It feels like it’s been years since we’ve watched Newcastle United playing Premier League football, but the domestic action is back, and Matthias Jaissle’s side can now make some headway.
Beating Coventry City away from home won’t be easy, even with the newly-promoted side having made a torrid start to the campaign. Frank Lampard drew many plaudits for fashioning a free-flowing force in the Championship last year, but he went four games without a point to start 2025/26, albeit beating Nottingham Forest on the road before the international break.
Newcastle have made a steady start to the season. They have quality across the park, albeit a team yet to gel together. However, if they are to beat Coventry and sustain a purple patch in the Premier League, they need to raise the bar in attack.
Why Newcastle need to improve in attack vs Coventry
Newcastle have been fortunate in front of goal this season. Or perhaps they have simply been clinical, devastating when presented with a flicker of an opportunity to make the netting bulge.
|
Biggest Premier League Overperformers (goals) |
||
|---|---|---|
|
Club |
Goals |
xG |
|
Newcastle |
9 |
5.54 (-3.46) |
|
Brighton |
16 |
12.89 (-3.11) |
|
Man City |
13 |
11.04 (-1.96) |
|
Chelsea |
10 |
8.94 (-1.06) |
|
Hull |
6 |
5.73 (-0.27) |
Expected Goals (xG) is a metric designed to measure the probability of a shot resulting in a goal.
But the fact remains that they are the biggest goalscoring overperformers this season. If the Magpies do not ramp up the gas on that front,
they will struggle to sustain the kind of attacking play needed to challenge for Europe.
It’s within their grasp, and with Yoane Wissa resurgent after a tough first year at St. James’ Park, Jaissle will feel that his team have a sharp goalscorer to maintain steady form in front of goal. However, do they have enough creativity besides.
Jacob Murphy is on the decline, and Anthony Elanga may miss the trip to Coventry as he continues to nurse a thigh strain. The Swedish right winger is on the edge of recovery, though.
Matias Fernandez-Pardo will hope to make more of an impact after a slow start to life in the Premier League, and Harvey Barnes will want to continue the promising form which he has carried through the early stage of the season.
However, there’s another attacker at Jaissle’s disposal who could be the game-changer. He needs to start.
Jaissle must unleash Newcastle’s new Isak
Over the past two summers, Newcastle have sold Alexander Isak and Anthony Gordon, their two most talismanic forwards of the PIF era.
Replacing a frontman of Isak’s calibre isn’t easy – as Wissa and Nick Woltemade would tell you – but Newcastle may have signed themselves a forward this summer who has the ability to become the focal point of this Magpies frontline.
Bazoumana Toure was straight through the door as Newcastle sold Gordon to Barcelona in June. The Ivory Coast winger joined for a £43m fee after emerging with Hoffenheim in the Bundesliga, but he has not yet started a Premier League match.
It was Toure who netted an equaliser as Brighton & Hove Albion demolished the Toon, and he previously scored during a 3-2 win over West Bromwich Albion in the Carabao Cup.
With Elanga unfit and Murphy out of sorts, surely Toure deserves the nod on the right flank. He prefers the left, but the 20-year-old broke onto the scene in Germany as a right-sider in 2024/25, scoring three goals across only seven starts.
Toure is skilful and fleet-footed. He scored six times and registered ten assists for Hoffenheim last year, creating 11 big chances and winning 5.1 duels per game. He was also the joint-second fastest player in the Bundesliga last year, clocking a top speed of 36km/h.
He’s young, but he has all the attributes to become an Isak-esque superstar. Newcastle paid a premium for their flashy new winger, but Wilson and co recognised quickly that he has the potential to quickly develop into one of the best in the division, perhaps even Europe.
Assessing the quality Newcastle have out wide and indeed in attack, it’s very plausible to suggest that Toure could become the main man, someone who scores goals clinically but also creates and enhances a frontline crying out for a bit of talismanic inspiration.
There’s no question that he would offer more than Murphy on the right. Jaissle has made it clear that he wishes to integrate the young winger slowly, but given he would make a big difference on a big night for the Toon – against a porous Coventry defence – surely he deserves the chance to try and raise Newcastle’s attacking bar.
