With Tony Pulis leaving Stoke City yesterday, there has been some topical discussion of what Stoke does best – playing the long ball – but when you look at which team attempted most long passes last season, there could be a surprise..
Alan Pardew – has Newcastle top of the long ball league
Stoke are only half way in the league table in 10th pace, and yes, you guessed it, Newcastle are at the top with most long passes attempted last season.
This is one reason why there is some discontent growing with Alan Pardew as manager, and it’s not like we don’t have flair players like Ben Arfa, Sylvain Marveaux, Yoan Gouffran and Papiss Cisse and the like, but of course they were out injured a lot last season.
Fulham and Wigan are the next in the table, and at the bottom there’s Manchester City and Arsenal but 3rd bottom are QPR – who were relegated – and that;s a bit of a surprise.
Here’s the list of long passes attempted last season in the Premier League by each team:
Newcastle 2,283
Fulham 2,131
Wigan 2,047
Everton 2,042
Liverpool 2,041
Tottenham 2,028
Swansea 2,024
Chelsea 2,003
Norwich 1,995
Stoke 1,989
Man United 1,968
Sunderland 1,952
West Ham 1,901
Aston Villa 1,893
West Brom 1,889
Reading 1,855
Southampton 1,826
QPR 1,800
Arsenal 1,755
Man City 1,611
Hopefully the way Newcastle are going to play the game will also have been discussed today in the meeting with owner Mike Ashley – and we should monitor where we are in this league to ensure we are playing good football – and we cut out this hoofing the ball into the penalty box – so to speak.
One of the reasons Sam Allardyce was fired in January, 2008 was for the way he had Newcastle playing – which was too defensively and without any flair at all – and too much of the long ball.
What do you think?
Note – one of our readers Laszlo Csanyi – magpies86@gmail.com – started his own website on Newcastle in Hungary a few years ago – and he is looking for somebody who lives in Newcastle and could provide the website a weekly or monthly article. Laszlo says the Hungarian fans would love to read something from a fan who lives in Newcastle, and he would do the translation – If you are interested please contact Laszlo at magpies86@gmail.com – thanks.
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123 comments so far
Hatem's better than Messi
May 23, 2013 at 12:55 PM
Comment #121A lot of the other club’s long balls are in fact very good intentional passes.
Ours are just desperate hoofs anywhere upfield.
Awful football – how he hasn’t been sacked i don’t know. Very depressing.
nufc 11
May 23, 2013 at 1:44 PM
Comment #122MikeWilliamson, Taylor and Simpson and Guti are the main culprits for stat all they do is tump it long instead of on the ground and it is not discouraged by AP fact..
sirjasontoon
May 23, 2013 at 1:49 PM
Comment #123HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOF