of Denmark and how the new way of playing football trumps the old way.

    tunyc as well. If you read between the lines of what I say, I do believe there is a bit of truth in “American Exceptionalism”. I have lived here for as long as I lived in England and trash both countries equally.

  34. tunyc: it is the bragging bit I don’t like. That is why some people don’t like Americans. I don’t see it in you, and that is a very good thing.

    I have lived here for 23 years and have never seen a bar fight. I went back to London and saw 2 in one night and somebody throwing up on the tube.

    As Chuckerihno says: what do I know.

  35. The bar fight was about my ex-wife. She dances like a dervish and I gave up trying to follow her years before. Two “lads” thought they were dancing with her at the same time and decided to have a fight about her. I stood in their way to make sure she didn’t get hurt.

    But, I have seen many fights in and outside English pubs and I have to question what that is about?

  36. tunyc says:
    November 16, 2012 at 9:22 pm

    “Another point: plenty of times our defenders hoof it out of the box too (lookin’ at you Willo).”

    tunyc, if you had access to the same OPTA stats I do, you would see that the biggest purveyor of hoof balls in the outfield is actually YOHAN CABAYE.

    Williamson Appearences 7 (630 minutes) long balls 39
    Yohan Cabaye Appearences 10 (942 minutes) long balls 94

    The other centre backs:

    Coloccini Appearences 5 (432 minutes) long balls 36
    S.Taylor Appearences 9 (697 minutes) long balls 32

    So you may be looking at Willo, but not because of his long balls! :-)

  37. GS says:
    November 16, 2012 at 10:33 pm

    “I do believe there is a bit of truth in “American Exceptionalism”.”

    What about German exceptionalism back in the thirties and forties, GS? Or Chinese exceptionalism in the decades to come? It’s all just arrogant Imperialist shite and yes, there was a time when Britain believed it was exceptional too.

  38. The Chinese economy is supposed to pass the US economy in size at about 2016 so the world will probs have to get used to Chinese exceptionalism. USA, USA, USA, high five and well done Lance Armstrong.

  39. And Worky Ticket: you question me about taking things out of context and then put up things that I say without giving the context or the thing I said next. Keeps the conversation going though :)

  40. My judgment of intell-i-gence is if people know when to say “than” and when to say “then”, like in “I think I am better then that”.

    I usually don’t dwell on spelling, and understand that sometimes your fingures type faster then your brain can keep up with. Ha, see what I did there?

  41. GS hit it on the head: Krul is the main culprit of giving the ball away.via the long ball. Perhaps AP feels our back four cannot play the ball forward, which seems absurd, or perhaps he actually thinks Ba/Cisse actually hold the ball up well, which seems equally absurd.

    Tomorrow I am going to personally count the number of times Krul kicks it long and the number of times we lose possession.

    Here’s guessing it is a high percentage…

  42. Adam T says:
    November 17, 2012 at 1:31 am

    “Here’s guessing it is a high percentage…”

    Adam, Tim Krul’s long ball accuracy is 42%, but that isn’t unusual compared with other Premiership goalkeepers, and significantly better than some. Krul’s kicking was one of his weak points when he was younger, but it isn’t a problem now especially.

  43. And Worky: you see what I did there at 39? I addressed you by your full name like I would scolding a child :) it wasn’t until I read it back that I realised I had done it :)

    Don’t take any offense, you know I think you write the smartest blog about NUFC and you are much smarter than me. I lose patience with some of the morons on the other blogs, which is why I bore you on here.

    I only wish that AndyMac, Clint and UTD111 would come back because that made it all the more interesting and I would rather read than write.

  44. Just back from “dahn a pub”, but cant get inolved with this nonsense.
    You’s guys, really have to mprove and raise the level of debate here.
    No wonder so many have ceased to contribute…

  45. Chuckles: if you didn’t keep repeating yourself maybe other people might realise it was a different day and not the same old, same old. You can’t really come on and bitch about lack of contributions and then not contribute.

    But, then again you arse Chuck and I have given up trying to understand you.

    I try to liven stuff up now and again with some stupid personal stories, just because I enjoy Worky’s reaction and find him very entertaining.

  46. He did it again. He comes on and moans and then moans about other people moaning, but not as much as he did :)

  48. GS says:
    November 17, 2012 at 2:12 am

    “I only wish that AndyMac, Clint and UTD111 would come back because that made it all the more interesting and I would rather read than write.”

    GS, one thing I will say about Chuck is that you can have a slight disgreement without him sticking out his bottom lip, picking up his toys and walking off like a pathetic three year old bairn. That’s more than you can say about alot of Geordies.

  49. Worky @48: me and Chuck have had a few disagreements.

    I am surprised at all them. It is the f@cking dish it out and can’t take it thing that is just beyond my comprehension. Especially, when they do it with a bit of humour and self-deprecation and then get the lip on.

    I don’t care what happened between you and any of them. I just don’t get it though. They wrote articles and stuff on here and then disappear.

    It must be you Worky, you are the common denominator. Although I don’t really see how you could piss someone off permanently. If you read your blog for a while you get to know what you are like.

  50. I am trying to stay awake until about 7am Chicago time. Fox Soccer is showing the match at 3pm here, so I am doing a “Likely Lads” and going to sleep later and pretending to watch the match live.

    I doubt if I will be able to do it though.

  51. GS says:
    November 17, 2012 at 8:58 am

    “It must be you Worky, you are the common denominator. Although I don’t really see how you could piss someone off permanently.”

    UTD said he was leaving because he felt that the people on this blog were being too negative and grumpy about Ashley, Llambias, Pardew etc. He said it was virtually everyone on here, not just me.

    Andy left because of the following exchange:

    AndyMac says:
    November 4, 2012 at 6:38 pm

    Agreed TJ and GS. We are poor and probably no better than the misfiring RBD’s.

    Which leads us to the question, “How do we change things ?”

    Either Pardwho falls under a bus or………………….

    workyticket says:
    November 4, 2012 at 6:40 pm

    AndyMac says:
    November 4, 2012 at 6:38 pm

    “Either Pardwho falls under a bus or………………….”

    That’s not very nice Andy.

    AndyMac says:
    November 4, 2012 at 6:47 pm

    WT whats also not very nice is supporting a team with a clueless manager who’s been given an eight year contract by muppoons who dont really give a shlt about how well Newcastle United play as long as we dont get relegated !

    Liverpool have only won once at home this season and that was against Reading !!!!

    Think back to our best performance this season, what was the starting line up and formation ?

    workyticket says:
    November 4, 2012 at 6:54 pm

    AndyMac says:
    November 4, 2012 at 6:47 pm

    “WT whats also not very nice is supporting a team with a clueless manager who’s been given an eight year contract by muppoons who dont really give a shlt about how well Newcastle United play as long as we dont get relegated !”

    Andy, whatever you don’t agree with about Pardew, I had an ex girlfriend who was killed when she was run over by a truck once and it’s not something you’d wish on anyone. I always told her it would happen if she didn’t learn her Green Cross Code.

    AndyMac says:
    November 4, 2012 at 6:58 pm

    workyticket says:

    “Andy, whatever you don’t agree with about Pardew, I had an ex girlfriend who was killed when she was run over by a truck once and it’s not something you’d wish on anyone. I always told her it would happen if she didn’t learn her Green Cross Code”

    I’m sorry is this a blog dedicated to your ex girlfriend ?????

    AndyMac says:
    November 4, 2012 at 7:25 pm

    workyticket says:

    “Andy, that was besides the point, as well as completely uncalled for. Wishing someone under a bus, even if it isn’t someone you know personally isn’t very nice either”

    Read you email sunshine, I’m off !

    Ever wondered why every contributor you get to work on the blog, gives up ?????

    The e.mail said:

    “Consider me an ex contributor as well Barring teeth smile”

  52. GS says:
    November 17, 2012 at 9:05 am

    “I am trying to stay awake until about 7am Chicago time. Fox Soccer is showing the match at 3pm here, so I am doing a “Likely Lads” and going to sleep later and pretending to watch the match live.

    I doubt if I will be able to do it though.”

    I’ve had to stay awake all night again, but I’ll have to stay awake all day as well GS.

  53. As anyone who uses statistics knows you can’t use a biased sample and as everyone has yet to play each other twice it’s biased.
    Do you have all the stats for last season ?

  54. Chester Lampwick says:
    November 19, 2012 at 10:38 pm

    “As anyone who uses statistics knows you can’t use a biased sample and as everyone has yet to play each other twice it’s biased.
    Do you have all the stats for last season ?”

    Yes, you have a point Chester, and yes I do have the stats for last season too, and seasons before that. That’s why I also checked the entire stats for last season and there weren’t any huge anomalies with teams which had the same manager.

    Newcastle United made a total of 14,638 passes last season, with 2130 of them being long balls over 25 yards. This gave a percentage figure of 14.6%. Though this is a lower percentage than the one for this season so far (17.7%), it was ameliorated by patches of some games later in the season when the team played a shorter passing game in general. I will publish results from that in my next long balls blog.